Balance is essential for a peaceful and fruitful existence. The most successful people in the world are those who are in control of every aspect of their daily endeavors. But in order to overcome instability in your life, you first need to be aware of what it presupposes, as well as what the consequences to having instability in your emotional life.
The Consequences of Instability
There are many reasons why matters of mental health affect more and more of the population nowadays, and they relate to nature, nature and external factors alike. A lot of people can struggle with an imbalance in their lives and not even know it. This is why recognizing the temperament-related expressions of this situation is important.
Let us consider the following situation. One moment you could suffer from delusions of grandeur, and then a small thing happens and you go down spiraling to a very dark place. Feelings of inadequacy and emptiness take over, and your reactions to them are extreme and toxic. Conflict situations arise easily in your life due to this.
An overall loss of control over your own self and your surroundings becomes imminent. This is just one of the many scenarios that can play out when you’re under the spell of emotional instability. But when you find yourself in such a predicament, it’s important to be aware of the fact that your mental health could be affected in some way.
In fact, severe emotional instability is a common manifestation within the spectrum of borderline personality disorder. Although there is still a lot the medical community hasn’t learned about BPD and its many forms yet, regaining the reins of your life is completely possible with the right approach.
How to Overcome It
Overcoming destructive tendencies is never easy, especially if you’ve been struggling with them for a while. Nevertheless, you need to remember that becoming complacent is not a solution. Stop lying to yourself that you’re fine with it and do something instead. To help you, here are three actionable steps you can employ to regain control of your life.
1. Identify Negative Patterns
With its roots in Sun Tzu’s famous Art of War, “know your enemy” is a saying that has become ingrained in our collective subconscious. And why wouldn’t it be? After all, when you possess knowledge of the issue you are confronted with, finding a solution becomes easier. And this is equally true in the case of negative emotions.
Identifying the disruptive patterns of thought that take over your mind sometimes is the first step in effectively combating them. When they have been an integral part of your life for a long time, getting rid of them will be a lot harder, but not impossible. There are four main types: filtering, personalising, catastrophising and polarising.
In the case of filtering, you are filtering out the good parts of your life and focusing solely on the bad. Personalising involves blaming yourself for everything, while catastrophising is blowing any detrimental situation out of proportion and perceiving it in a distorted way, as well as always expecting the worst.
Finally, polarising means you see the world in black and white. Acknowledging all the shades of grey in between is essential for your well-being. You might be doing one of these or all of them in various combinations, so recognising it is the first step towards implementing beneficial change.
2. Retrain Your Emotions
When you become aware of all the ways in which your own mind is leading you astray, retraining your emotions is the natural next step. The brain is capable of many wonderful things, and this is one of them. However, you need to be open to the possibility for it to be successful in the first place.
In order for you to gain agency over your negative feelings, you will need to rewire what is known as the “executive control function” of the mind. This is achieved by memory and intelligence training, similar to those imposed by parenting and schooling in early childhood. By expanding your intellect, you will also develop previously unknown abilities.
3. Practice Mindfulness Every Day
The medical community has recently embraced the many benefits of positive psychology in the treatment of mental illness. And out of all its practices, mindfulness is perhaps the most widely acknowledged one. And it’s all for good reason. Practicing mindfulness every day in all area of your life might even be more effective, or as effective, as medication.
One of the most common ways to employ this philosophy is by meditating. Successful meditation allows you to explore all the corners of your mind and reach a higher level of inner balance. By becoming more in touch with yourself, you will also be able to manage everything in a more suitable manner.
But the reach of mindfulness spreads even further than that. You can enhance your level of consciousness regarding all your mundane activities, such as brushing your teeth, cleaning the house, and most importantly eating your meals. Mindful eating is a very popular practice nowadays, and it’s truly effective in the quest to get in touch with one’s true self.
Final Thoughts
Being emotionally unstable can appear as a side-effect during harder times of your life, but it can also be a manifestation of underlying mental illness. Still, overcoming the turmoil is possible if you acknowledge your destructive patterns and rewire your brain to avoid them. A highly effective method of doing this is through mindfulness, and I would encourage you to give it a chance to bring more stability to your mind.
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