It’s part of the human experience to live with emotional ups and downs. Sure, it would be nice if we could always feel happy and experience positive emotions. But, that’s just not possible. In reality, we have both positive and negative emotions for good reasons. Emotions can help us better navigate our lives, lead us to where we should go and what we should be doing, and keep us away from danger. So, they can be useful. But, for many people, negative emotions seem to take the wheel more often than positive or even helpful emotions. In these scenarios, it can be assistive to understand how to better manage to experience overwhelming negative emotions. Especially, for people living with mental health conditions like mood disorders.

Understanding the What and Why of Negative Emotions

When you have a better understanding of what your emotions are and why you’re having them, you can be better prepared to identify a straggly for dealing with them. When you’re having a negative emotion, it can be helpful to pinpoint whether or not your emotions are comparing to what you’re going through. If they are not in direct relation to how you feel or what you’re going through, you can then work to identify what is triggering you to have these emotions.

Identifying Why You’re Having Negative Emotions

When you’re experiencing negative emotions, it can be helpful to first identify why you may be experiencing them by asking yourself how you’re feeling. If you’re feeling overworked, tired, stressed, or anxious, these may be the identifying triggers to why you may be experiencing negative emotions. When you can understand the reasoning behind negative emotions, you have a better chance of changing how you feel in order to change your mindset and emotions.

Coping With Negative Emotions

Once you’ve identified the reasoning behind your emotions, how you’re feeling, and triggers that are stimulating negative emotions, you can begin to utilize coping mechanisms that can help to manage these emotions. Some helpful coping methods to deal with negative emotions can include:

Accepting Emotions: Running from emotions doesn’t make them go away. It just makes them pop up, often even more aggressively, in the future (and sometimes, when you least expect it to). The best way to handle negative emotions is to accept them and address them immediately.

Using Physical Coping Strategies: Physical coping strategies are things you can accomplish by using your body that can help you work through negative emotions. Some examples of physical coping strategies can include going on a run, writing out feelings in a journal, doing something creative like painting, spending time outdoors, swimming, etc. When we use our bodies and minds simultaneously, we can put our emotions into action and allow them to showcase themselves so we can move past them.

Using Mental Coping Strategies: Mental coping strategies are things you can do mentally that can help you work through negative emotions. Some examples of mental coping strategies include positive self-reassurance, practicing mindfulness, and expressing gratitude for the things you care about in your life. When we put ourselves in a better mindset, we are in a better place to face our emotions and work through them so that they are more manageable.

Getting Help for Facing Negative Emotions

Are you finding it difficult to manage negative emotions in your life? This may be a sign that you’re struggling with mental health issues. Mental health issues can sometimes affect the way that we process feelings and emotions and, as a result, debilitate our ability to have healthy relationships, careers, and lifestyles. So, if you’re living with continuous negative feelings and don’t know what to do, help is available. Mental health treatment, like the outpatient programs available at Delray Center for Healing, provide individuals who are affected by negative emotions as a result of mental health issues, with the tools and opportunities to be able to better manage negative emotions. And, as a result, live healthier lives of mental well-being.