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Controling Emotional Outbursts

This is an idea from Stoicism

Remember the CAB rule:

Emotional Consequences (C) do not stem from Adversity (A), but your Beliefs (B) about the adversity

• Sadness stems from beliefs of loss
• Anger stems from beliefs of tresspass, beliefs of unfair treetment
• Anxiety stems from beliefs of danger

Hence, it is required that in order to control strong emotions (good and bad), we train ourselves to consistantly reason about our emotions moment to moment (which is not easy and requires understanding and practice).

Questions to ask:

If we are angry,

• I am angry because I believe I have been treated unfairly
• Why do I believe this?
• Is that reason objectively true?
• Is the belief valid?
• Was the tresspass intentional?
• Is the intentionality objectivly true, or is it just my belief that that it was/n’t intentional
• Do existing feelings about the person I am agry at causing my current belief?

Take action only after answering, or after attempting to answer the above questions.

• What is the worst case scenario for the outcome of this adversity?
• What is the best case scenario?
• What is the most likely case?

Take the most likely case and act acording to it.

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References:

• An answer on r/Stoicism https://www.reddit.com/r/Stoicism/comments/sp7cd6/how_to_not_become_reactive/hwdjif5?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share&context=3

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