How to Avoid Negative Feelings
The primary cause of bad moods is an unattuned attitude to your feelings in the day-to-day experience of living. In other words, you're not paying attention to your feelings as you go through life. Here is what you can do to prevent bad moods.
- Tune into physical body sensations: If after an event or interaction or email, you feel your heartbeat faster, your stomach sink, or your thoughts racing, these are signals that you need to slow down and go inward. Gently note your physical sensations without judgment: “Heart beating fast, stomach sinking….”
- Ask yourself this question: What is my body communicating to me? Likely something happened in your environment or thought came to mind that is bothering you.
- Invite in what is upsetting you: The way your co-worker spoke to you, your mom’s criticism of your work, your dog’s hyperactivity: No matter how mundane or trivial the trigger appears to you, do not negate it. Invite your upset into your awareness. Make it know you see it.
- Validate yourself: Literally, make sense of your feelings. Find a reason why what you feel makes sense. There’s always something true in our emotions.
- Soothe the emotion: Find a few phrases that make this part of yourself feel better—“These feelings will pass”; “This was only one moment in time; there will be other opportunities to prove myself”; “I am doing the best I can”; or, simply, “It’s OK to feel this way. I see you and I am here for you.”
- Take behavioral action: What can you do that will help you to feel better? You can talk to a friend, journal, or exercise, or maybe you just need to eat or sleep. Sometimes the best action to take is to accept the feelings and the situation as it is and turn it over to the universe, accepting that you only have so much control.
What I have learned from the article.
- People often do not realize why their moods got worse.
- Feeling powerless to change the situation keeps people from changing.
- Emotional blindsides are far less likely when you have an awareness of what you are feeling.
Read the full article here.
💬 What are strategies you use to regulate bad moods?
#negativity #mood
@globalBraid3744
@globalBraid3744
Hi
Thank you for bring up the topic about emotion control. We are all humans, and humans have emotions. When we are happy, we laugh; when we are sad, we cry; when we are mad, we might do things that we later regret. Just like everything has a back side, there are positive and negative emotions. Then there is the question of how to deal with those negative emotions that we don't want. Firstly, we need to be aware that some emotions that you think is negative might be beneficial. For example, crying. When you cry, you express yourself instead of keeping it inside, which overtime may cause depression. Even though we can not control ourselves from having negative emotions, we can control ourselves from things that we will regret doing. I like to say to myself, "Is this what you want? Will things get better just by doing this?" I ask myself what is the best thing to do and calm myself down. Another way I use to control my emotion is by listening to music. I like to be immersed in the world of music. You might do other things you like to keep yourself away from negative thoughts. Lastly, there are people who care about you. Things will get better. Always have hope, be happy everyday and enjoy every moment.
@yuniazhang
Hey, thank you so much for your insightful answer! It is so encouraging! I think it is indeed important to realize that even negative emotions can be helpful because they give us valuable information and sometimes help us cope. Music is so powerful, I feel. I also like listening to music and it always helps me feel better.
How to avoid negative feelings? It's simple. Just stop distinguishing and splitting what's positive and what's negative all the time. Eventually, you will get calm down. Overdoing anything spills.
@SoulPitstop
I completely agree with you. I think that it can be very helpful when we stop categorizing everything and instead take it as it comes.
@globalBraid3744 Wonderful article! I usually deal with bad moods by first acknowledging my feelings and crying. Crying usually calms me down enough to get on with my day.
@comfortableNight4463
I can relate! I also cry a lot. When I feel overwhelmed with emotions, then crying helps me to release them.