Negative emotion is an unpleasant or unhappy emotion evoked in individuals to express a negative effect toward an event or person. Negative emotions — like sadness, anger, loneliness, jealousy, self-criticism, fear, or rejection — can sometimes be tricky or even painful. They are impossible to avoid, though. They aren’t necessarily good or bad; they are just states and signals that allow us to pay more attention to the events that create them. Everyone feels them from time to time. They may be difficult, but we can learn to handle them. However, if they are ever-present or occur too frequently, that could be a problem.
What causes Negative Emotions?
Various things can trigger negative emotions. Sometimes they are the result of specific experiences or events. It could be anxiety due to something you are eagerly anticipating. It could be anger due to being disappointed by someone or being stressed. It could be sadness or grief because a friend or relative has passed away. Many different experiences in our lives will incite different emotional reactions. It can be short-term reactions to the events in your life, or they may stem from other underlying issues, including unmet needs, relationship problems, or poor coping skills.
The Effect of Negative Emotions on Our Health
Your thoughts and emotions can affect your health. Your body responds to the way you think, feel, and act. Your body reacts physically when stressed, anxious, or upset. That is why a heartbreak can cause pain in your chest, or you could develop high blood pressure or a stomach ulcer after a stressful event like the death of a loved one. Also, poor emotional health can weaken your immune system and make you susceptible to illness and times when you’re emotionally weak. You may not feel like exercising, eating nutritious foods, or taking your doctor’s prescribed medicine. You may abuse alcohol, tobacco, or other drugs.
How to Cope with Negative Emotions
Negative emotions put us on alert. When handled well, negative emotions can have proven benefits for our well-being. They alert us that challenges or new stimuli require our more focused attention. For example, sadness sends us the alert that something is not right and asks us to turn our attention to why this may be, what might be causing it, and what we need to do to fix it; anger encourages you to reflect on why someone might be behaving a certain way, and what you can do to restore peace. Therefore, managing negative emotions is learning from how you feel and using it as the right motivation. There are three steps you can take:
Identify the Emotion
Recognize and acknowledge your negative emotions. Take them as common human reactions. Try to identify the source of your feelings. Try to understand why you feel the way you do. You might not want to broadcast your feelings to other people. But don’t suppress your feelings entirely. Simply naming the surface is much much better than pretending not to have it — or exploding without thinking.
Take Action
Dealing with negative emotions inappropriately can be harmful; you could get angry and become suicidal or get someone injured. Therefore, coping is very important. There are several coping strategies to deal with negative emotions. These include:
- Relax – use pleasant activities like reading, walking or talking to a friend.
- Learn – notice how grief, loss and anger make you feel and which events trigger those feelings so you can prepare in advance.
- Learn how to change your mood. At a certain point, you’ll want to shift from a negative mindset into a positive one.
- Exercise – aerobic activity lowers your level of stress chemicals and allows you to cope better with negative emotions.
- Let go of the past – constantly going over adverse events robs you of the present and makes you feel bad.
- Expressing gratitude to people who have done kind things for you can make you feel positive.
Get Help When Necessary
If you find yourself stuck in sadness or worry for more than a couple of weeks, or if you feel so upset that you think you might hurt yourself or other people, you may need extra help. First, talk to a counsellor or therapist. Counsellors and therapists are trained to teach people to break out negative emotions. In addition, they can provide many tips and ideas to help you feel better.
