How Negative Emotions Affect Us

Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsManaging Negative EmotionsNegative vs. Positive EmotionsWhat Emotion Are You? Take the QuizImpactTechniquesStrategies

Table of ContentsView All

View All

Table of Contents

Managing Negative Emotions

Negative vs. Positive Emotions

What Emotion Are You? Take the Quiz

Impact

Techniques

Strategies

Anger, frustration, fear, and other “negative emotions” are all part of the human experience. They can all lead to stress and are often seen as emotions to be avoided, ignored, or otherwise disavowed, but they can actually be healthy to experience. A better approach is to manage them without denying them, and there are several reasons for this.

The idea of “managing” negative emotions is a complex one. It doesn’t mean avoiding them—avoidance copingis actually a form of coping that attempts to do this, and it can often backfire.It also doesn’t mean letting these negative emotions wreak havoc on your life, your relationships, and your stress levels.Unmanaged anger, for example, can compel us to destroy relationships if we allow it to.

Managing negative emotions is more about embracing the fact that we are feeling them, determining why we are feeling this way, and allowing ourselves to receive the messages that they are sending us before we release them and move forward.

Yes, that statement may sound a little odd, but our emotions are definitely designed to be messengers to tell us something. These messages can be very valuable if we listen.

Managing negative emotions also means not allowing them to overrun us. We cankeep them under controlwithout denying that we are feeling them.

Negative Emotions vs. Positive Emotions

When we talk about so-called negative emotions, it’s important to remember that these emotions, in and of themselves, aren’t negative as in “bad.” It is more than they are in the realm ofnegativity as opposed to positivity.

Emotions aren’t necessarily good or bad, they are just states and signals that allow us to pay more attention to the events that create them. This can either motivate us to create more of a certain experience or less, for example.

Unlike some emotions, negative emotions not always pleasant to experience. But, like most emotions, they exist for a reason and can actually be quite useful to feel.

Our fast and free emotion quiz can help you better understand your emotional responses to certain situations, and why you may think or behave the way you do.

How Do Negative Emotions Affect Us?

Anger,fear, resentment,frustration, andanxietyare negative emotional states that many people experience regularly but try to avoid. And this is understandable—they are designed to make us uncomfortable.

Negative Emotions Can Cause Stress

These negative emotional states can create extra stress in your body and your mind. This is uncomfortable but also can lead to health issues if the stress becomes chronic or overwhelming.

Nobody likes to feel uncomfortable, so it is natural to want to escape these feelings, and the dangers of unmanaged stress are real. However, there is a feeling that people sometimes have that these emotions will last forever or that the feelings themselves are the problem.

Negative Emotions Also Provide Information

More often, these feelings are beneficial because they can also send us messages. For example:

Basically, negative emotions are there to alert us that something needs to change and to motivate us to make that change.

Even Positive Emotions Have Downsides

Positive psychologists also argue that while there are many benefits topositive emotional stateslike hope, joy, and gratitude, there are also negative effects that can come from them. Optimism, for example, has been linked to many beneficial outcomes for health and happiness as well as personal success.

Unchecked optimism, however, can lead to unrealistic expectations and even dangerous risks that can lead to loss and all of the negative feelings that can come with it. More uncomfortable emotional states like anxiety, however, can lead to motivation to make changes that can create more success and avoid danger.

Negative emotions are designed to keep us safe and to motivate us to improve our lives, just as positive emotions are.

Techniques for Managing Negative Emotions

The field of positive psychology is experiencing a “second wave” of research that is focused not only on what makes us happy, resilient, and able to thrive but also on the dark side of happiness. Experts have learned more about how our negative emotions affect us andwhat to do with them, and how we can remain emotionally healthy throughout the process.

Just as there are benefits to negative emotions, there are detriments to"false positivity"where we shame ourselves for experiencing these natural states and try to deny them or force ourselves to pretend we feel more positive than we do.

Why Toxic Positivity Can Be Harmful

A better strategy is to accept and even embrace our negative states, while also engaging in activities that can counter-balance these uncomfortable emotions in an authentic way.

Tears

Hope

Strategies to Cope With Negative Emotions

There are other strategies that are recommended as ways to increase positive emotional states and personal resilience to stress and feelings of negativity so that negative emotional states don’t feel as overwhelming. Because of theresearch on positivity,we know that this can be a beneficial thing in itself. Here are some additional strategies that can be used to cope with negative emotions.

Best Possible Self Exercise

This involves envisioning—you guessed it—your best possible self and what that would look like. This exercise has been shown to lift the mood and bring a sense of optimism, both of which bring lasting benefits. This exercise can be done as a journaling exercise or simply a visualization technique, but basically involves envisioning your life in the future and challenging yourself to imagine the best possible life you can live, the best possible version of yourself that you can be.

Research has shown that people who engage in envisioning their best self for five minutes a day for two weeks experience a more positive mood and an increase in optimism compared to people who spent the same amount of time simply thinking about activities in their day. For five minutes a day, this is a great use of time.

Use Guided Imagery For Relaxation

Gratitude Letter or Visit

This activity involves expressing gratitude to people who have done kind things for you. This includes both minor and major acts of kindness.

This could be a letter to an elementary school teacher who inspired you to be your best or a visit to a neighbor to let them know how much you appreciate knowing they are there. It can be any letter or personal trip and conversation expressing to someone what they have done for you, what it has meant to you, and that you appreciate them.

These expressions of gratitude bring great benefits to the recipients, but even greater ones to the person expressing the gratitude. Most people who engage in this activity report that they still feel positive feelings from it days or even weeks later.

Taking a Mental Health Day

This is like taking a staycation. It involves creating a day that’s filled with positive experiences that you’d have on vacation while minimizing the stress you’d have in your regular schedule.

It operates under the same premise that the other positivity-building exercises follow—that an increase in positive emotional states can bring a greater sense of optimism and resilience—and it has the added benefit of minimizing stressors for the day.

This can offer a nice interruption from chronic stress and a chance to recover emotionally. To do this, createa day filled with activities that you enjoy.

7 Sources

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

Spinhoven P, van Hemert AM, Penninx BWJH.Experiential avoidance and bordering psychological constructs as predictors of the onset, relapse and maintenance of anxiety disorders: One or many?.Cognit Ther Res. 2017;41(6):867-880. doi:10.1007/s10608-017-9856-7An S, Ji LJ, Marks M, Zhang Z.Two sides of emotion: Exploring positivity and negativity in six basic emotions across cultures.Front Psychol. 2017;8:610. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00610Fischer AH.Comment: The emotional basis of toxic affect.Emot Rev. 2018;10(1):57-58. doi:10.1177/1754073917719327Kleiman EM, Chiara AM, Liu RT, Jager-Hyman SG, Choi JY, Alloy LB.Optimism and well-being: A prospective multi-method and multi-dimensional examination of optimism as a resilience factor following the occurrence of stressful life events.Cogn Emot. 2017;31(2):269-283. doi:10.1080/02699931.2015.1108284Kirkland T, Gruber J, Cunningham WA.Comparing happiness and hypomania risk: A study of extraversion and neuroticism aspects.PLoS ONE. 2015;10(7):e0132438. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0132438Carrillo A, Rubio-Aparicio M, Molinari G, Enrique Á, Sánchez-Meca J, Baños RM.Effects of the best possible self intervention: A systematic review and meta-analysis.PLoS ONE. 2019;14(9):e0222386. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0222386Layous K, Sweeny K, Armenta C, Na S, Choi I, Lyubomirsky S.The proximal experience of gratitude.PLoS ONE. 2017;12(7):e0179123. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0179123

An S, Ji LJ, Marks M, Zhang Z.Two sides of emotion: Exploring positivity and negativity in six basic emotions across cultures.Front Psychol. 2017;8:610. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00610

Fischer AH.Comment: The emotional basis of toxic affect.Emot Rev. 2018;10(1):57-58. doi:10.1177/1754073917719327

Kleiman EM, Chiara AM, Liu RT, Jager-Hyman SG, Choi JY, Alloy LB.Optimism and well-being: A prospective multi-method and multi-dimensional examination of optimism as a resilience factor following the occurrence of stressful life events.Cogn Emot. 2017;31(2):269-283. doi:10.1080/02699931.2015.1108284

Kirkland T, Gruber J, Cunningham WA.Comparing happiness and hypomania risk: A study of extraversion and neuroticism aspects.PLoS ONE. 2015;10(7):e0132438. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0132438

Carrillo A, Rubio-Aparicio M, Molinari G, Enrique Á, Sánchez-Meca J, Baños RM.Effects of the best possible self intervention: A systematic review and meta-analysis.PLoS ONE. 2019;14(9):e0222386. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0222386

Layous K, Sweeny K, Armenta C, Na S, Choi I, Lyubomirsky S.The proximal experience of gratitude.PLoS ONE. 2017;12(7):e0179123. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0179123

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Negative Emotions vs. Positive Emotions#

How Do Negative Emotions Affect Us?#

Negative Emotions Can Cause Stress#

Negative Emotions Also Provide Information#

Even Positive Emotions Have Downsides#

Techniques for Managing Negative Emotions#

Tears#

Hope#

Strategies to Cope With Negative Emotions#

Best Possible Self Exercise#

Gratitude Letter or Visit#

Taking a Mental Health Day#