Author: Claus & Ingrid Dreyer
Controlling your impulses means taking charge of the reactions that originate from the impulses produced by our emotions. The best thing about having control of your impulses is having the ability to overpower your drives and gaining mastery over your actions.
What is impulsivity?
It is the tendency to react instantly to things without thinking of the negative outcome of the action. The main characteristic of impulsive individuals is that they fail to contemplate the possible consequences of what they have done. Another benefit of developing impulse control is that they can prevent themselves from having personality disorders, such as antisocial behavior and addictions.
The impulses of a person are created by his basic drives. People have the natural yearning for things that gives us enjoyment and comfort. These are entertainment, sexual pleasure, social superiority and interaction with other people. A very influential force within us makes us yearn for something, or makes us want to do a certain act. Pleasure is the ultimate reward when we succumb to our impulses. Our problem begins when we lose control of our drives, and let them gain control of our actions and thinking. One of the most common problems when it comes to drive is one’s tendency for eating too much. People who are slaves of their taste buds let their appetites control they way and the amount of food that they eat, thus resulting to unfortunate circumstances such as obesity.
Learning how to control impulses should start at childhood. Children need to learn when to enjoy themselves and when to stop. A child starts to develop his drives around the age of two. It further becomes enhance as he enters his adolescence and his teenage years. The older the children get, the stronger and the more complex his drives will become, and it will also become increasingly difficult to control them, as he grows older.
The ability to control impulses rests from a specific part of the brain, and its capabilities can be lessened when a person has a head injury, or he is into substance abuse.
The interesting thing is impulse control is considered part of temperament, or even a natural talent. There are children that are born with inferior impulse control compared to others, but they can overcome it if their parents train and teach them right.
There are parents that assume that controlling their child’s impulses can be accomplished effectively by punishment. They will mettle out punishments when the child stars to act difficult and uncontrollable. The thing is punishment is the worst kind of method to instill impulse control in children. Parents will more likely to experience difficulties if they happen to have a strong-willed and independent child. They are the ones who have poor impulse control, and they have the burning need to achieve dominance of the social hierarchy among the other kids.
Teaching children to have better willpower will gain them invaluable benefits in the future, such as eliminating signs of negative traits like addiction and self-destruction for their personalities. With this in mind, the child learns how to put balance and order early in life, and not let unimportant matters take over his life as a whole. He can prevent himself from becoming too emotional, a trait generally considered as a weakness. He will learn to think before he speak and act.
Further, the child will become less needy and will learn to solve problems on his own. He will learn how to distance himself from matters that he should not delve into. He can detach himself mentally and emotionally in order not to be stressed out.
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