Emotional Ownership and Awareness

Emotional Ownership and Awareness

By Michelle Matthias

Emotional ownership is a terminology that is associated with organizational management but I do believe it is an appropriate terminology in our personal life as we attempt to re-center ourselves and effectively/positively navigate life, considering all the unforeseen circumstances of 2020.

I think emotional ownership begins with emotional self-awareness. It’s the ability to manage and to take control of our emotions and our responses to others’ behavior in an effort to be more accountable to ourselves. It’s taking responsibility for our internal dialogue and knowing the detriment of negative self-talk vs. positive self-talk.

Ownership is the state or fact of exclusive rights and control over…

The owner of something is the person to whom it belongs.

Emotional ownership is assuming responsibility for our internal as well as our external responses and/or dialogue and becoming more aware of how these responses affect our quality of life and our emotional stability.

Mastering our own emotions unlocks our ability to positively influence our current and future actions to live a more productive and healthier life. We cannot control everything that we will encounter in life; however, we can control how we react and ought to take responsibility for our emotional response.

It’s said that happiness in our lives depends on the quality of our thoughts. Our thoughts depend on our emotional awareness and ownership.

So, here is a process to think more positively and be emotionally aware of your approach.

– If you change the way you think, you will change the way you feel.

– If you change how you feel you will change your behavior.

– If your behavior changes, so do your actions!

– If you change your actions, you change your outcome!

Let’s be aware and be deliberate in taking ownership of our emotions as we step into this New Year that we are so blessed to be a part of. Let’s stay positive and optimistic in our internal and external dialogue with the knowledge that having this positive mindset has many health benefits, such as: boosts our energy; makes us feel confident; helps us to be emotionally resilient; wards of depression; improves our quality of sleep, and increases our life span.

Below is an interesting summary of emotional ownership vs. emotional neglect from The Holistic Psychologist.

“Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.”   Ephesians 4:31–32

“We cannot control everything that we will encounter in life; however, we can control how we react and ought to take responsibility for our emotional response.”