How do you pull yourself away from a emotional situation?
16 Answers
Last Updated: 07/09/2018 at 8:52pm
Moderated by
Jessica McDaniel, LPC, LCPC
Licensed Professional Counselor
I have been practicing cognitive behavioral psychotherapy since 2007 with a diverse group of adult clients with various diagnoses, all races, and socioeconomic classes.
Top Rated Answers
you have to think to yourself, is this helping me? I'm a going to get anything from this? or is it just making me worse, when you have the answers you leave the conversation, delete the friend or whatever and distract yourself, talk to old friends and find support
Assuming you're in a place where your feelings overwhelm you in a bad way (anger, frustration, guilt, grief, etc) it's important to ground yourself. Your breathing's linked directly to your emotions, so you tend to breathe shallower when upset. The first thing I do is focus on breathing deeply and slowing my thoughts down.
Negative emotions have a physical "feeling" in your body, usually a kind of heaviness or flush of cold numbness. I focus on that emotion's physical weight instead of whatever caused it (my thoughts circling around, other people, some outside source) while breathing deeply and slowly. This pulls me away from my frustration and prevents me from lashing out/reacting in the heat of a moment, in a way that could hurt myself and others. Separate yourself from the emotions; they aren't YOU, they're just impulses that come and go. After you've grounded yourself, you can react in a productive, non-hurtful way.
Unless you're talking about removing your body from an emotional encounter. Then I'd just recommend excusing yourself and doing something relaxing that you enjoy, or talking to a listener on here!
I try to think of ways out and remind myself of all the happy situations and look forward to the things I'm excited about.
I would always find something to get my mind off of on what was going on like fishing,camping,hiking etc..
Anonymous
August 10th, 2015 11:42pm
Begin to picture your life without this emotional barrier and understand the benefits of letting go. Ask yourself "Is this really worth the emotional distress it's causing me?"
Separate behaviours from the person, if an action someone has done hurts you, remember it is their behaviour you are upset with not the person themselves.
You take a step back and look at your emotions from another viewpoint, what has been causing these emotions, how would you react, how did you react. Just don't look through your emotions, look at them.
I always try to calm mayself down by breathing slowly and trying to think with logic. I ask myself things like: Why are you feeling like this? Can you get away from what triggered this emotion?
I run away :D
I'm a very emotional person, my tears are so close, so I just try to be alone till I calm,
Anonymous
July 18th, 2016 11:41am
just remember we have two types in brain in thinking, logical and emotional. so then i think with my logical mind and recover and deal better the situation
Excuse yourself will be a way. Sometimes its also good to deal with the emotions in your time then to always run from it.
The best way to look at a situation objectively is to take a step back and breathe. If you can, give yourself 24 hours to react to an emotional situation/decision. Odds are that your first reaction won't be your best unless you give it some time, whether it's anger or passion or sadness with another person or event. It's best to give yourself 24 hours and then you can approach a situation/person with less emotional investment and a clear head.
Anonymous
November 28th, 2017 8:38pm
Whenever you have the emotions pop-up, just go and do something you like, to get your mind off of it. For example, you can listen to music, you can draw, you can talk to your friends, you can try a new makeup look, go to the mall, anything you like. That will drive your attention away from it. Sometimes if you have flashbacks, what you can do is wear a rubber band on your wrist and just snap it really hard over and over again until those thoughts leave, because when you're snapping, your brain's focus will automatically drive to what's happening on your hand.
Anonymous
February 13th, 2018 6:08pm
Think about something positive. Or try to see the good in it. Look on the bright side. Try doing something that makes you happy and stop you from thinking about what caused you to become emotional
Anonymous
March 27th, 2018 5:46am
I walk away and say that I wouldn't like to talk about this around others or I say that I need a little air. You can remove yourself from this situation by letting others know you need a minute.
Depending on how emotional the situation was, my coping methods usually range from separating myself to spending time with friends (girl's night) eating ice cream and junk food, listening to music or just dancing to lift up my spirits. Talking it out as well with someone I trust is another.
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