Dealing with negative feelings
Are you desperately trying to get rid of negative feelings so that you can be happy?
Good luck with that!
According to research on happiness by Russ Harris (The Happiness Trap) it is unrealistic to expect that we can get rid of all negative feelings.
In fact, emotional wellbeing entails experiencing and embracing a full range of human emotions, sadness, grief, happiness and joy.
We cannot selectively turn off certain emotions. When we try to suppress negative emotions, we end up putting a blanket on all emotions. We cannot really feel joy if we do not allow ourselves to experience sadness.
A more useful approach to emotions is to recognize and label the emotion we are feeling and to acknowledge it, knowing that all emotions are transitory.
Happiness and sadness come and go. Let us practice noticing and labeling the emotion we are experiencing.
A simple but very powerful exercise.
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