Does Accepting Negative Emotions Make You Happier?

Negative emotions are not pleasant. In fact, they can be downright painful, especially given that the brain is designed to seek pleasure and avoid pain. For this reason, accepting negative emotions can be quite difficult. Nonetheless, doing so can have a positive impact on well-being.

People tend to suppress negative emotions such as fear, grief and anger. The problem with suppressing negative emotions is that it can have harmful and long-lasting physical and mental consequences. Avoiding or counteracting emotions does not, in fact, make them disappear on the contrary. If you try to ignore them, they tend to pile up and cause even greater suffering.

Accepting and dealing with negative emotions is a constructive way that can help develop us as human beings. This process allows us to achieve our goals, build healthier relationships, and teach us things about ourselves. Let’s delve a little deeper into this topic.

Accepting negative emotions without condemning

For example, anger, fear, and grief are the kind of emotions that most of us experience on a regular basis. Just as they tell us something about ourselves and our needs, they usually also cause stress and anxiety if not handled properly. For this reason, people most often tend to avoid or ignore negative emotions.

Negative emotions can be difficult to learn to deal with, as it involves analyzing them and reflecting on what they are trying to tell us. This is not to say that they should be allowed to take power from us; we just have to be aware of them and understand why we feel the way we do.

The difference between acceptance and suffering

It is important to be aware of the difference between accepting the emotions that cause suffering and self-inflicted suffering.

Adoption is closely related to balance. Achieving balance in the West is difficult because people have a lot of pressure to be happy. It is an unrealistic expectation that can adversely affect our mental well-being. The ultimate goal, then, is to find a balance between positivity and negativity, as it can restore satisfaction to life.

However, this is a time and labor intensive process. Accepting negative emotions is not easy. But just like any cognitive method, it is also a skill that can be developed and honed over time and practice.

Strategies for managing negative emotions

Experts have developed a number of different strategies to help you accept and deal with negative emotions. One of these is TEARS HOPE, to which Ceri Sims refers in his research and which has become quite popular.

TEARS

• T –  Teach and learn. This strategy works on self-awareness and learns about your own body and mind and how they react to different emotions. This makes it easier to identify when you are angry and why. It also makes it easier to interpret the characters sent by the body.
• E – Express and enable sensory and embodied experiences. This method involves fostering inner openness and curiosity to better accept what is happening in your daily life.

• A – Accept and befriend. You need to increase compassion for yourself and learn to tolerate frustration.
• R – Re-appraise and re-frame. In this method, you learn to see things differently. Cognitive-behavioral exercises fit perfectly with this strategy.
• S – Social Support . Try to build a better connection with other people and be more compassionate about yourself. Investing time and energy in human relationships is important. At this point, help can be found in meditation and awareness skills.

HOPE

• H – Hedonic wellbeing / happiness. Research on the subject shows that keeping positive and negative emotions in a 3: 1 ratio can be helpful. This means that it is important to have positive experiences on a daily basis, focus on happy memories and enjoy successes, as this helps to prolong a positive mood and compensate for negative emotions.

• O – Observe and attend to . This method focuses on practicing the skill of awareness and not paying so much attention to insignificant things.
• P – Physiology and behavioral changes. It is helpful to focus on relaxation, breathing exercises and taking care of yourself.
• E – Eudaimonia. The last point signifies a sense of authenticity and a struggle for one’s own personal life goals.

Accepting negative emotions makes you feel better

Most health professionals agree that accepting negative emotions without judgment is one of the best ways to improve mental well-being. This is why most psychologists recommend practicing their management.

Iris Mauss, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, explains that people who accept their negative emotions tend to experience them less. This leads to better mental health.

Studies also show that people who are less bothered by negative emotions tend to be happier and happier than those who blame themselves for their bad feelings.

As we can see, accepting and dealing with negative emotions is crucial to mental health and well-being.