What dictates your aptitude, your state of mind is how well you can manage and control your emotions. This mood can change by the minute as exterior forces will bombard how you look, think, or feel. It’s up to you to know which mood sets in, and then constantly balance yourself.
Your goal is to stay as steady as possible, remain balanced on the tightrope, drive down the middle of the road without veering into the ditch. For many, what doing so feels like there’s too much micro-management of the brain, becoming overwhelmed.
So what you need to do is adopt the concept of mindsets, knowing the exact state of mind that you’re in at any given moment, to gauge and regulate it. What needs to be understood are the various states of mind or mood that you’re in, this so you’ll know how to harness it back on the balance beam.
Being As Rational As Possible
This state of mind is what your ideal target frame of mind should be at all times, this is the standard, the middle of the road. This is when both hemispheres of the brain are completely engaged and adjusted.
This isn’t a state of mind where you’re walking around feeling like a zombie, but rather a state where you’re able to use the various emotions as information to make sound decisions.
Where you stay on peak balance while you’re able to maintain a completely reasonable and well rounded perspective of your environment. You want to remain in this state of mind for lengths of time.
You do so while you’re working at your job when your professional conduct is in charge, when you’re driving and your mind flows, or whenever you’re not tired or stressed out. This is the state where you’re always wanting to return to when things begin to go wrong.
Then You Become Anxious
We all know the state of feeling anxious. This is when we’ll suddenly wake up in the middle of the night worrying about the job performance evaluation the previous day.
That all you have is $20 to spend on groceries for the rest of the week, how your significant other could have possibly misinterpreted the email that you sent them. You worry about the future, the potential unknown, the “what ifs,” disasters, and the butterflies that are fluttering in your belly.
Or You Feel Depressed
Anxiety is all about the future, a future that never comes, while feeling depressed is often about the past, all the regrets, mistakes, the roads not taken, the opportunities missed.
But for many, even more than dwelling about the past, being depressed is the feeling of being trapped, boxed in, tied up and locked in a cell and there’s no way out.
Your soul feels empty, that long past relationship still resides in your mind, the sense that you’re going nowhere, that your life has no purpose of living. The thoughts which reoccurs are “why even bother” “it doesn’t matter” “things will never get better.” The world remains a dark gray place.
The Actions Of Anger
What we then do is begin to steam over, to fume, and then begin plotting some type of revenge to get back at something or someone, while repeating to yourself over and over again, how unfair things are.
In place of feeling anxious or helpless, what burns is a fire to take some type of raging action, to get even, usually not good or helpful. The fire within is burning out of control and you’re wanting to do something with it, find an outlet.
Being Scared Feeling Fear
Anxiety is to worry, while common fear is an activation of a previous bad experience, usually stemming from childhood. This is when you automatically begin to feel intimidated by someone, even when your rational mind tells you there’s no danger.
We become withdrawn, we begin to feel insecure, we instinctively begin to appease the wants or demands of others, this to avoid confrontation. These various fears are triggered once the childhood wounds open up.
You Stand Up And Become Rebellious
Similar to fear, standing up and becoming rebellious also has childhood implications. It’s not reacting because of feeling angry, but more of “you can’t make me do that” “don’t tell me what to do” “no I won’t do that.” What’s exposed is resentment along with passive aggressive behavior.
Know Your State Of Mind
So what we’re all constantly doing is fading in and out of these emotions on a daily basis, at this very moment, as they can instantly alter our minds on a split second, this based on the immediate environment or situation. Think how you feel when someone suddenly cuts you off in traffic, you feel anger.
So the challenge becomes keeping yourself on the balance beam, preventing yourself from sliding into one of these emotional ditches. Or once you do slip, recognize it and then pull yourself out and become rational again.
To Be Rationally Balanced
What you consciously need to do is keep track of how you feel the instance any of these emotions attack. Ask yourself, “how am I doing” “what’s my mood.” Ask which emotions are taking over, are you getting irritable, depressed, worried, angry, rebellious. Are you feeling intimidated or vulnerable.
Recognize what it is and then begin to re-balance yourself, know the exact emotion that’s creeping in. If you feel anger or depressed, go exercise, meditate, take a yoga class. If you’re feeling anxious, breath deeply.
The more that you track what’s going on, identify and label it immediately, the more that you’ll note what’s going on emotionally inside your head and your body, and the quicker that you’ll recognize these mindsets so you can adjust and set them straight.