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Ever Wonder Why You're So Judgmental?
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A judgmental attitude
Being hypercritical and judgmental is often unconsciously learned. It seems to fill a need such as making one feel powerful or smart where one is feeling sad or bored.
You may feel that you are merely pointing out the truth, but the general attitude of being judgmental won't win you many friends.
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Positive and negative reinforcement and judgmental attitudes
Positive and negative reinforcement is powerful to sustain many habits. For example, drugs alleviate negative feelings and add positive ones.
Similarly, a habit of judgmentalness can be positively reinforced, such as the thrill of being right or feeling intellectually superior. But the biggest positive emotion while being judgmental is self-righteous anger.
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Anger is a positive reinforcer
We often classify anger as negative because the outcomes are negative. But anger itself is positive when we separate it from its surrounding thoughts and behaviours.
When we assess an injustice, we often conclude that something is wrong, but that I am right! The feeling of anger is a sense of power, agency, control, pride, and righteousness. It leads to a pleasurable emotional experience.
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The problem with anger
Anger is an antidepressant. Awareness of this pattern of judgmentalness leading to anger serves to alleviate a painful emotion like sadness. We should take a closer look at our emotional lives.
Anger makes us passive. While you invest your time and energy arguing and being judgmental, that time and energy could be better spent finding a real solution to your problem.
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SIMILAR ARTICLES & IDEAS:
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Dealing with your anger
Anger leads us to poor decisions, regrettable behavior, or hurt feelings. However, some anger leads to more significant consequences, like strained relationships or legal trouble.
The key to ...
Anger ≠ aggression
Anger is an emotion, while aggression is a behavior. They differ entirely in one central dimension - control.
- You can't control your emotions directly. In the legal system, nobody gets sent to prison for how they felt, regardless of how angry they were. They get punished for what they do.
- You can influence your emotions indirectly by how you think and behave. For example, when you focus on how terrible all the drivers in your town are, your anger will likely increase. But, if you listen to music and think about how grateful you are, your anger will probably subside.
Expressing anger
While you can't control your emotions of anger directly, you have control over your aggression, which is a decision to express your anger.
Aggression does not only involve acts of violence. Being overly-critical or judgmental of someone in your mind is an act of aggression, as is replying sarcastically or rolling your eyes at someone.
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Anger and Aggression
- Anger: An emotion felt when we believe we have been wronged.
- Aggression: is an act of expression of the anger, by our words our actions. Aggressio...
Validation and Boundaries
- We can try and validate the anger felt by an individual by making them know that their anger is maybe justified while putting firm but respectful boundaries on their aggression.
- We then need to be clear about what type of aggression we are willing to tolerate, setting boundaries on the unacceptable.
- We may have to put our foot down and be ready to leave the conversation or escalate the issue, without falling into the trap of guilt and emotion.
- If possible, we need to restart the conversation when things have cooled down, and diffuse the issue in a calm way.
Avoiding Speculative Self-Talk
Unchecked self-talk can easily turn into self-delusion. The stories we create almost always make you look like the good guy and cannot be termed as objective.
- The way to get out of this speculative self-delusion is to avoid any speculation about other people's anger, at least initially.
- Make sure to note down the facts of the situation. This can make the story less according to your gut instinct, and more towards the objective reality.
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Gain Control Over Your Mood
- Label Your Emotions: There are times that you might feel different emotions. Pay attention to what's really going on inside you to help you take a lot of sting out of that em...
Mood Control = Positive Outlook
Emotions are powerful and managing it is tough at times. But by gaining control over them makes you mentally stronger.
You'll gain confidence in your ability to handle discomfort while also knowing that you can make healthy choices that shift your mood.