The power of emotions

Think of your brain as a cart with an elephant and a donkey pulling it.
 1) The elephant is the emotional strength of the "old brain" (the emotional part that's mostly geared to getting food, sex and dealing with danger). This part is "old" because our emotions evolved earlier than other parts.
2) The donkey is the strength of our reasoning which evolved later and is considered more evolved. The donkey is a lot smarter and scans for all the facts, possibilities and consequences.

But it takes so little for the power of our emotions to override our thinking.
To deal with this:

• Practice scanning for all the facts of any and all situations and interactions - it gets easy with a tad of practice.

• Anticipate how you'll probably feel and react to that situation or person (it's hard to anticipate the other person - it's a lot easier to do so with ourselves). But you've got to practice - don't be afraid to exercise your mental power!

Give it your best shot - you can do it!