Taking control of your emotions

We all want to feel good, we all want happiness, peace, love, harmony and joy. The problem is that sometimes we look for that outside ourselves. How? We let people and situations determine our emotional and mental states. If everything's going well in your life, you have a great job, a wonderful family, great health, money, a great relationship, great friends, then it's easier to feel happy and at ease. But what happens when you're surrounded by circumstances or people that don't make your life so easy? How can you be happy?

For a long time, I thought everything in my life had to perfect in order for me to feel good. If the weather was nice I'd feel good, otherwise I wouldn't. If my relationships were going well I'd feel happy, energized, if my work was going the way I wanted it then I'd feel ok, at peace.

After doing a lot of "soul searching" , I've come to realize that no one and nothing can and will determine my emotional and mental states. I'm aware now that I'm not my emotions. If I feel angry, upset, hurt, disappointed, I just stop for a moment, take a deep breath and I say to myself: "At this moment I recognize anger, or sadness, or frustration in me. I try to imagine those emotions in front of me, separated from me. I don't identify myself with those emotions right away and react to them. Sometimes I can do it as soon as I experience those feelings, other times it might take me a few minutes, in order to relax and just become aware of what happened. In that particualr moment that I see myself separated from my emotions I experience peace.

Then, I can analyze what's causing those emotions in me and be able to work on them and by doing so, I'm not letting people control the way I feel. I take charge of your emotions and decide how I want to feel.