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Unchecked negative emotions can alter or destroy relationships forever. The most destructive and costly type of negative emotion is anger. Allowing your anger to erupt hurts those closest to you – those who care about you the most and who you need the most.
No one is perfect and people often disappoint us. Their behavior, their choices and their mistakes affect everyone inside their inner circle. Responding with anger at these failings only serves to distance those closest to us.
Don’t allow you anger to spontaneously erupt. Make a habit of deferring any emotional reaction to a latter time. Sleep on your anger. Deal with the failing after sleep. Sleep returns you to your emotional baseline. It calms the amygdala, the portion of the brain that regulates many of our emotions. Sleep diffuses anger and re-engages the prefrontal cortex, our executive command and control center.
You want your prefrontal cortex to be in control of your behavior, not your amygdala. Your amygdala will only create more problems in your life.
The next time you are about to lose your temper, defer any response until you have had time to sleep. Your reaction, after sleep, will be controlled by your conscious, analytical brain (the prefrontal cortex) rather than your emotional brain (amygdala). A well-thought out response will prevent you from damaging or destroying the relationships that are most important to you.
