How embracing your emotions can lead you to success in life and business
Do you have one set of emotions for your friends and family and then you turn those emotions off when you step into your work life?
You may think this is the case, but it isn’t.
Unless you are Alex Cox in Repo man, the reality is emotions affect performance. You may be managing that well on the exterior but all the while causing hurt, pain, or suffering within.
How do emotions affect your performance 
You may not even realize this but emotions are the driving force behind our thoughts and decisions. Countless studies have shown the significant impact of emotions on how people perform tasks and how they make decisions. Positive emotions are consistently associated with better performance. Whereas negative emotions lead to negative outcomes and poor performance which in turn can result in failure.
If we manifest in anger, sadness or fear is our performance and engagement going to improve? Most likely not! We need to learn how to deal with these emotions and embrace them for their true purpose.
Embrace your emotions to improve flow in your business and life
Researchers have shown that our success at work or in life depends 80% on Emotional Intelligence and only 20% of intellect. Emotions are imperative, they protect us, motivate us or help us communicate. For example, if you don’t agree with something, it may make you feel angry, this anger will project out and cause you to act and respond in an unresourceful way if you’re not aware of that projection. However, if you embrace this anger it can inspire you to act and change the situation. Emotions only become a problem when we react in an unresourceful way.
When an emotion arises in you, take a deep breathe in, counting to 10, then slowly exhale, repeat this a few times so you are no longer reacting to the chemical release and ask yourself, Is it true? What is the purpose? What is the thought that created the emotion? If the emotion is valid, use it to empower yourself. Emotions need to be expressed and felt, suppressing them can create a bigger problem.
Avoid resistance and hiding in your own shadow
Imagine trying to hold a beach ball underwater, there is no problem at the beginning, but as we spend all our energy holding it down our arms become tired and eventually, it will shoot out of the water and slap us in the face. If we stop pushing it down, it will float on the surface in a much calmer way.
Be true to you, do not judge yourself and do not allow others to judge you. It is ok to feel emotion but make sure that the emotion belongs to you and is not influenced by someone else’s expectation. We are not perfect and we all have feelings.
How to keep yourself at ease and acknowledge your emotions
- Accept that all emotions are okay
- Allow yourself to feel an emotion
- Listen to the wisdom of your body – if you have a pang or a pain you may have a trapped emotion
- Get help when emotions become too much
- Take time, be patient
There are lots of activities you can do to help feel, acknowledge and release emotion, these include; Meditation, Walking, Journaling, confiding in someone you trust, breathing techniques, going to the gym or workshops
When we learn to accept and embrace our emotions, we learn valuable information about ourselves and we can take control of the wheel, steering our life in the direction we choose.