Moderating your emotional response to situations will become an invaluable skill in the times ahead. I prefer staying on the slightly positive side of neutral — not so flat as to be stone-faced, but not so giddy as to see through rose-colored glasses. Rather, good-natured, optimistic, and most of all sharp, balanced, aware, and lucid.
How can this be done in very challenging circumstances? Well, through a combination of faith and understanding. Faith is needed where knowledge fails, where you have done what you could and the rest is not in your hands. Then it’s better to invoke a feeling that that things will work out, than to worry unnecessarily. Understanding comes down to feeling security in knowing what you must do, that panicking will get you nowhere. An attitude of strategic optimism, that you will get through this and will play your moves smartly, that really helps. If you are confronted with anger or fear, ask yourself whether you can do something about the problem right now. If yes, then do it. If not, then let those emotions go and don’t worry since it’s out of your hands right now.
Catching yourself before you let loose with a blind emotional reaction will keep you from having to suppress that emotion, by nipping it in the bud. How? By noticing yourself reacting the moment that you do, instead of being entranced by the thing triggering your reaction. Notice yourself, notice how you the observer are actually calm and silent deep inside while the emotion is an external thing trying to latch itself onto you, trying to get you to align and identify with it. Ask yourself if this is really necessary. Then look for understanding, the meaning, the lesson, the way out of this situation you are in, and act logically and strategically.
If you build up a momentum of balanced optimism then when confronted with a negative emotional trigger you are less liable to lose control because you are already centered and stable. Therefore it may help to start your day with some thoughts of gratitude, hope, and wonderment. If you do this, you will also notice it affecting the probability of your experiences throughout the day, reducing incidences of aggravation and misfortune and increasing positive synchronicities. That is because consciousness subtly affects how the future flows into the present.
A harder task is aligning with the optimal flow of life. It can be accomplished by consulting your intuition, heart, and common sense when making decisions, by spotting genuine inner and outer resistance to going in the wrong direction.
