Hi, I’m Dr. Nick.  Welcome to the Elevation Principle:  achieving new heights in your business, life and health.  

How to turn that “I just read a horrible news story” frown, upside down.

Emotional management 101, how can we stop being a victim to what we are feeling, and instead, change our emotional state to a better place?

So where do emotions come from?  They come from us observing and reacting to our environment.  We become the victim to what we observe and based on what emotions we have stored up inside of us, some get triggered and become expressed as states of being…and most of the time, we don’t even realize it.

Do you really want to go about your life, being a victim to what you observe?

Or, does this sound like a better option?  Here goes maybe a great way to deal with most of what we’d read in a newspaper.

“Oh, my gosh, I cannot believe this.  You’ve got to be kidding me!  Wait, wait, this isn’t good, I don’t like this feeling…You know what, I just read some horrible stuff in the newspaper, and guess what, it normally would make me feel sick to my stomach, but not this time.  No, no, not this time.  I’m going to shift my thoughts elsewhere.  That garbage doesn’t serve me!  It makes me downright upset, but I don’t have to let that snowball.  I don’t have to feel upset.  Yuck!  So guess what, I think I’m a pretty awesome person.  I think I’ll smile at random people today and see how they’ll react.  I think I’ll spread some happiness (and yes, maybe that sounds really cheesy, but it’s better than me being another angry person) because I know there’s a lot of other people out there reading horrible stuff and feeling really bad, and I think I’ll uplift them, rather than just be another upset/ angry person walking around.  That’s right, I have a responsibility now.  I can do this. I’m done with this newspaper, I’m moving on…and Bam!”

How does that sound to you?

What we just did there, is caught ourselves prior to an emotional downward spiral.  The main step in this process is to have awareness with how you feel.  And then intentionally guiding yourself to a better feeling place.  If we can imagine reading something horrible in the newspaper, feeling upset (a lower emotional state), CATCHING OURSELVES in the act of feeling bad (that’s really important), then talking ourselves up.  We can effectively go from, upset, to angry (which is actually a better emotion than upset and powerless) to then choosing to shift and focus on something different (smiling – being happy), to then spreading happiness (feeling better), to all of a sudden realizing how we can impact the lives around us (empowered, loving) to all of a sudden we are in control of our emotional state and not a victim anymore.

It requires practice.  Believe me.  It’s well worth the effort though!

Here’s an example of an emotional scale.  And remember, it’s actually better to be angry, then depressed, better to be bored than upset.

Go easy on yourself, don’t expect a quick fix.  Keep practicing working up the emotional scale with the power of your thoughts!

The Emotional Guidance Scale

1. Joy/Appreciation/Empowered/Freedom/Love
2. Passion
3. Enthusiasm/Eagerness/Happiness
4. Positive Expectation/Belief
5. Optimism
6. Hopefulness
7. Contentment
8. Boredom
9. Pessimism
10. Frustration/Irritation/Impatience
11. Overwhelment
12. Disappointment
13. Doubt
14. Worry
15. Blame
16. Discouragement
17. Anger
18. Revenge
19. Hatred/Rage
20. Jealousy
21. Insecurity/Guilt/Unworthiness
22. Fear/Grief/Depression/Despair/Powerlessness

From the book “Ask and It is Given,” by Esther and Jerry Hicks (The Teachings of Abraham) pg. 114