Being comfortable experiencing and expressing mixed emotions is a predictor of improvements in well-being, while ignoring or evading negative feelings is not associated with boosts in well-being. There is something to be gained for your mental health in taking both the good and the bad together.
When we allow our negative emotions to become a source of shame or guilt, we could inadvertently be making those feelings worse and missing out on their benefits. Paradoxically, negative emotions can be a powerful catalyst for positive experiences and realizations, if we respond to them in a positive way.
Anger can be turned into Creativity
Negative emotions sometimes stifle creativity, but science suggests that they can also be used to spark it. People who started the day with negative emotions but ended it with positive ones had the greatest creative output -- uniformly, the most productive days are those that begin with some sort of negativity. Negative emotions can help subjects focus longer while brainstorming.
When you are in a bad mood, it may be best to return to a particularly difficult problem or a project that has stalled out, think of the negative emotion as fuel that you can burn on the path to creation. The negative emotions might just help you dig deeper into the problem and find a solution your happier self would never have uncovered.
Adversity can alter your Perspective
The old cliche that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger might have some truth to it. Life's greatest challenges can be opportunities for significant personal growth and development. Many people say that life threatening health scares became blessings in disguise that fundamentally altered their perspectives and highlighted what is really important in life. Adversities can yield unexpected gifts. Sometimes these unexpected gifts come in the form of a new career path or life direction.
Shame can help you develop Compassion
Shame -- that painful feeling of humiliation or distress rooted in the belief that we are somehow deficient -- is what causes us to avoid connecting with others for fear that they will see the flaws we are trying to hide. But the one upside of shame is that we can overcome it, building greater connections with others and becoming more compassionate towards ourselves and others.
Shame depends on us buying into the belief that I am alone.Shame cannot survive being spoken ... It cannot survive empathy.
Pessimism can make you more Productive
As a the bright side over seeing the glass half empty. But optimism untempered by some degree of negativity or pessimism is not necessarily a productive attitude. Defensive pessimists -- those who tend to picture what could go wrong in any given situation -- perform just as well as strategic optimists in a variety of tasks. How are these people able to do so well despite their pessimism? They are doing so well because of their pessimism … negative thinking transforms anxiety into action. Ultimately, what most determines success is achieving the right balance between optimism and pessimism, and choosing preparation strategies that match your thinking styles.
If you are a defensive pessimist, when preparing for a performance that really matters, you might want to list your weaknesses instead of your strengths, and drink a glass of anxiety rather than a shot of confidence.
Envy can spur you to become a Better person
From a young age, we are told to beware of the green-eyed monster. Envy can trigger us to feel that who we are and what we have is in some way lacking. But the emotion (in its more benign form) can actually spur us to better ourselves. After you realize other people do not necessarily have everything you think you want, the next logical step is to figure out what that really is. What is it you really envy? Your sister’s boyfriend, or a sense of belonging? Your cousin’s job, or a sense of accomplishment? Your uncle’s schedule, or a sense of adventure? You can have everything you want in life if you identify specifically what these things are, and accept they may look different for you than they do for someone else.
Loss can lead to Gratitude
It can sometimes take losing something or someone important to us to feel grateful for what we still have. But in the long term, overwhelming loss can become a powerful catalyst for deep, life-affirming gratitude. One of the gifts and lessons from loss is to feel blessed for the moments you had and the unexpected gifts that [any relationship] gave.
Negativity presents an Opportunity to cultivate Mindfulness
The practice of mindfulness -- which aims to cultivate a focused awareness on the present moment -- can change our relationship with negative emotions, allowing us to experience them without judgement or shame.
Feeling bad about having a negative emotion is a surefire way to compound and amplify the situation. You can quickly build a tower of negative emotions that can all come crumbling down.
Mindfulness practices like meditation allow us to experience negative thoughts and emotions without judgment, resistance or struggle.
To read the complete article go to http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/29/how-to-turn-negative-emot_n_4158113.html
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