I do not care who you are, how rich, how poor, how successful or unsuccessful, everyone’s life is a series of emotional ups and downs, highs and lows. If you charted your emotions on a daily or weekly basis, you would notice that they go up and down much like a roller coaster does…. an emotional roller coaster if you will.

As a default setting, humans find it is much easier to go down the emotional roller coaster than it is to go up. When you are at the bottom, it requires more energy to bring yourself back out. How you handle this emotional roller coaster requires a decision on your part. The decision is, are you going to deal with your emotions as an adult, or are you going to deal with them as a child.

Here is what I mean. Picture a 3-year-old child. If you have ever spent an hour or two with one, you know that their emotions run wild. One minute they are laughing uncontrollably and the next crying and having a tantrum over the smallest thing. Children are gripped by their emotions and their emotions run them.

Are your emotions running you as they do for a child, or are you the one who is in charge of your emotions? When you get a piece of bad news are you able to put it into perspective and move along with your day?

When negative emotions or situation present themselves, adults do not fall down, start crying and start throwing things. They learn how to deal with it. This is actually the central challenge for pretty much every human being on planet earth. It is simply learning how to control, or at least influence, our emotions to the degree in which we can function proactively.

How Can You Control the Emotional Roller Coaster?

What I encourage you to focus on is your input sources. These input sources are 1) your self-talk, 2) the things you read, 3) the things you watch ,4) the things that you listen to and 5) the people you surround yourself with. Consciously think about your input sources – are they lifting you up on the emotional roller coaster or are they pushing you down?

Here are some suggestions for managing your input sources:

Make time to read something that will uplift, inspire you or educate you at least 15 minutes a day. Spend as much time as possible around positive people that encourage, inspire and educate you. Turn off the TV when the program you are watching is turning your brain to mush. And, make sure that you are monitoring your self-talk.

Work on mastering your emotions through your input sources and you will be able to handle the emotional roller coaster like an adult.

Be Free!

Roger Seip
Instructor