Understanding Emotions VS Self-Government: Is There A Balance?

In this call we talked about what kinds of emotional releases are healthy and which are not, and how self-government allows for expressing feelings in a healthy way. Be sure to listen all the way until the end…The last 15 – 20 minutes are really important.

There were two points I didn’t make on the call, so I will add them here.

About the story in the article discussed:

1. The girl in the story could have been manipulating or attention seeking because she was trained by her parents to have an excuse. This is an option for emotional outbursts like that, and seems possible considering the situation prior to the outburst and the parent’s admition that she trains her children to “emotionally vomit.” This kind of parent training could go wrong in the long run; it devalues personal responsibility and maturity, and can encourage attention seeking behaviors. My parents were the example of happy, optimistic, motivated, problem solving people. I wanted to be like them, so I knew I had to make the choice to have self-government and not take things personally. No excuses. That didn’t mean we didn’t ever hug and cry because of sadness, we did, but the cry itselfwas never our goal.

2. Emotionally exploding releases endorphines and can become really addicting. I had a few foster children who admitted to being addicted to the rush of a rage. I have also felt it myself. It is a dangerous habit to get into.

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