Emotions

Holy smokes! I have been absent for a few weeks and I really need to apologize for that! I really have no excuse. I have been really busy with my professional life, but things have slowed down now, and I will be better at keeping up with my blog.

In one of my last posts, I talked about the power of positive thinking and being optimistic. Sometimes when we talk about changing our thinking to be more positive we start to get this idea that we must be positive all the time. Then we become overwhelmed with this sense of impossibility. Things happen day to day that we react to and have emotions towards, and it’s so hard to always have positive thoughts towards everything. That’s why today I want to focus on those negative emotions.

We all have emotions. We also all express our emotions in different ways. When we are trying to have positive thinking habits, but then something negative happens I don’t expect you to think only in the positive. Like, “Oh good! My dog just died! Yay!” No, I expect you would be sad or maybe angry that your dog just died. We have to have realistic expectations for our emotions.

So when we have strong negative emotions, feel it. Feel all the emotion. Have a temper tantrum (hopefully in private). Shake your fist in the air. Scream. Punch something. Go to a kickboxing gym. But once you’ve felt all of it, make the decision to move on. Don’t get stuck in the negative. That’s when we get held back and become negative thinkers. It’s so healthy to feel our emotions and to let them out appropriately. It’s just also healthy to move on and let things go instead of dwelling and holding on to them.

I have a really good personal story about this. I used to have this giant, 6 foot teddy bear. It was massive. I used it for naps, sitting on to study, lounging in to watch movies, and as my personal punching bag. One day something really terrible happened (I honestly don’t even remember what it was anymore), whatever it was it really pissed me off. I came home to my empty house and just began beating the crap out of this bear. I remember kicking it all over the living room and punching it straight in the face. This probably lasted a solid 10 minutes. After I wore myself out I realized I felt 100x better. I still had the thing on my mind, but it just seemed smaller. I put the bear away and decided right there that I was done worrying about whatever that thing was and move on. Now here I am writing about it with absolutely no idea what it even was.

Exercise is a really great way to positively take out our negative emotions. I once ran 3 miles at my fastest pace after an argument with a boyfriend. Sometimes, positive things can come from negative emotions and circumstances. We just have to allow ourselves to feel them, and then consciously decide to move on. I truly hope you can learn and practice this skill.

I’ve decided to add something new at the end of my posts. If you read all the way to the end, please consider leaving a comment with a Find the Positive about your day. If you’re not comfortable leaving your FTP in the comments, still write it down on a piece of paper or in a journal. (Check out the Skills, Techniques, and Other Useful Stuff page to learn about FTP!) Let’s start practicing our new skills! And as always, if you have questions, comments, or just need a friend to talk to don’t hesitate to leave a comment or email me! Have a great week, friends!