How to Deal with Negative Emotions
A short practical method that works.
Emotions are a natural part of human nature. Daily, we have a series of emotions that journey through our minds, as we navigate each passage of time. The feelings we experience may range from positive to negative, depending on several factors such as how the day unfolds, our connection with ourselves, as well as the emotions we have nurtured (or are still nurturing), consciously or subconsciously.
Through the bustle of the day, we may be unable to be internally inclined with certain emotions we feel inside of us. Some emotions may be made small, others may be suppressed consciously or subconsciously, and several emotions may be highlighted in our conscious minds based on our understanding of the emotions we feel, how we choose to see emotions, societal expectations, and our experiences with emotions from childhood.
We feel much more than we consciously realise in our everyday lives. We can feel angry, bored, happy, scared, confident, shameful, sad, hateful, jealous, resentful, joyful, insecure, anxious, embarrassed, loving and envious, among others. However, the negative emotions we feel may later turn into some challenging psychological issues, depending on our relationship with them; If we spend time to process some of them, or if we refuse or find it hard to feel any of them in a healthy way.
As emotions pass through our minds every day, they send a message, showing us that something is happening to us. Something normal but different, worthy of recognition. Trying to point us towards where the root of the emotion is. (Or a perceived root)
We may not get the chance to listen to these emotions, so they stay for a while, quietly lingering through our minds till we get to experience the same or similar emotions again. or even throbbing through for us to notice them.
Our experience with the emotions we feel shapes how we handle and manage them. For example, feeling happy may be a socially acceptable thing and can be welcoming, rather than feeling insecure. Which makes us handle both happiness and insecurity rather differently.
We may be more open to express our joy and excitement, than shame and insecurities.
We may push these negative emotions to the side, to appear happy. But these negative emotions are also part of our being. They are also journeying through the passage of our time.
How do we handle the negative emotions?
We are humans.
The emotions we feel are a natural part of ourselves, we do not necessarily need to dwell on every single emotion we feel, and we do not need to process every emotion we get to feel or find out the root cause of all the emotions that pass through us. We can just let some emotions run their course and leave on their own.
However, having emotions that are not addressed and left to linger for long can often lead to critical psychological ills, that may affect our lives as well as our relation with other people.
We can however learn to be emotionally inclined with ourselves, to be in tune with the emotions we feel.
How can we do that?
At a convenient time in the evening, at the end of the day when we have done our daily tasks at work or home and are resting, we can go to a quiet place, seated and alone, with our eyes closed, and ask ourselves in curiosity and honesty, “How am I feeling, right now?”
We may not immediately find out how we feel, as it may take some time of 10 to 20 minutes deep concentration with free and exploratory wander for us, through shuffles of different emotions, to pinpoint exactly the emotions that we feel; how we have felt throughout the day.
What do we do when we find out how we feel?
We may have not given ourselves the room to feel these emotions, and they may have set us back and become inflated in different ways, depending on the emotion, and the hurt they carry.
We can simply just acknowledge that we feel these emotions and can give them a listening ear, finding out why we feel the way we feel. showing ourselves — and admitting that we need — empathy, compassion and a little bit of stroking. Treating and helping ourselves like we would, to a friend in need.
We can, despite how difficult and scary these emotions can be, learn not to be hard on ourselves or push our emotions aside like they do not matter. But to embrace them, and work our way through feeling them, and navigating through. We spend the majority of our time with ourselves, we can as well learn to do ourselves the honour of taking care of our minds, to feel safe and reliant on ourselves.
When we have a mental note of how we feel, in processing any emotion, we can ask ourselves follow-up questions like:
- Why do I feel this way?
- Why did that make me feel this way?
- How can I change how I react to situations like this?
- How can I manage and care for myself as I feel this way, and if it happens again?
Ultimately, we do not have to address all emotions, but we have to know that some emotions may need a little bit more attention from us, to have us process them, and live a more functional and emotionally healthy life.
This is to help us navigate through our minds and daily life. To become more self-aware of the things that cause us to feel negatively, and be more open to embracing and working our way through them.
The result? We begin to feel more at peace with ourselves. Being aware of the true emotions we feel. That we may just be unhappy, instead of our initial perception of, maybe, hatred or anger, or that we are just sad and not depressed or that we may be anxious and not irritable. We get to see and understand our emotions more clearly and adjust in accordance.
If you have read up to this point, how do you feel right now? If you’re comfortable to share, I’d love to hear from you.
Thank you for taking out time to read through.
🍂
