RESOLVING A PAST CONFLICT
You have no control over a primary emotion, developed in the past, when it is triggered. It doesn’t do any good to feel guilty about something over which you have no control. But you can seek to resolve the past conflict and you can immediately evaluate the present circumstance to bring it into perspective. For example, suppose you meet a man named Bill. He looks like the Bill who used to beat you up as a child. Even though he’s not the same person, your primary emotion initially jumps to a 8 on a scale of 10. But you mentally tell yourself that this is not the same Bill, and you think yourself down to a 2. You have not only used this process yourself thousands of times, but you have also helped others do it. Someone flies off the handle, so you grab him and tell him to get hold of himself. You are helping that person gain control of himself by making him think. Notice how this works the next time you’re watching a football game and tempers explode on the field. One player grabs an