Week 22. Controlling Emotions

Today I am the master of my emotions. What a powerful phrase in Chapter 13, The Scroll Marked VI in Og Mandino’s Classic, “The Greatest Salesman in the World.” I have actually changed it from the future “Today I will be master of my emotions,” to the present “I am.” After all, why I throw now after maybe?

Controlling emotions is not an easy trick. Most of us at times ride a rollercoaster of emotions that surface as reaction to some event directly or indirectly affecting us. Controlling fear readily comes to mind. When you face a life threatening situation and the emotion to fight (anger) or flight (fear) inevitably surfaces, instinct more than anything takes over. I am talking the extreme threat to our existence here.

Other emotions or moods like joy, sadness, exultation, depression, etc., are easier to control if we just remember that those are results, or effects and that we can control the cause, our thoughts. I am saying “easier” not necessarily “easy.” Some events produce such a deep impression on the mind that are really hard to overcome. My mother was assassinated way back in 1968. I was 17. 47 years later, to this date, that event affects me every time it pops into my consciousness. It is the saddest thought I own. I immediately use the Law of Substitution and think of something else instead. I think of the great person she was. I am grateful to have learned about the Seven Laws of the Mind here in the MKMMA.

One phrase in The Scroll Marked VI I disagree with is this: “Weak is he who permits his thoughts to control his actions; strong is he who forces his actions to control his thoughts.” As we now know, thought when combined with feeling creates belief that produces action that produces results. Thought has to come first, action after unless in situations where our survival instinct takes over. I think Mandino has it backward or the saying is wrong.

Mandino offers great solutions to control our emotions by using mostly the Law of Substitution and to some extent the Law of Dual Thought:

If I feel depressed I will sing.

If I feel sad I will laugh.

If I feel ill I will double my labor.

If I feel fear I will plunge ahead.

If I feel inferior I will wear new garments.

If I feel uncertain I will raise my voice.

If I feel poverty I will think of wealth to come.

If I feel incompetent I will remember past success.

If I feel insignificant I will remember my goals.

One final thing worth remembering from Scroll Marked VI is that as our moods change from day to day, so too the moods of other people. That now that we know this and understand it, to give allowances for anger or irritation in others we contact. “No longer will I judge a person on one meeting; no longer will I fail to call again tomorrow on he who meets me with hate today. This day he will not buy gold chariots for a penny, yet tomorrow he would exchange his home for a tree.”

Today, I am the master of my emotions.