Thoughts on Feeling Rather Than Thinking
I’m in my second year of college, and I’ve been thinking about how important it is to keep control of your emotions. In general, you should always be calm, cool and collected. If you get frustrated or upset over something that happens in your life you can’t change, then all that will do is make things worse. It’s always better to feel good about yourself and the decisions you make. There’s a quote by Henry Ford I love: “Whether you think you can or whether you think you cannot–you’re right.” The point he’s trying to get across is that if we think positive thoughts we’ll have a much better outlook on life because we’re going with the flow instead of against it.
We learn by doing. At Cornell, I learnt to write essays by reading them. I would read what other people had written about the subject I was working on, and try to understand their point of view.
I am not sure if you can do this for emotional issues, but it certainly seems worth a try! Read up on some other people’s experiences with their emotions and see how they got through it. Understanding someone else’s perspective will help you deal with your own issues in the future much better than just trying to “wing it” as we say! It’s always better to use logic over emotion when making decisions. This is true whether we’re talking about an important decision like getting married or something as simple as buying a new pair of shoes! Trust me, I’ve made enough mistakes in my life that could have been avoided if I’d just thought things through before acting impulsively.
One thing that helps me is writing down my feelings and thoughts as soon as possible after an upsetting incident occurs. I have a journal I write in all the time, and sometimes when something happens that makes me upset I write down what’s going through my mind. It helps to get it out on paper, so to speak! Once you’ve written down your thoughts and feelings, then it’s time to think about how you can change what happened.
I’ve heard of people who keep a bucket list (a list of things they want to do before they die) and I’ve decided that this is something everyone should do. Having a bucket list means you’ll never cease taking risks because there will always be something new for you to try! If we make decisions based on our emotions rather than logic we’re more likely to make bad decisions about money issues such as buying unnecessary things or using credit cards too much. It doesn’t matter whether we like someone or not; if we’re having trouble paying our bills then we should stop doing whatever it is that caused us the problems in the first place until we’re back on top financially! When deciding what kind of car or house you want, don’t let your emotions get the best of you and buy more than you need just because it’s cool or exciting.
Do what’s best for you and your family, not what someone else thinks is best. You’ve got to do what feels right, not what everyone else thinks is right. Don’t feel pressured to follow the crowd–be an individual! The same goes for everything in life; if you let other people’s opinions control how you act then you’ll never be happy with yourself. I’m sure other people will give me advice about things I should or should not do in my life but that doesn’t mean I have to listen to them all the time! If it sounds like something that will affect my future negatively then I just ignore it. If the advice doesn’t sound like something that would benefit me, then why would I take it?
One thing we can always count on is change; nothing stays the same forever so get used to it! People come and go; sometimes they leave us unexpectedly while others make us choose between them and our old way of thinking (or doing whatever). Some of these changes are difficult while others are pleasant surprises. My brother is in academia, and he’s told me about the struggles he’s had to deal with in his life. He dropped out of college a couple of times but always came back. I’m really proud of him for getting his degree, and I know he has a bright future ahead of him! If you have a difficult time dealing with change you need to learn how to deal with it better.
I’ve found that if I think about my problems from an academic point of view then it will help me keep them in perspective.