Welcome to this new episode where today we will answer: ‘Can we affect our emotions? (Yes! And how…)’. The episodes on this podcast are short and to the point so that you can go back and listen to what’s most useful to you in a couple of minutes. Make sure to take a note of something you find valuable or download the podcast in case you want to go back to it at any time. I recommend keeping the episodes or some quotes in a folder for you to go back to them when you need them most. 

So, can we affect our emotions? I’m sure there are countless websites out there with lists of techniques and whatnot, but today I would like to share a quote by William James, a practical psychologist which I found very impactful and practical. A single quote.

 ‘Action seems to follow feeling, but really action and feeling go together; and by regulating the action, which is under more direct control of the will, we can indirectly regulate the feeling, which is not. Thus, the sovereign voluntary path to cheerfulness, if your cheerfulness be lost, is to sit up cheerfully and act and speak as if cheerfulness were already there.’ 

Try it for yourself; sit back on a comfortable chair with broad shoulders, smile, and sing or hum a song for 5-10 seconds. That's all we need.  

How do you feel?

We often feel as if external forces are the only factors affecting our emotions, yet we hold the highest power and rarely ever use it. 

Emotions, more often than we think, are a choice; and not only the product of external factors. 

I would like to close the episode by rephrasing part of the quote: ‘By altering our actions, we can indirectly affect our feelings.’ We can change how we feel just by acting the way we want to feel. Want to feel happy? Sit back, smile, and act so. 

Thank you.

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