Dealing with Depression and Negative Emotions

The last few weeks for one reason or another, reminded me just how powerful emotions are, I've seen first hand in myself and others just how harmful negative emotions can be. Empathising with negative emotion is where the rocky road can really begin, it can start a bad day, lead to long periods of negative emotion and even depression.

So what do you do when those negative emotions seep back in to your life. You know 'those' days that slap you around the face unexpectedly, everything's going well and then for one reason or another something knocks you off balance and you feel low, angry, anxious or something along those lines. 
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I used to have days like those, in fact I reached a point where most days seemed to be full of negative emotions. 

At my most difficult stage (I now see) I wasn't actually dealing with the situation properly, instead I would find a way to live with the negative emotions, sometimes using an external source to make me feel better. Trying to heal from the outside in, is something most people tend to do, before considering changing or looking inside. I often see people trapped in these kinds of negative routines and/or addictions. 

Thankfully one day for many reasons I plain and simply woke up!!! I found myself on a new path, in a place where I knew I was able to get in control of myself and my emotions. And generally started dealing with things better and better, as I said on a previous post, I'm no angel but I know I'm better in myself and emotionally, more than I have ever been before. 

Previously my emotions had been continuously ruling my life, leading me down roads and stimulating behaviours that I didn't feel good about. And I have no doubt that your emotions are leading you in someway, it's almost like a factory default for the human race... unless you're one of the very lucky ones, but even then your bound to have off days or moments!

Let's quickly look at emotion, It's not clear where emotions start from (is it a thought that stimulates the emotions or visa versa?)  what I do know is when a negative emotion begins, boy does it know what it's doing! Grabbing you by the hand and taking you further down to a deeper darker emotional state, some people stay like this for hours, weeks, months and even years. 

What you should know is that when a 'negative' emotion is evident in you, the thoughts in your head are connected to those emotions so if you are in an angry place, most of your angry thoughts start to race through your mind and you feel worse and worse, getting more and more angry and the world appears to be an angry place or everything makes you angry. The same goes for low and anxious emotions (all emotions really, negative or positive). 

Thats why when we have strong negative feelings it's important to do something about it... 

So what can you do about it? 

Firstly, you need to find a way that will help you realise you are being ruled by your emotions, I mean you need to wake up and realise you are in a negative emotional state during the process! By recognising that 'emotion' you are more in control of it, from that awareness you can find ways to distract yourself to feel better! 

Simple distraction techniques allow you time to refocus, forgetting the emotion and coming back to now helps dissolve that emotion. 

Being mindful is a great tool to have that can be done quickly in the moment, but something I find works for me is doing something I know makes me laugh or smile! 

I like to go for a short walk (Get back to Nature), read quotes, watch a video or look at pictures that make me happy, these are a few examples of things I use. Think about what you can do for you, it can be something that takes a few minutes, an hour or even a full day if you have time. 

What I learnt about the effect of my emotions all those moons ago, was that I was unable to do things effectively in those states, I also felt that taking a little time out for me might jeopardise something, as I already had little time having such a busy life. But what I realised was that by taking a short time out to make me feel in a better place, actually made me use the little time I had much more effectively.

JUST DO IT
If you are experiencing consistent negative emotions it's important that you take time out for you, make sure you are doing things to make you happy... Even if it's just having a hot bath, or reading a book or looking forward to a massage (there's plenty of great deals online for beauty treatments and experiences). The only thing that can really stand in the way of your happiness is you, you may say: time, money, this thing or that stops me, but that's because you allow that! I'm not trying to patronise you, I'm telling you this because I know from experience. 

​If you care for you, you can start to care for others more and start to enjoy life for what it is. Problems and situations will always need dealing with, but you may as well deal with them in the best possible emotional state. Life is too short not to enjoy it. 

Peace and love to you and yours.