How To Stop Making Emotional Decisions
When emotions are high, it’s easy to catastrophize whatever is on the horizon and make poor decisions.
By applying philosophy to our lives we can see more clearly, and journaling is one of the best ways to apply philosophy to our day-to-day lives and decision-making.
There’s no one right way to journal, but I highly suggest you write in the second or third person. Writing on paper is probably more impactful than typing, but typing is better than keeping everything pent up in your brain.
If you find yourself making emotional decisions, here’s a simple journaling practice that can help you feel better, calm down, and think more clearly.
State It Plainly
If things go as badly as you fear, what exactly will this look like? Be detailed about this theoretical scenario, but make no value judgments about it. Just write the facts plainly, not what the facts would mean.
Once you’ve stripped your worse-case-scenario of all value judgements, evaluate how bad this worst-case scenario would be. How big of a deal is it really? Can you get on with your life if this occurs?
What could you do to recover, get back to some sort of equilibrium, or at least accept the outcome of this worst-case scenario?
Given all this, what strikes you as a reasonable response to your problem?