📹 How to Deal with Negative Emotions: Daily Proven Techniques
An unexpected and troublesome feature of being human is that we feel so much more than we spontaneously realise we feel.
Why are negative emotions so powerful?
Negative information stimulates a critical information processing area in the brain, influencing our behaviors and attitudes more strongly. Although our brains no longer require constant alertness, the negativity bias still plays a significant role in our thinking, response, and feelings. The effects of this bias can be felt in relationships, decision-making, and perception of people. Research shows that negative bias can have a wide range of effects on our everyday lives.
Do negative experiences help the creative process?
Negative emotions like worry, anxiety, and frustration can boost creativity by focusing the mind and making you more critical, leading to better outcomes. LBS Online offers various degrees, including Masters, Executive Education, PhD, and more. The site also provides information on news, events, recruiters, jobs, publishing, and more. To create a profile, users can enter a keyword and log in.
What negative attitude blocks creativity?
Stress, chaotic environments, restrictive routines, and beliefs can all hinder creativity. Stress drains energy and can negatively impact health and concentration. Chaotic environments can be toxic or combative, while restrictive routines can limit the range of responses and solutions in problem-solving. This can lead to a bureaucratic mind, which is committed to adherence to rules and set patterns.
Beliefs can also limit our response options and the way we perceive and process information from the outside world. We may filter out contradictory information and end up in a limited reality tunnel. Strong beliefs are meant to be tested and revised according to new information, but it is essential to be aware of their limitations.
Fear can also severely limit creativity, as it can lead to fear of self-expression or judgment from others. Physical fear can also limit responses, imaginings, risk-taking behaviors, and production. Self-criticism and self-doubt can also be limiting factors to creativity.
The ego, or one’s perception of self, can be overly active and inhibit exploration or personal growth. An inflated ego may cause individuals to become stuck in past glories or produce tired permutations of the same thing over and over again. Negative people can greatly undermine creativity by constantly telling us that we cannot do something or that we are failures. While praise is nice, it is crucial not to surround ourselves with sycophants who constantly inflate our egos.
Functional fixity refers to the cognitive inability to look past the designated function of an object or idea. This cognitive bias prevents people from seeing beyond the initial or designated function of an item, term, or concept. The term first emerged as functional fixedness and came from Gestalt Psychology, emphasizing wholeness.
In summary, stress, chaotic environments, restrictive routines, beliefs, fear, self-criticism, and functional fixity can all hinder creativity. It is essential to recognize and address these barriers to foster creativity and personal growth.
How does negativity affect creativity?
Researchers have suggested that negative mood can enhance creativity by promoting originality and flexibility. This could be achieved by generating powerful thinking and strengthening perseverance. Creativity is a significant field, particularly in arts, science, and engineering. However, our ability to control creativity is not always consistent, especially in the face of sudden changes. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused widespread panic and anxiety among the public.
The study aimed to investigate the positive role of negative mood on creativity, revealing an opportunity in the crisis of the COVID-19 epidemic. The outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020 had a significant impact on society and individuals, causing widespread negative moods such as anxiety, anger, helplessness, and panic. A study on Sina Weibo, a widely used Chinese social media site, revealed that negative moods increased, happiness decreased, and sensitivity to social risks increased among the general public after the National Health Commission defined COVID-19.
However, the study also aimed to investigate the positive effect of negative mood on two areas of creativity: cognitive creativity and emotional creativity. The negative moods experienced during the pandemic could have a positive effect on creativity by promoting the development of strong thinking and perseverance.
What is the connection between mood and creativity?
The field of psychology has demonstrated that positive emotions facilitate creativity by prompting individuals to engage in the exploration of novel ideas and perspectives. Conversely, negative emotions have been shown to impede creativity by narrowing one’s perspective and limiting cognitive flexibility.
What are the benefits of negative experiences?
Negative experiences can enhance meaning in life by inducing comprehension, a pillar of meaning. Comprehension converts disparate pieces into coherent, self-relevant wholes, offering rich theoretical insights. This difference in meaning in life from feeling good can provide rich theoretical insights. Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B. V., its licensors, and contributors. All rights reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.
How positive emotions enhance creativity?
The broaden-and-build theory posits that positive emotions facilitate cognitive and behavioral capabilities, thereby enabling the exploration of novel possibilities, the formation of social connections, and the enhancement of strengths. Additionally, it purports that positive affect serves to mitigate the adverse effects of stress, anxiety, and fear.
Does creativity come from sadness?
Studies show that individuals with depression are more creative than those without the condition, as depression can lead to a change in perspective and new ideas. Despite the stigma surrounding depression, artists play a crucial role in spreading awareness and promoting understanding. Their visual representation of personal stories helps others with similar struggles feel seen. Art therapy has gained more recognition, as it allows patients recovering from major depressive disorders to express their feelings without words, serving as a mirror to their inner state and helping them understand their experiences. Additionally, creative work helps patients distract from worries and intrusive thoughts.
Why are negative experiences so memorable?
Memory centers are stimulated by various brain structures and neuronal pathways, with the amygdala being particularly important for memories of emotionally charged experiences, particularly those that evoke fear. This is because recalling fearful events is crucial for survival. However, bad memories can be psychologically debilitating, as seen in war veterans experiencing flashbacks of combat zones upon returning to civilian life.
Strong memories can have an emotional impact that can be more pervasive, even causing physical symptoms, especially when it comes to traumatic events. Some people re-experience traumatizing memories for years after the event, causing a biological response such as heart palpitations and shortness of breath.
What are the benefits of releasing negative emotions?
Mindset coaching is a powerful tool for personal growth and self-improvement. It helps individuals become more aware of their thoughts and feelings, and develop new ways of thinking and behaving. This practice, which involves being fully aware and present in the moment, can lead to numerous health benefits, including reduced stress levels and anxiety. Mindset coaching can be beneficial for individuals who are not necessarily seeking professional help.
By letting go of negative emotions, individuals can free themselves from the burden of stress and anxiety, resulting in a healthier mind and body. Mindfulness, the practice of being fully aware and present, can be used to create more positivity in one’s life.
📹 TUNING FORKS CRYSTAL BOWLS – SACRAL CHAKRA – RELEASE NEGATIVE EMOTIONS INCREASE CREATIVITY
Sound Healing music for the Sacral Chakra with Tuning Forks and Crystal Bowls, to release negative emotions and to enhance …
I love the illustration of how we process the good emotions that we experience throughout our lives, but get stuck with the negative ones we dont know how to process, perhaps to the point that we cannot handle any new emotions, causing us to mislead ourselves in to believing that negative emotions are all we have. Emotions dont necessarily reflect reality, and I think it is the sadly common notion that we should regard our emotions as incapable of deception. Dont seek to bend reality because you feel a certain way. Certainly don’t be too rigid with them either, but seek to find that flexible middle. Thank you School of Life for helping put words to important lessons too often left to chance or “don’t worry, it’ll come to you naturally”.
Brilliant and profound. Rather than proceed from a philosophical position such as, say, “I think therefore I am,” human beings would be much better served to operate from emotional/sensory position: “I feel therefore I am.” My therapist claims that Dr. Van der Kolk’s book, The Body Keeps the Score, quite literally “changed the world” of psychology and psychiatry. It is just taking time (more than a decade) for people to catch up with all that it means and exactly what to do about that. The idea that the “voice in our heads” which we think of as “us” could be at odds with the apparatus in which the brain is “housed” is truly astounding. I don’t know much for certain, but I am pretty sure that in ANY contest between the voice in the head and the body, the body will win every single time. The body registers and responds to sights, sounds, smells, etc. that the “mind” does not even notice…until too late. The body’s primary objective is to survive to see another day, even if the existence that the individual is “enjoying” is bleak. The body is an elegant machine and is also a system of which the brain is only one part. You guys and gals laid all of that out very well. Thank you. : )
“Mental unwellness is born out of an accumulation of unfelt feelings.” So many people need to hear, read, and know this! A big majority of the people I know go through life without feeling the tough feelings, thinking ignoring the feelings that make you feel pain are just going to go away. No, they stay in us, constantly replicating and reproducing in unrelated interactions with people who did not cause us the hurt to begin with.
I don’t think it is healthy and helpful to separate our emotions in this 2 category- positive and negative. When we say something is negative then we give bad connotation, not normal. All emotions are important. It is healthy to feel all the emotions. Let’s give ourselves the permission to feel. And maybe instead of “negative” and “positive”, we can say comfortable and uncomfortable emotions 🤓🤷🏻♀️
Such a right timing as usual. Growing up in an Asian upbringing setting, having mental illnesses is considered such a face-losing taboo, therefore we neglect it most of our lives. One of the most embarrassing panic attacks ever happened to me was in the end of a first date, which of course made all the charming evaporate in the guy’s eyes. I decided to ask for help from a psychologist. I frantically talked to him in a crisis, that I was scared of becoming sb with mental problems, that I would end up hurting people because maybe I had some covert narcissism that I even wasn’t aware of. I returned home waiting for the first therapy. By the meantime, I decided to read more, started to write a lot of stuff down: asking questions of what triggered me, what happened to me in the past, are those events justifiable. I left some unanswered either. I classified the emotions, gave them names, turned the emotions into some logic maps to argue with my mind. One week later I came to talk with the psychologist again and somehow all the harsh feelings of self-hatred were gone. “Mental unwellness is born out of an accumulation of unfelt feelings’. He claimed that I got nothing, that panic attacks happen also to mentally strong people and flashbacks of memories or traumas are not a part of my ID, not my personalities at all. That how quickly I turned from sb in mental breakdown to sb who looked calm and started to be more articulate is proof that we actually have all the answers and needed emotions in our head.
EFT (emotional freedom technique) tapping and meditation has helped me immensely with getting to the root of my negative emotions. therapy helps of course, but incorporating these self-healing rituals has reminded me that i have autonomy, sovereignty, and agency when it comes to shaping my destiny. thank you School of Life for another soul enriching article!
I love these articles and the community whose comments are so rich(and sometimes challenging;) Two commenters (so far) have made note of the last sentence which went passed me without my noticing. It didn’t land because this is how i have been and will continue to spend my early retirement. I am so privileged to get to see what emerges as i gently probe the darker corners of my psyche ❤🎉❤
So I turned to my inner child and I harshly said “Listen…” at that moment. I regretted it, then, instead of being like all the adults had been around her. I asked her “What are you holding inside?”. She burst out crying and she cried and cried and cried. No, she wailed, like the child she was. Such a brave strong little girl, holding emotions that were way too big for her body so she built a barrier: A body that could hold them. A body that has been holding them since. All because no one had asked her how she felt.
This article has a perfect timing ! I was feeling very bad today because all of my closest friend forgot my birthday for the first time and I’m doing my best to handle my emotions in order to put words about my feeling. Yes, I know it can sound childish. P.s. sorry for the bad english, it is not my native langage.
Intriguing article. I wish to contribute an additional insight for those dedicated individuals who are willing to allocate 15 minutes each day to navigate through their emotions. It is imperative not to shy away from the prospect of re-experiencing the traumas that may have been inflicted due to past incidents. Instead, summon your inner strength and fortitude, allowing your mind to meticulously unravel the intricate tapestry of the traumatic incident. In doing so, one can embark on a journey of profound self-discovery and resilience.
Really fucked up last night. Suddenly felt little bit mad, anxious, and sad but i didn’t know where was it coming from. Why or even what was going on with me. I let my hands move by itself, writing but all i did just wrote despondent things. I kept doing it for an hour, writing and writing. Didn’t have time to digest what i truly feel and suddenly i am tired and go to sleep. I do think i ignore my feeling, the unwanted one bcs it’s too painful if i bringing up that feeling into daily life. My life is sucks enough, so i thought being emotional gotta make my day even worst. To let me untied all those feelings in rl made me scared I’ll become fragile even more. Woke up on the evening, i watched this article, (yesterday i saw tsol updated but not watched it straight away), made me realize that I should stop my activity even my mind for little bit to asked myself what am i feeling today and why i feel anxious than just wrote all the emotion without being present and conscious.
Scientists are starting to see clearer bio markers with serious mental illness such as schizophrenia and bipolar. It’s a great relief for people who have mental illness and their families, and enough to keep them going sometimes in the face of so much ignorance. Hopefully it will lead to better treatments for people.
If the whole world could just see your article. Or one from Alan Watts. Or one, oh wait I forgot he didn’t make articles, I meant to say Jesus. Or Buda. Or that one, you know, What-ever’s-his-name. But you know, don’t be sorry obout that. It will hapen, or not. Whatever. Thank you for this article, you beautifull person, as my therapist uses to say
I wish I had the mental stability to overcome things in my life like I used to. Trauma has killed my ability to trive and trust. I wish I could internalize feelings onto myself with punishing myself instead of picking the outside world apart. Life felt safer then. Still within my ability to control. That part of me vanished from how cruelly I’ve been treated and how long this pain has lasted. “It’s not me that needs to change its the world” I want to grow but why when things are this hopeless? Why when my own sure coping mechanisms weren’t even enough to help me grow? How am I supposed to come out the other end as me? People say trust the process? Well, what process? Hope is fleeting and the cruelty of it has killed the soldier in me.
Lack of self-awareness: Emotions provide valuable information about our inner experiences, needs, and desires. When we ignore or suppress our emotions, we deny ourselves the opportunity to explore and understand these aspects of ourselves. Without acknowledging and examining our emotions, we may be unaware of our true thoughts, beliefs, and motivations. Difficulty in identifying patterns: Emotions often follow.☺
As I said so many times in so many articles of the website before. This is ehat I needed today. Specifically today becaise it validates what I just did. I’ve just written un my “electronic diary” hoe guilty I feel in front of the idea of becoming more succesful and happy than my mother and sibblings. It is so much easy to ackowledge our fear of failure and not accomplishing our dreams, than it is to ackowledge that you might actually fear accomplishing what you dream because it might hurt the feelings of those you love! Edit:…and it is inly when you actually facethe possibility of accomplishing that what you longed for that you can see that your greater anxiety is not to fail at it but rather to succeed! All the time you spend procrastinating it does not provide clarity on the real reason for procrastination.
The troublesome anticipation of crappiness wasn’t what happened today. Rather, it was absolutely drowning. Such a critical and “means a lot” scenario I had to ace & the force of nature diverted it, making it all untimely experience I would never forget. And this article, just like 2 other posts before this, are in the +ve direction but the “but” of being a human sucks until he/she gets the overall outcome that’d be taking a month from now (sighs).
A simple concept of feel the feeling is so under rated in today’s time, no one gives it full importance that it deserves in the rat race and speeding time, our body is full of stuck emotions, feelings and energies that makes us sick. Sometime stored traumas may be inter-generational trauma is there in the body. The best is not waste much time to look for the reason for these feelings, simply feel them fully in each inch of your body and embrace it be accepting of it, acknowledge it and talk to it, tell them that you may be part of me, and I have no problems in coming to you and sit with you many times. The whole world is pursuing happiness feelings, and in the backyard dumping all red flag feeling and they do not go away from backyard they haunt us and then we are clueless why I am feeling sad.
An unexamined life is not worth living. Yes, it is certainly a good thing to go to a quiet place and analyze the negative emotions and experiences that we feel throughout the day. Despite that, I am somewhat doubtful that only negative feelings that are unfelt cause a real strain and mental breakdown. I see the stressful life in general as a culprit and it doesn’t matter whether we feel negative emotions or not. Self-examination may be a key and probably can change our state of mind very effectively if we try to remember positive emotions and balance our negative experiences with those. There can also be another remedy to this – the company of loved ones, with whom you may share all your positive feelings and receive unconditional love. So the accent on positive emotions and an active, fulfilling social life may be the key in dealing with unfelt feelings or stress in general.
but how do we devote ONLY 10 or 20 minutes to this process? This seems like a very practical method, but personally, I feel as though it would be tough for me to only devote 20 minutes or so, I think that once I uncover those feelings I can’t turn them off even if I do engage in this ’emotion check’, does anybody else know what I’m trying to say or can help me out in this dilemma?
Beautiful article. It came at the right time for me. I like that the automatic German title says “daily techniques”, while its rather one idea: Taking time to process one’s emotions:) I’m very thankful of your philosophical meditation. It offers me new perspectives. All the best to you. I would be very pleased if you could also talk about LGBTQIA+, sexual orientation…
What’s up with these few and far between and couple minute analysis. What are you doing with all the money you make from subscribers? That needs to change, seems like con game. Especially when asking for pateron and overpriced merch. People need to get some dignity and demand integrity from you “psych” websites.
If a person has to ask themselves what kind of emotions they’re feeling right now, then they’re not feeling any emotion that is negative or absurdly positive. Because we know when we are feeling these, we don’t have to ask ourselves. Normally I like your articles I think that you asked good questions you have been primis and everything but this one here this was was not very good. Nobody should take the time out of their day and carve out a time to ask them self about their emotions. That’s just b*******. Better to just instantaneously know that you have a problem and then ask yourself, ” what am I going to do about it?”.