Negative Emotions and Their Impact on our Lives and Ways to Get Rid of Them
You deal more often with the various changes in your life in a defeatist way, and you believe that failure is the fate of every attempt you make. Also, you get angry quickly from situations that do not require all this emotion, and you are often sad, anxious, and frustrated.
In case you are, this means that your feelings bear the characteristic of negativity, and this is the bad news. As for the good news, despite the harshness and severity of these phrases, they can carry another face. Also, with a little wisdom, you can turn the equation around and make these negative feelings your way to achieve the best. To know more about negative feelings and their impact on your life and ways to get rid of them, keep reading.
What are negative emotions? And how do they affect us?
Negative emotions are natural feelings that do not necessarily mean something that we have to worry about, and your feeling of them does not at all indicate that you are a negative person and you should be ashamed of yourself and suppress your feelings. Feelings, whether negative or positive, are emotional responses to the events that we go through during our daily life.
These feelings may be a message to you, alerting you that your boat is sailing in the wrong direction. Although they are annoying, experiencing them and feeling them is necessary to adjust the way you are going and to motivate you to search for a better life.
It is possible, then, that these feelings, despite the bad form they appear to have, have a positive effect on our lives. Despite this, we cannot deny the bad effects of negative feelings, especially when we do not deal with them in the right way. Stress is one of the effects caused by negative emotions that make its owner often seem distracted, anxious, and uncomfortable, and this tension may cause many health problems in the future if it is left to worsen and is not remedied.
In addition, the anxieties of pain increase due to the accumulated negative feelings that have not been resolved yet. Also, the feeling of frustration and defeatism remains one of the worst thing that may result from negative feelings, so you find a negative person dealing with everything they go through in life and with any opportunity with excessive negativity that blinds them from seeing beauty. This naturally affects their professional, emotional, social, and family life.
It is worth noting that positive feelings, despite their many benefits, may sometimes lead to frustration as a result of the incompatibility of their optimistic view with the reality of life.
How do I deal with my negative emotions and get rid of them?
Most people believe that the best solution to get rid of negative emotions is to suppress them and not express them, and often the reason for this belief is the fear of people's view of them. In order to avoid labelling them negative, they avoid talking about their negative feelings and resort to what is called false positivity. It is an attempt to show positive feelings that do not exist, deny negative feelings, and force the self to pretend what it is not.
Unfortunately, suppressing feelings or trying to falsify them is not a solution. On the contrary, all that these solutions do is to make the situation worse, as these feelings and emotions come out at the wrong time and put us in embarrassing situations that are difficult to take over and control. It can also affect our health. Therefore, it is necessary to deal with negative emotions by following the following steps that can be included in what's called the concept of "management of negative emotions", which helps us deal with our negative emotions in the best way without avoiding, suppressing, or leaving them to ruin our lives.
1. Understanding yourself and determining your feelings:
In order to manage your feelings and organise your dealing with them, realise them first, acknowledge their existence, and determine their causes. Negative feelings do not arise in you without any reason. Search well for the real reason behind those feelings of yours, and define it accurately, then start the journey of treatment with confidence, and remember that every feeling you feel is a message for you that you must understand well.
Your anger is not created out of nowhere, your sadness is not a trivial and worthless feeling, and there are many reasons behind your negative feelings. It is possible that work pressure, personal problems, or family disputes are the unknown threads that move you and push your feelings towards negativity and pessimism.
We will not forget that the person themself, the way they deal with the surrounding circumstances, and their interpretation of events may be a subjective cause of stress and anxiety, so if we modify our way of thinking a little and change the angle from which we look, we may find that many feelings have changed.
2. Not giving up for reasons:
After you identify the reasons that filled yourself with negative feelings, look for a solution to change them, and do not give in to them. If the reason is work pressure, you should take a vacation to restore balance to your feelings, and if the reason is family pressures, find solutions to deal with problems in a more meaningful way. Don't turn around in the same place, as you have to restructure your knowledge; That is, changing the way you deal with the information and events that you go through in a way that helps to get rid of the negative feelings, stress, and anxiety that they cause you.
3. Find healthy ways to dump negative emotions:
As we mentioned above, negative emotions must come out from within you because locking them up and repressing them will be the cause of many other problems, but we also have to choose healthy outlets to get these feelings out.
For example, exercising has a major role in improving mood and getting rid of negative energy, and it is also possible to practise yoga and other relaxation exercises that give you the opportunity to meditate and think calmly to find the flaws in how you deal with and receive information and events and treat them.
4. Going out with friends:
Talking to them and laughing may also be a safe outlet for negative emotions, improving and adjusting mood.
5. Express your gratitude:
It may be one of the very important activities in your life that will help you empty many of the negative feelings that you feel and compensate for them with feelings of happiness, gratitude, and love. Most studies have indicated that the benefit that the giver of gratitude gets is greater than the one who receives it, and the positive feelings that it leaves in the same person extend for weeks. Imagine, for example, that you remember your teacher from elementary school with a message of gratitude, or that you thank your friend for always standing by your side.
Strategies for dealing with negative emotions:
Psychologists have developed a set of strategies and techniques that help us accept, manage, and deal with our negative emotions in a successful manner. These techniques are divided into two groups, which are "tears" and "meditation."
The "Tears" technique includes the following:
1. Social support:
With the aim of increasing feelings of love and sympathy among people, this helps improve social relationships, strengthen bonds, and increase a person's self-acceptance.
2. Express and empower your sensory experiences:
The future is open to all possibilities, so you have to be ready to accept any experience you might go through.
3. Change the angle you look from:
As mentioned above, the way you deal with the events you are going through can be a cause of your negative feelings. Therefore, you can work on adjusting your vision of things using cognitive behavioural therapy, which will absolutely help you accept and overcome the feelings you are going through.
4. Learning and education:
This happens by working to increase your awareness and knowledge of your body, your mind, and the way you respond to emotional states. This way, you will be able to understand the reasons behind your feelings and explain the upset and frustration you are going through.
The second group is “meditation,” and it includes:
- Work to make a psychological and behavioural change through relaxation exercises.
- Work and strive for achievements and reaching goals.
- Experiencing positive feelings has great positive effects, so focus on increasing your positive experiences, and remember the happy events you went through in order to achieve pleasure and mental health.
- Conscious meditation that enables you to consciously approach the various matters of life.
Are negative feelings always bad? Can they be used?
“Negative feelings are the key to mental health” is somewhat a shocking phrase, especially if we compare this sentence with the ideas circulated about negative feelings and the common view among people whose validity cannot be denied in a large part. As a result, according to what a psychiatrist confirmed, many people feel guilt and shame about their feelings and are ashamed to even express them. However, according to many recent studies, negative feelings are very important to our mental and psychological health.
“Acknowledging the complexity of life may be a successful way to achieve mental health,” said psychologist Jonathan Adler. Happiness, self-understanding, and personal growth are goals that cannot be truly achieved without facing life with all its complexities, problems, and its richness in what is negative and what is positive. Negative feelings are no less important than positive feelings, and both are very important for living life and feeling its importance and pleasure.
Negative feelings, as we mentioned above, can be considered as an alert message, an important sign, and evidence of the existence of something that requires attention, such as a toxic relationship, a health problem, disagreements that must be resolved and work pressure that it is time to reduce. If you find yourself sad, angry, and negative towards everything, look into the triggers of these feelings instead of exporting these feelings badly or suppressing them harmfully, so that our negative feelings become a way to improve our lives.
It is also important to keep in mind that if we try to neutralise negative emotions, our subconscious mind will continue to think about them. This idea was supported by a study conducted on a group of students at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, where they were asked to suppress their unwanted thoughts, and the result was the emergence of these thoughts in their dreams in a phenomenon called dream reversion, and the solution, then, is to transform our negative feelings into an incentive to achieve the best and improve life.
In conclusion:
Negative feelings, as it has become clear, are normal feelings that a person goes through during their life as a result of many factors and circumstances that they are exposed to. The problem is not in the feelings themselves, but the problem is in the way we deal with these feelings and how to direct them so that they become beneficial to us. Also, instead of pushing us back and being a reason for our failure, frustration, and living in the shadow of a black cloud, it becomes a motive for us to progress and achieve goals and change the road we walk in and the way we deal with our circumstances.
Always remember that the first step in treatment is realising the existence of these feelings and believing that nothing is constant in life and all the fatigue, sadness, anger, and resentment you feel now will fade away with time.