Mastery Over Emotion

Here's another recreation of a post I made back in 2010. I'm going to leave any perspective reader with these for a day or two because I have one more post to add and it's a bit more controversial so I hope you enjoy reading my old posts and I'll be back to post more soon.  

Let me just say first of all, don't expect me to be popping out three or four posts a day, because it likely won't happen. I just have some things to share and now that I have this blog, I have an outlet to share them.
So, let's go into mastery over emotions. This is going to be very important for multiple aspects of Jedi work later on. Whether you're a brand new aspiring Jedi, an intermediate like myself, or a salty old veteran of our Community, I hope you can benefit in some way from what I have to say.
Emotions can be good and bad. I'm not necessarily referring to the obvious that that there are positive (happiness, love, humor) and negative (anger, hatred, depression) emotions. What I mean by good and bad emotions is the fact that an emotional response to a given situation can be good, or it lead to good consequences or it can lead to bad consequences.
Again, emotional mastery is a skill that comes in handy in a wide variety of everyday situations, not just bein a Jedi. Those are the kind of lessons I like to teach. Here is my personal view on how to attain mastery over your emotions:
Step 1. Meditation. The old cliche tells us that before you can know anything else, you must first know yourself. Meditation can be done anytime. A split second taken by breathing in and out can replace a split second which produces an angry response. Full meditation, for however long you can, is also important. Identify your hot buttons. This can be done both in quiet meditation as well as out in the field, your daily life. Knowing what emotional response you'll likely have to a given situation is the first step in learning how to control those responses.
Step 2. Practice. That's right, I'm going to make this a simple two-step process. Why? You only need two steps, learning and applying. There are several ways to apply what you've learned. First of all, as I mentioned earlier, breath. When you realize that you're about to have a (negative) emotional response, take a breath. I know this is corny advice, and everyone says it. But it really can work. Another method is to repeatedly tell yourself not to respond in that fashion. Whatever works best for you, <i>calm down</i>, <i>dude shut up</i>, they're your own thoughts so you can tell yourself whatever you want. The last is when you're in a group of friends, people who are close to you. They can realize when you're about to explode and try to calm you down.
All in all, this will take a lot of practice. I've been trying for years, and I'm nowhere close. Find what works for you, stick with it, and progress. That's really the best advice I can give you on this subject.