How To Handle Feelings-Part 1

• Your personality type
• Your exisiting emotional state
• The nature of the other driver's behavior and level of perceived dangerousness
• The amount and type of traffic
• The car you are driving
• Your physical state, such as level of hunger or tiredness
• Your skill and confidence as a driver
• Your beliefs about other drivers
• Whether you are alone or driving with others

I could go on, but you get the picture. Our feelings are not always easy to predict.

Feelings, especially strong ones, are usually multi-splendored experiences, and there are a couple of important elements to keep in mind when thinking about 'controlling' them. First, your attitude about feelings, what they are, and whether you should be able to control them. Second, what processes do you use to welcome and honor your feelings?

If you have a basic grievance with the existence of strong feelings and think they are bad or are innately a source of trouble, you have a serious internal conflict to deal with right from the start. I say this because there is a pretty good chance some strong ones are going to show up. For more on this notion of feelings just showing up I invite you to take a look at a poem entitled, "The Guest House," by the 12th century Persian poet Rumi. [Click here to view the poem]

Now let's go back to the driving example. Let's imagine you experienced a strong burst of anger after the incident, hardly an unusual response for someone who has just been cut off by another driver. You may not have a choice about what is happening with you emotionally in those first few seconds, but you have a great deal of choice about what to do after the feelings arrive—do you keep the turmoil rolling and gathering steam, or do you more peacefully let it rest. Or perhaps you experience a wave of fear. Let's not forget the possibility of experiencing both fear and anger simultaneously. What do you do then?

Whatever your habits are when it comes to dealing with feelings, I recommend you consider them a resource. As we know, some resources are constructive, some neutral, while others are more obviously destructive. Consider how your emotional habits help you, and how and when do they hurt?

In later blogs we'll look at specific ways of honoring feelings. In the meantime, thanks for reading this.

Author

George Glaser George is a clinical social worker in private practice in Austin, Texas.