4 Steps To Process Through Negative Emotions
There I was, screaming in my car with the worst road range because someone decided to speed up instead of letting me get over. It completely took me past where I needed to turn, and that negative emotion just stayed with me for a while. I noticed that I was getting short tempered with my relationships, and it was effecting the joy that I had throughout my day.
Emotions are a vital part of our everyday lives. Whether it’s laughing at a TikTok video or getting frustrated on the road, highs and lows you experience can affect your well-being.
WHETHER YOU’VE BEEN HURT BY SOMEONE IN THE PAST, HAVE SHAME ABOUT A SPECIFIC TIME IN YOUR LIFE, OR ANXIOUS ABOUT SOMETHING IN THE FUTURE—WHAT YOU’RE MIND IS THINKING, YOUR BODY IS REACTING. THE BODY-MIND CONNECTION HAS AN EFFECT ON YOUR EMOTIONAL REACTIVITY.
I like to look at emotions like it’s food.
Imagine an avocado.
Avocados are a good source of monounsaturated fat, which can reduce your risk of heart disease. This is meant to be processed, and when you’re body is digesting it, it will not bring negative side effects on your body. Now if you go to McDonalds and eat 3 Big Macs, that is more than likely going to make your body feel bad—and may be hard to digest, BUT it is still meant to be processed. Once it is processed, we all know that bodily function that I am talking about—you will feel a lot better.
Emotions are the same way.
Here’s some tips to process through your negative emotions:
The biggest step that you can first do is to — Become aware of what you are feeling— ask yourself what you feel right now. Are you anxious, are you mad, are you sad, are you scared? Not only that, but how is this emotion affecting you. Are you getting easily irritated? Is it making you a hard time to relax and enjoy the day with your family or friends?
Give yourself grace— remind yourself that you are human and feeling and experiencing emotion is part of being a human. You know that you have felt other emotions before and it’s been okay. You have gotten over it before.
HARDEST PART — is to dig deeper and ask yourself WHY? Why do you feel rushed? Is it because you woke up late and left for work later than you should? What can you learn from this? What can you do different in order to grow from this situation. As hard as it is for me to say, maybe I should have gotten in the other lane before the turn so I wouldn’t have put myself in that situation.
RELEASE from it — this is the best feeling. Take a deep breath and consciously choose to let go of the experience and fully immerse yourself in positive emotions through gratitude. This will help you go from the negative experience, to allowing you to be grateful to what really matters. What you do have instead of what you don’t.
Know that it is completely normal to feel negative emotions. I encourage you instead of letting negative emotions overtake your well-being, really dive deeper into the emotions—process through it, and release it—we all know the bodily function that does this, and trust me, you will feel much better. :)
