Dealing with the Negative Emotions of Lifing
Happiness is AWESOME, it ROCKS! No other feeling compares to it- right?! We have wonderous hormones racing through your body. Sometimes you feel like you’re bur-sting at the seams (think of a new love interest). Being happy is good for your soul and your body. Happiness has many health benefits as well; reduces stress, boosts your heart health and can lead to better immune functioning. Who doesn’t want to be happy? Said no one ever!
People chase happiness like it’s this elusive feeling that only an object or a destination can bring. Happiness is around you all day! You can enjoy happiness everyday by participating in things that make you happy. But how would we know happiness if we never experienced everyday challenges. Should we try to avoid anxiety, fear, sadness or anger. Of course not! These feelings are meant to be experienced. It’s call living your life (lifing). Sometimes in living our lives we want to retreat for the hills- GET ME OUT OF HERE. Life can be hard at times, debilitating for some and chaotic for others. But those negative emotions, just as positive emotions, are signals. When you experience a negative emotion take pause and examine what’s causing it and know the feeling will pass. Will it pass in 5 minutes- maybe. But if you have experienced a death of a loved one, devasting news, or job loss it is warranted that the negative emotion may stick around for a while. Our feelings can be mixed on any given day. We may feel happy, an ounce of gratitude and dollop of anger. This is perfectly normal. The best we can do is to learn how to navigate the negative emotions we do feel in a healthy manner. Now you may be asking yourself “what the hell does this mean?”. Let’s start with what it doesn’t mean. There have been times when I have experienced a negative emotion and my answer to that negative emotion was a bit of retail therapy. The magnitude of that retail therapy was based on the extent of that negative emotion. This is not a healthy way to deal with negative emotions and will leave you broke and penniless. Other unhealthy ways in dealing with negative emotions; drinking (alcohol of course), overeating, lashing out at others (there are others but I’m sure you get the gist). BTW these are all distractions from dealing with the emotion.
So how does one go about dealing with negative emotions in a healthy way? You acknowledge and accept them. Now, when I experienced a negative emotion, I acknowledge the emotion and tell myself it will pass, because it always does. Does that mean a retail therapy spell isn’t cast upon me at times. Nope. I still deal with this but not as often; it happens once in a blue moon. But for the most part I’m able to deal with my negative emotions in a much healthier way and my mind couldn’t be more grateful because of it. I do the same with my positive emotions. I equally acknowledge and accept them and notice what is causing my happiness (because I might want to return to said item to experience more happiness).
We don’t welcome anger, fear or sadness with an open invitation, but life happens, and things happen where we will experience these emotions. KNOWING that these feeling are inevitable and finding strategic ways to cope with them helps us with this thing called lifing.
Give voice to your thoughts below!
