Is it better for you to control your emotions or for your emotions to control you?

In school today, we had an interesting question posed. Do your emotions control you, or do you control your emotions?

It was so interesting because the tone of the question implied that you should control your emotions so that you can think before lashing out. And that makes sense, but it made me wonder because 1 year ago, I completely controlled my emotions, and I could become happy in seconds. slip on a mask, and I could convince everyone I wasn't mad or upset. I even convinced myself. I didn't like the bad feelings of being sad or mad, so I told myself I just wasn't feeling those things. I learned how to change my emotions to be happy. I was in complete control over my heart.

That wore on me. I got tired of it. It hurt me over and over again. until I couldn't change my emotions to happy, no matter how hard I tried, I had a solid month where i always having a bad feeling in my gut. It forced me to reflect. I started exploring my feelings. Trying to understand them.

I use a tool called the emotions wheel it helps you identify what the outer feeling is and then, deeper, what the actual feeling is.

i am letting my emotions control me a little more. I'm listening to my emotions.

My takeaway from this is that you should control what emotions you show to others. So you don't lash out or burden someone with your bad mood. But you should never lie to yourself about what you're feeling. You need to be vulnerable with yourself and reflect in order to process those bad emotions.

The background to my phone is now an emotions wheel, and I'm trying to become aware of my emotions in order to understand them so I can process them effectively.