Simple Ways to Control Over Negative Emotions

“All I have are negative emotions, but you don’t listen anyway,” Arthur Fleck, a.k.a. Joker, voiced to his mental health therapist in the movie, Joker.

Nobody has a natural affinity for negative emotions. People rarely want to be associated or deal with persons that exude negative emotions. So, how is it that people still feel, have, or deal with negative emotions?

What, even, is a negative emotion?

In a simple term, negative emotion is a strong, unpleasant feeling towards or evoked by the outcome of an event or object. It doesn’t matter whether the event or object is positive or negative – negative emotions are bad emotions because the reaction to the outcome of an event or object is negative.

For example, sadness over losing a loved one is a negative feeling to an adverse event. Being afraid of losing, or of harnessing, one’s natural gifts or talents is a negative emotion to a buoyant object. Whichever form it is, negative feelings require an emotional outlet to escape—and that is usually the human mind.

It is not abnormal if one experiences negative emotions sometimes, as in the first example, from an event beyond one’s control. But to avoid extreme cases of, for example, one committing suicide or living in despair because of a negative outcome of an event, one needs to learn to handle one’s emotions.

We would be sharing below tips on how to can control negative emotions.

Talk To Someone

This may be difficult to do, especially when one is experiencing negative feelings like shame, guilt, or embarrassment, but it is one of the best first steps to avoid causing a storm inside oneself. Having to talk to someone you can trust has the therapeutic effect of relieving your mind of negative thoughts. And while it is not popularly interesting to do, listening to someone trying to handle their emotions subjects our own negative emotions to self-evaluation; we would learn if we are managing our feelings the right or the wrong way.

Practise Self-evaluation

Sometimes, our negative emotions result from our bad judgement about a matter or an object, and anger is the most implicated negative emotion in this case. In your quiet time, when you are more aware of yourself, try to objectively analyse the situation again. Try to see if there is reason to be angry or you were simply over-reacting. The benefit of this practice is that it helps you to deal with negative emotions when you have all the facts righ. Thus saving you or the people around you from feeling negative at the outset of the negative outcome.

Get Busy

How much are you willing to allow your bad emotions to ruin your day when you have, say, a deadline to meet at work? If your toddler, for instance, again, is hungry and you have to fix up a meal for him or her, would you still let your negative feelings take away your responsibility tot he child? While you may not be entirely productive as you ought to, getting busy with something, perhaps your job, a task, an activity, can help you process negative feelings at a slower rate than if you were idle. Remember, an idle mind is the devil’s workshop!

Acceptance

There is no such thing as lying to oneself, but if that happens, then it means one is delusional. Sadness from the loss of a loved one, dealing with feelings of embarrassment or guilt can be difficult if one has not accepted that the events or objects that led to these negative emotions cannot be changed. Acceptance is also about recognizing that one truly cannot be free until one is free to make mistakes. When mistakes happen, instead of feeling pessimistic, one should accept them and the consequences that come with them and move on.

Rejection

Not all things are helpful. Having or listening to some conversations are triggers for negative emotions. Not choosing to have some conversations, too, is another trigger. Reject any action or alternative that chains your mind into feelings of negativity. Instead of sitting with your classmates/colleagues and whine about a low score/grade. Choose to have a conversation with your teacher or boss. Reject the urge to assume things you are not clear about; try to seek solutions or answers to every negative outcome of an event or object within your control.