Negative emotion is a nasty little critter that starts off like a small insect bite which causes an allergic reaction and becomes a massive rash, exposed for all to see.
Emotion is powerful and very contagious. Obviously happy, healthy, positive vibes will influence everyone around you and will lift the mood and bring a smile to everyone’s dial, but it will take a while, and is often hard work. But oh boy, introduce negative emotion to a mix of people and you’ll immediately bring them all down, all at once, without much effort.
Negative emotion not only kills everything in its wake, but also the host that carries it. It’s like a cold virus, easily given to an unsuspecting victim, but also destroying the carrier or the virus.
The funny thing about negative emotion is that we are all subject to it, and there is no immunity from it. Having emotional maturity sure does help fight off the effects, but we are all affected by it, nonetheless.
A life coach once told me there are 3 root negative emotions – Fear, Anger, and Shame. From those 3 primary negative emotions, all the others flow.
The secret, I believe to negative emotion is to manage it well, and by management I don’t mean suppressing and bottling it inside. The only way negative emotions won’t rule and ruin your life is by following these few steps:
- Experience the moment
- Experience the emotion
- Think your thoughts through, and complete them – conclude them
- Choose and decide not to let it affect you too much
- Respond instead of reacting – Don’t react in a fit of rage, but rather take a deep breath, slowly count to 10, and gather yourself
- Smile, the sun will shine again
Make no mistake about it, we all have traces of shame, fear or anger – but how we deal with it makes all the difference in the world.
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