Sit somewhere quiet, close your eyes and focus on slowing down your breathing and try to feel your heart rate slow. After a minute or two, then try to think of nothing, or listen for the quietest sound you can hear and focus on that (a ticking clock in another room, someone else breathing, etc).
Now this is where it may be different for you. I was diagnosed with adhd has a kid and what I’m describing next is with that in mind. Basically all day my brain feels like it’s full of bees, sometimes less active, other times it’s a deafening buzz.
After a few further minutes of focusing on that quite sound, I’ll find individual things randomly pop in to my head, rather than a bunch all at once. Each time this happens I focus on what that thing is, and how it makes me feel. If for example I get angry, I let myself feel that, I don’t try and stuff it down, but I don’t let it overwhelm me. If I start to feel overwhelmed, I go back to the beginning and focus on slowing down my breathing.
In effect I’m trying to observe, and experience, that emotion simultaneously. This helps me do two things, first and foremost, I have much better - and healthier - control of my emotions during negative experiences (e.g. high stress), and can keep myself calm. Second, it allows me to go back to those emotions after the fact, and spend time working out why that experience led to that emotional response.
For frustration, sure, you can wail on a punching bag while blasting Hammer Smashed Face (which is very good in the moment), but I’ve found that that didn’t help me handle my emotions any better, it just meant I took out that repressed anger on other things. Which, sure, is probably better than nothing, but doesn’t help it you don’t have access to a punching bag.
YMMV but I’ve found meditation helps.
Sit somewhere quiet, close your eyes and focus on slowing down your breathing and try to feel your heart rate slow. After a minute or two, then try to think of nothing, or listen for the quietest sound you can hear and focus on that (a ticking clock in another room, someone else breathing, etc).
Now this is where it may be different for you. I was diagnosed with adhd has a kid and what I’m describing next is with that in mind. Basically all day my brain feels like it’s full of bees, sometimes less active, other times it’s a deafening buzz.
After a few further minutes of focusing on that quite sound, I’ll find individual things randomly pop in to my head, rather than a bunch all at once. Each time this happens I focus on what that thing is, and how it makes me feel. If for example I get angry, I let myself feel that, I don’t try and stuff it down, but I don’t let it overwhelm me. If I start to feel overwhelmed, I go back to the beginning and focus on slowing down my breathing.
In effect I’m trying to observe, and experience, that emotion simultaneously. This helps me do two things, first and foremost, I have much better - and healthier - control of my emotions during negative experiences (e.g. high stress), and can keep myself calm. Second, it allows me to go back to those emotions after the fact, and spend time working out why that experience led to that emotional response.
For frustration, sure, you can wail on a punching bag while blasting Hammer Smashed Face (which is very good in the moment), but I’ve found that that didn’t help me handle my emotions any better, it just meant I took out that repressed anger on other things. Which, sure, is probably better than nothing, but doesn’t help it you don’t have access to a punching bag.
This is the way.