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How do you control your emotions when life gets tough?

Learn strategies to stay calm, regain control, and respond instead of react in your most challenging moments

By Tarek RakhiessPublished 5 months ago 5 min read
How do you control your emotions when life gets tough?
Photo by Callum Skelton on Unsplash

The emotions. Something so irrational that it awakens feelings in us that are sometimes difficult to deal with. You’ve probably faced a complicated situation at some point in your life, right? And maybe you even felt like you were unable to take responsibility and control their emotions.

Do not worry. Fear, anger, or sadness are completely natural reactions, and everyone has experienced them before.

Because these are negative emotions, they can sometimes be difficult to deal with. It is possible to manage them using appropriate techniques.

That’s why I want to help you achieve this if you feel this way.

In this article, I will teach you how to achieve emotional self-control. Which strategies should you pursue? to control your emotions.

Emotional self-control: what is it and how to use it?

Emotional self-control is a process through which humans can manage our emotions and feelings as well as our behavior. It’s for controlling both negative and positive emotions, although the former are, by their nature, generally more difficult to master.

To achieve this, you need to focus on developing your emotional intelligence. There are different techniques for dealing with emotions that can help you on your path to emotional self-control, and we will talk about them later.

In addition, you can also get help from a psychologist qualified to teach you how to have more control over yourself.

A good place to start might be to sign up for one personal growth course because it helps you feel more confident and move closer to the emotional self-control you want to achieve.

Dealing with anger and rage

Anger is one of the negative emotions that usually occurs in environmental situations that are perceived as unfair or cause irritation. When you are angry, your mind becomes cloudy and the likelihood of you being angry increases. Make decisions impulsively.

Learning to control anger is very important because it is a state of mind that limits your ability to think clearly. To do this, you need to make sure of this. The intensity of anger is proportional to the cause of this, and don’t let it go to a higher level, like aggression.

Control negative emotions.

Other negative emotions such as fear or sadness can also have a significant impact on your mood. Even though the feelings may sometimes seem completely irrational or unjustified, there is always something that provokes them—even if it is not obvious at first glance.

These are emotions that, if you learn to deal with them properly, can be very constructive. The problem arises when they worsen, as they can lead to mental illnesses such as depression or anxiety.

So how should you deal with it? First, you need to understand why you feel this way. Once you’ve done this, you’re ready to begin. Overcome your fears and sadness and work with different strategies. This will help you in your quest for self-control.

Below I will show you some of them. I spoke about tips for overcoming fear of the future, big reasons why people fear rejection, and also overcoming the fear of change; these may help you more.

5 Strategies to Control Emotions

As I explained to you, you must know this emotional self-control technique that you have on hand. These are very powerful tools to help you deal with all those situations where you feel like your emotions are taking over your body and mind.

1. Understand and identify your emotions.

First, you should take some time to think about how you feel. Ask yourself why you feel this way in a certain situation. Think about it carefully and find out what could be the origin of your mood.

Expressing your feelings usually helps you understand them better, even if you don’t necessarily have to do it verbally. A good resource is, for example, writing on paper, etc., in a personal diary (journaling). Before you go to bed, write down how you felt throughout the day, why, and how you could have handled it better.

2. Put emotions in perspective

Take this as a mantra for yourself: you should focus on highlighting your positive emotions and put negative emotions into perspective. This doesn’t mean you ignore them, because they are there and you have to face them.

Still, it will help you have a positive attitude towards life or problems and minimize conflicts with other people. And to achieve this, you must do your part.

Additionally, you may become angry or confrontational when you receive criticism. It’s best not to pay too much attention to what others think of you (unless you can get something positive out of it).

Attempt getting the upper hand, and you will see how it becomes easier for you to deal with your emotions.

3. Accept your situation and take action.

One of the keys to managing your emotions and feelings is self-acceptance. Knowing yourself as you are will stop you from adopting a defensive mentality when faced with a particular conflict.

Making mistakes is a part of everyone’s life, and you have to accept the fact that you will make them throughout your life. It is normal.

Once this goal is achieved, you can decide whether you want to express your emotions and how best to channel them.

When you know and love yourself as you are, you will find it easier to deal with problems that may arise in your daily life with other people. You will be calmer, and you are less likely to act impulsively or aggressively.

4. Practice assertive communication.

Sometimes we find it difficult to listen carefully to the interlocutor, and that can lead to misunderstandings. Making assumptions or speculations about what others think is a practice that does not benefit your self-control.

That’s why you must take care of it with assertive communication and active listening. This will allow you to understand the true meaning of what the other person is saying and express your feelings honestly, correctly, and calmly.

5. Exercise

Have you ever felt much better after a workout? Playing sports is one great way to release hormones associated with positive emotions, such as serotonin or endorphins.

After a good workout, you will feel relieved and much less tense. In addition, this type of exercise increases your self-esteem and makes you feel better. It will be easier to maintain good emotional control and avoid tense situations.

Overcome difficult moments in life.

As you can see, it’s all about managing and controlling emotions necessary to deal with any difficult situation in a healthy way that life offers you. You need to work on yourself to move in the right direction and become as close to your best version as possible.

The first step to complete control of your emotions is to learn to love and accept yourself as you are, with your qualities and your flaws. If you still don’t feel well, don’t worry; today you have a lot of valuable information from a variety of experts in the field.

You can always seek help from a professional psychologist or have them do a self-esteem course to start changing your mentality.

Take control of your life, control your emotions, and you will see how you gain quality of life.

This article has been published on https://medium.com

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About the Creator

Tarek Rakhiess

I write about self-improvement, personal finance, and personal growth, exploring practical strategies to self-help tools, motivation techniques, and success habits that help people a lot.

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