Negative thoughts and emotions are considered as “bad” and “toxic” things that humans endure although they are totally natural processes that complement us as human beings. Avoiding your own negative emotions can be really detrimental to your mental health because you are not giving yourself the space and time needed to process these emotions. Not to mention that not knowing how to control these negative emotions will lead to them controlling you, which can also be a huge contributor to developing a certain mental illness. Also, over the course of their childhood, many people grew up in unhealthy environments that rendered them unable to express their negative emotions. As a result, those people may suffer from utter anger issues since they have been fixated on this problem throughout their childhood. Sometimes, some individuals try to distract themselves from these negative emotions by surrounding themselves with people, using drugs, or getting into an unhealthy relationship. These so-called coping mechanisms deteriorate the situation at hand as those mechanisms hinder the ability of a person to understand their current emotions.
Managing Your Negative Emotions
The phrase “managing your emotions” is quite a complex one to comprehend. The word “manage” can imply multiple things. However, managing your emotions absolutely does not equate avoiding your emotions as stated previously. It also does not mean allowing these emotions to blow out of proportion as that will cause potential mayhem to your life. Unmanaged anger or numbness may cause destruction to prominent relationships that we value a lot. Subsequently, managing your negative emotions means embracing them and trying to understand the reason behind them. It means allowing ourselves to recognize the implications of these emotions before getting over them. Another important aspect to mention is that your negative emotions should not win over you – as in they should not grow as a bubble over you. These emotions should not dictate the entirety of your days since that would create a cycle that you yourself cannot escape. Furthermore, acceptance plays a major role in managing your emotions. You should try to accept the fact that it is okay not to be okay and that feeling negative emotions is as valid as feeling the positive ones.
The Effect of Negative Emotions on Us
There is a plethora of effects that negative emotions have on us, but here are some of the major ones:
- They cause stress: This effect is a very palpable and clear one. A negative emotional state can cause an excessive amount of stress, which takes a huge toll on our mental health. Feeling stressed is a natural thing. However, the ones that deny their negative emotions endure a very high amount of stress that can be overwhelming to the person.
- They provide significant information: The negative emotions one is feeling are not there to only make them feel uncomfortable. They are usually there to send a message to the person that their wellbeing is at risk. Feelings of anger and anxiety can tell us that a change needs to occur in order for our mental health to stabilize again. They act as a fire alarm for your brain.
The Negative Effect of Positive Emotions
Being positive and optimistic has so many benefits such as high self-esteem, success, and triumph. However, optimism should not always be glamorized. Unchecked optimism can make you set very high expectations and completely disregard the negative aspects of some situations. In that case, when your expectations are not met, you would feel very discouraged to the extent where you would not want to set any more expectations.