I'll admit, being a female and dealing with the emotions that come with it can be very tough. We feel happy one minute and stressed the next.
We feel encouraged today and defeated tomorrow (for literally no reason at all sometimes.) We can feel crazy, an emotional wreck, overly sensitive. Some even have the reputation of having an attitude as it has become habitual behavior. As a women, I can say these are all true. I can also add that it doesn't make it right for us to act on these emotions. It's a grand mountain to conquer, and sometimes we fail. And those sometimes are generally the best part. Knowing the angles of the mountain and figuring out how not to approach it can be just as beneficial.
Since I was a young women, it always confused me when people would say 'they're jusy being a girl' when a particluar female was being irrational emotionally. I never once thought the 'she's just a girl' statement was anywhere near an excuse to behave that way. We are not mere beasts with a lack of personal control over our body and how it functions. We were created with the capability to control our thoughts, emotions, and bodies. It's going to require patience, perseverance, and a good amount of grace (for ourselves) to reach the level we were created to reach.
Control over our emotions is definitely easier said than done. Recently going through two years of pregnancy, believe me when I tell you, I know how hard it is. Some days we have no idea why we are feeling frusterated and irritable or sad. And that's ok. We just have to choose how to act on those impulse emotions.
One of the best ways to learn how to control our emotions is to recognize we are feeling them. If we are being snappy or irritated with our partners, we can sit back and recognize we are reacting out of frusteration or irritation. If we are being short with our children or co-workers, we can take a step back and reconize that we are tired and short nerved or feeling overwhelmed. We can pause and recognize what our body is doing. These momentary emotions can be recognized by using our mind to realize that we are acting (or reacting) out of our emotions.
Another way is to put our emotions in check. I find myself literally countering my emotions with logic. One of my favorite ways to do this is repeating in my mind 'react logically, not emotionally', even if I have to do it every time I want to get upset over something. We can react with our thinking instead of our emotions. React rationally, not emotionally. When we feel frusterated, we can still react without the emotion of frusteration. The issue still exists, but not allowing those feelings to dictate the direction of the situation opens wide the door to solutions and productive problem solving.
Source: http://dothash.buzz/5-things-you-should-not-say-to-your-woman/
Warning: Possible discomfort for the audience. But it's real so I'm ok with that!
One issue I (and all of us) encounter on a regular basis that truly does tip the justice scale is the extreme times of emotions. Women, even though we have so much working against us on our days of pain () it's just not ok to use 'that time of the month' to treat others poorly or with bad attitudes. While a little more grace during those times is happily accepted, we still do not have the right to let even these emotions control us. We have to use our mind and logic to conquer these emotions, even if that just means reminding ourselves that everything is magnified at the moment and everything really is ok.
I've been incredibley guilty about it. I have done the 'slam things around to let him know I am not happy'. In reality, I was throwing an adult temper trantrum instead of communicating with my fiance', using my words. I am guilty of being too sensitive when it really was meant in fun. I am guilty of all of it, but in my journey of becoming the best version of myself, I can truly say that these moments are now few and far in between. It IS possibe to control our emotions, it IS possible to use our logic. Failure will happen. But that's part of the process! So let's decide to do our best, every day. To work on the self control of our emotions. Our world will tranform before our eyes (starting with our own perspective) and our partners, kids, co-workers, and friends will have a peaceful experience with us around. Mind over emotion. What a world it will be.