Weaponizing Your Emotions

We are terrestrial animals. There are a few things that make us different from the other animal species: We have an erect posture, are omnivores, use bipedal locomotion, have high manual dexterity, and for the most part, can use a more open-ended complex language to communicate. We have a larger, more complex brain with a limbic system interconnected by a neurological structure. That limbic system is responsible for our behavioral and emotional responses. Although sometimes it might look otherwise, we can use reasoning in our actions. We also have the ability to control our impulses and desires, and sometimes, we can forgo immediate satisfaction in favor of longer-term goals.

Humans and animals have a few things in common: both are territorial creatures, driven by instincts. Like undomesticated animals, sometimes, we—meaning humans—also fail to control our instincts.

Something that can make us lose control is our emotions. Automatic reactions to our emotions come from an innate, biological force that impels us to do something, to perform, act or respond in a particular manner very specific to the stimuli in front of us. Also, we can have an automatic, instinctive reaction to any predisposition or motivational force.

Animal and human, likewise, have an automatic response when feeling threatened. One of the most powerful emotions one can experience is fear. This includes the fear of losing emotional control over others.

What happens when the fear of losing emotional control takes over reasoning? We become cursed selfish, egocentric mortals, incapable of rational thinking. More often than not, if we cannot control our emotions, rather than flight, we stay and fight. We let the impulsivity and anxiety that come with fear take over reasoning. We bawl, kick, and scream bloody murder, overcome by a false sense of grandiose power with an exaggerated nonfigurative sense of entitlement.

When that happens, we make everyone involved miserably hopeless, including ourselves. A person can live 21 days without food and water. But a person cannot survive one day without hope. We then become depressed and discouraged, lacking motivation even to breathe, less so to move on.

Here is the thing. Those out-of-control emotions are unpleasant and physically painful. They leave us physically exhausted and emotionally shattered. Uncontrolled emotions are self-destructive because they often lead us to detrimental actions.

Uncontrolled emotions are also a weapon because they can cause significant physical and emotional damage.

Here are a few things that can help us not to weaponize our emotions:

Learn how to be honest with yourself because being truthful and upright with yourself will help you to communicate with others, deal with conflicting ambivalent or guilt-ridden attitudes.
Recognize your feelings and emotions. Call your emotions by their names. Naming your emotions gives you the control and capacity to analyze and evaluate your emotional states and use that information to make reasonable-sounding decisions.
Become a self-agent and self-negotiate with your emotions. Self-compromise. It represents an emotional conciliation between the demands of your ego, defenses, and unconscious wishes. It also protects you and others from emotional uncertainties, feelings of anxiety, and conscious or unconscious apprehensions.

Dr. Iberkis Faltas

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Sources

Goodman M, Tagle D, Fitch D, Bailey W, Czelusniak J, Koop B, Benson P, Slightom J (1990). “Primate evolution at the DNA level and a classification of hominoids”. J Mol Evol. 30 (3): 260–66. Bibcode:1990JMolE..30..260G. doi:10.1007/BF02099995. PMID 2109087. S2CID 2112935

“Hominidae Classification”. Animal Diversity Web @ UMich. Archived from the original on 5 October 2006. Retrieved 25 September 2006.

Tired of Social Double-Standards?

This one is dedicated to all women. How many times have you ever heard, “you can’t do it because you’re a woman?”

That is one phrase that has been embedded in a woman’s brain since childhood. That phrase has been burning on the back of women’s brains since the beginning of humankind, influencing their psychological and physical characteristics, qualities, skills, roles, and so forth. That is a barrier that has been there pinning women’s development, contributing to women’s sense of identity over time, becoming a conscious representation of self-concept, and a part of one’s nonconscious schematization of the self. That is a phrase that has always inhibited women’s expression and representation in our society and is still influencing everyone’s judgment and behavioral patterns.

The truth is that women are not the weakest gender. They have never been, and they will never be.

Suppose you are still struggling with gender equality. In that case, you should understand that double standard is the hypocritical belief that a code of behavior is permissible for one group or individual but not for another. For example, a double standard is held by the man who believes that free sexual expression is acceptable only for males, thus insisting on his daughter’s virginity while encouraging or ignoring his son’s philandering.

Let’s focus on one skill at a time. Self-awareness helps us to focus on unbiased information, attention to detail, and knowledge. That understanding includes recognizing and comprehending that women and men balance the world equally, without partitions, detachments, and separations.

What a person can and cannot do is not based on gender, but the power of the will, determination, ascertainment, and the ability to comprehend and differentiate between subtleties, while being aware of one’s cause and the impact that one’s decision, thoughts, and actions have in oneself-and others.

Women: self-assurance is essential. Trust your mental and physical abilities, capacities, endurance, and judgments. Your self-view is your number one positive attitude. The bolstering of self-confidence is needed to mediate your wants, needs, and goals. Believe in yourself. Your belief in yourself is your bridge to success. It would be best if you have the complete realization of your maximum capabilities, abilities, involvement, and appreciation for life. Analyze yourself time to time and discharge everything and everyone who is not adding values to your life and goals.

Think about this, Psychologist Abraham Maslow viewed the process of striving toward full potential as fundamental yet obtainable only after the basic needs of physical survival, safety, love, belongingness, and self-esteem are fulfilled.

Gender equality can be attained, but only if you believe on yourself.