How to embrace negative emotions
Scientific litsketch on boosting mental health
Feeing angry, anxious, sad or hopeless? Feeling negative emotions is inevitable in life. We would always have to live with them no matter how perfect life seems. So if we can’t avoid feeling negative emotions, what should be our attitude toward them to ensure that our well-being is protected?
Research shows that believing that negative emotions are an inseparable and useful part of our life can protect us from their harmful effects on our mental and physical well-being (Curhan et al., 2014).
A survey of 2,729 people shows that people who hold a cultural belief that negative emotions are harmful and often caused by personal weaknesses and limitations, were more harmed mentally and physically by negative emotions. But there are people who hold a cultural belief that negative emotions are inevitable, natural processes in life that are caused by external events and situations, not because of personal failings or weaknesses. They also view that negative emotions are not always harmful, but sometimes helpful for improving social relationships. For these people, their mental and physical health was less affected by negative emotions, effectively having a buffer against the harmful effects of negative emotions.
So it’s important to hold a healthy attitude toward negative emotions that they are natural processes in life that can help us learn and develop deeper relationships with those around us.
Change your attitude toward negative emotions. Don't always try to avoid them. Acknowledge that sometimes they can be useful for our growth and our relationships. Negative emotions help us realise that we are not perfect. There is always a room to grow in knowledge, in character, and in our social interactions. No one in this world is as perfect as God to never feel negative emotions. Life is perhaps an artwork with all the colours of positive and negative emotions that once we have gone through them, life will be more beautiful. The absence of negative emotions in life will perhaps make life boring, colourless and uninteresting. So embrace negative emotions despite how painful they are now. Once they pass through, you will come forth as a stronger human!
Curhan, K. B., Sims, T., Markus, H. R., Kitayama, S., Karasawa, M., Kawakami, N., ... & Ryff, C. D. (2014). Just how bad negative affect is for your health depends on culture. Psychological Science, 25(12), 2277-2280.