So Mad

"There is nothing that can be done with anger that can’t be done better without it" – Dallas Willard

Ran across this quote from Dallas Willard and it reminded me of the prior post on Responding to Fear. Emotional responses are a killer when it comes to effectiveness. The emotions color our reasoning. They cloud our judgement. They play out the multitude of scenarios that our limbic brains conjure in the most awful manner. Worse than that, they often times make us feel right or justified in whatever it is we are deciding to do.

It inevitable that we will find ourselves in an emotion situation. So how do you recognize that you're emotional? For me, I pay attention to the physical aspects; mouth getting dry, sweat starting to form, palms getting sweaty, or my neck starts to flush. Then I start to pay attention to my words; using "I" more or using absolutes while describing things are a tip-off here. Then I look for the non-verbals; interrupting the other person, trying to explain in a "simpler way" what I'm saying, or even just body position and posture that's more closed off. All of these are indicators for me that I'm caught in my emotion. What are yours?