How does someone develop negative emotional habits?
• People are programmed by genetics, past experiences, as well as lifestyle choices to react to situations.
• Individuals also copy the behaviour of adults around them. You tend to respond as you see others do and over time, this behaviour becomes a norm and an emotional habit.
• If your parents were anxious people who worried excessively, got angry or frustrated easily, you may have acquired those tendencies.
At what age do these emotional habits get formed?
• Most emotional habits are deeply ingrained in people by the time they reach adolescence.
How can I prevent emotional stress?
• Become informed about your mental and emotional habits
• Avoid negative thoughts
• Examine and analyse your thoughts to discover the negative ones.
• When you identify and evaluate your thoughts, this will help you to think more realistically and you will feel better emotionally and behave more functionally.
• Sometimes, you misinterpret people’s actions when they are not even aware of you.
• Learn to communicate your feelings without high emotional tension.
• Learn to confirm situations, avoid irrational or distortional thinking.
• Replace irrational thoughts with rational thought; make up your mind to view things from the other person’s point of view and try to understand people’s situations.