By Grace Mwita
Emotions are something that everyone encounter. It can be positive or negative emotions. Normally, we always get ways to deal with positive emotions such as happiness, excitements and such like so easily because most times they have no harm. This is different when we are dealing with the negative emotions such as anger, sadness, frustration, depression, stress, fear. These are normal things that have to be experienced as part of life, but dealing with them effectively has been everyone’s struggle.
Acting upon what you are feeling, especially negative emotions, right away without thinking is what all of us are always tempted to do. Not knowing that it is actually going to create more problems or make the situation more difficult that it is. Often, we deal with negative emotions by withdrawing, self harm, drug abuse, denial etc. Not that we entirely want to do what we have decided to do but just because we acted so quickly on what we were feeling.
There are many ways that we can use to manage what we feel, more so the negative emotions because, that is what is likely to bring about harm if not handled carefully. What should you do if you find yourself in such a situation?
Relax and take a deep breath. Breathing in and out is one way that helps relieve you of what you feel; be it exhaustion, stress or anger. It will help you come back to your senses and try act right on what you are feeling.
Acknowledge what you are currently feeling. As human beings, we live to experience the ups and down, the sad and happy moments. What you are feeling might be hard to deal with but remember, it is a normal thing that can happen to anyone and it is only for a short while. We are all human and its okay to feel that way.
Take a moment to think. Now that you have accepted what you are literally going through. Take time and figure it out. Think of the consequences that will come along upon you taking a wrong action. You will find that they will make the situation more worse that it is. Instead, think of the possible solution that will help reduce the problem and you will find a bit easy to handle the problem at hand.
Speak it out. There is power in communication. If you are feeling so overwhelmed with your situation, find someone who you trust and talk it out with them. Keeping things to oneself highly contributes to depression and stress. Because you are keeping all the pressure to yourself, it may drive you to do something crazy. But when you opt to speak to someone, you will spill it out and end up feeling relieved and much more better. They will help you think it out. Two heads are better than one.
Do what makes you happy. Everyone has that one thing that makes them happy when they engage in it. It might be an activity such as charity work, playing with children or a hobby like playing football, reading books, visiting friends, watching movies, listening to your favourite music and such like things. Doing things that excite you will help distract you from anger, stress or any negative feeling that you are going through.
Make yourself productive. As humans, we tend to engage in a lot of thinking when we are idle. To avoid that, get yourself something to do that is different from your hobbies and what you like so as to make yourself busy. This will help you forget what you are feeling. For instance, if you’re feeling so angry towards someone, you can decide to do the undone duties at home or in the office. If at home, iron your clothes, go to the garden, wash utensils, put your house in order if you had not done that. If you are in the office, get busy doing filing on your desk, come up with something new or ideas that will be beneficial to your company. By the time you are done, you won’t be feeling the same way again.
Human beings are meant to experience challenges but it good if get to know some effective ways to handle them.
