[mhotchen]

There are many paths to overcoming this; none of them easy. I'm finding a lot of help in Martial Arts and Eastern Philosophy. Acknowledge thoughts and emotions, understand them, but don't hold on to them deeply. It's a hard skill to acquire, harder still to master

[worldsayshi]

This echoes my feelings as well. One idea that I feel has helped is: You don't need to take an impulse seriously if it's not helpful.

Often we amplify a thought by thinking that it is important to us. Fair enough. But is thinking that thought helpful to our behaviour or happiness?

It's hard to directly control our emotional impulses but we can tweak their impact ever so slightly by, as you said, observing them.