Emotions are one of the most humane characteristics that we have as human beings. Positive emotions are the pleasant responses we experience to our environment. Negative emotions are those responses that we do not find pleasant, those that generate discomfort.
Due to the challenging times that we are living now in the world right now, different kind of emotions are inevitable; the range of emotions we experience in a day can change dramatically. Therefore, our emotions are not always the most positive ones.
Negative emotions?
Although in psychological theories there is a term for negative emotions, I would like to start with pointing out that in my opinion there is no such thing as a negative emotion. The “negative” term is a label, a name of where in this article I will explain the real meaning of this term behind the context of emotions.
First, let me define the term emotion and negative emotion: An emotion is a response to different environmental threats. Emotions are not planned, we don't decide to feel them, they just happen to us automatically. They conform a set of psychological changes, and emotional behaviors begin to deal with the situation." - Paul Ekman, PhD.
For its part, negative emotions “as an unpleasant or unhappy emotion which is evoked in individuals to express a negative effect towards an event or person.” Pam (2013). Although they are not pleasant to experience, negative emotions are necessary for a healthy life. And this already removes the label of “negative emotions”.
Every emotion has its purpose in our lives and although all human beings experience the same emotions, the way we manifest and express our emotions, is different in each person. Emotions have an important role on how we express ourselves and the response that we evoke in others.
In this perspective, the emotions that are supposedly “negative” have a purpose of protecting us from risks, they help us to survive, thrive, and avoid danger. At the end, our negative emotional responses are a way for us to protect ourselves and to fight against the problems.
The worldwide outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19) is challenging us to different situations and in many we express emotions of discomfort. Emotions such as sadness, anxiety, fear. Emotions that we may be experiencing more frequently than usual. Although I have already said that these emotions are part of our lives, they do not please us at all.
These negative emotions are manifesting more frequently as a result of our thoughts about what is happening worldwide during these times. The media is full of negative news and as humans, we being to stand in solidarity with others who are having a harder time than us. In addition to this, the management of uncertainty and the adaptation to new forms of working are other causes that increase our unpleasant emotions.
We may be experiencing a greater exposure to unpleasant emotions, sharing more time with our family and people we love. That’s why our concerns increase as well. We want to protect the people we love, and we don't want them to suffer the consequences of our emotions.
Keep the focus on what you can control
Spending energy and power of emotions thinking about things that do not depend on us, sounds inefficient. I can imagine that we are worried about an uncertain future, inefficient health systems in other countries where our family lives, the future of economy …etc. But, can we control or solve those things? If we invest our energy on that, can it be different? The answer is no. That's why it's smarter to focus on things that are in our hands like our behavior, how is our answer how we respond to change or how we care for ourselves and others. Check the picture from @thecoachinstitute that makes this point very clear.
Healthy lifestyle
Try to do exercises that prepares you to control your emotions, helps your self-confidence and helps you to channel your stress well.
Mindfulness techniques will help you to find some “inner “space to work with for processing your emotions properly.
Healthy eating habits, acts of gratitude and small tasks outside of the routine will help you to stay connected to the positive vibes.
The power of our words
You should have heard that “words have power”. Yes, the way how we decode words and the lens with which we look at the world influence our thoughts, emotions and actions. What about if we in place of:
In addition to these alternatives there are many more. The more we know about ourselves, the easier it will be to define the right strategy for dealing with our unpleasant or negative emotions.
A good thing that we should consider in this moment is that Emotions are easy to spread; it does not matter if they are negative or positive. What about if we take advantage of this goodness of emotions and generate a pandemic of positive emotions? can we in this way help to heal the world? Let’s follow the well-being challenging of international Creative women to stay positive and infect the world with positive emotions and faith.
Dorángela Giraldo
is one of the ICW ambassadors, Psychologist and Life Coach. Although she is not an entrepreneur with a business at ICW, she is behind the strategies, event organization, community structure and of course the co-creation process.
