Are emotions positive or negative?
We may view emotions as being either positive or negative. However, there is no such thing as a positive or negative, right or wrong emotion.
See an emotion more in the light of having the appropriate emotion for a matching situation.
This way, we appreciate that a seemingly positive emotion like joy is not very positive if you are standing in front of your just-buried favourite aunt, (unless you stand to inherit a bundle).
Obviously the "appropriate emotion" would be sadness or grief.
Knowing that, you also can appreciate that sadness has a function, it helps you to get over the loss you just experienced and therefore, sadness could be labeled positive or rather :
The right emotion, for the right situation.
With other words, there are no positive or negative emotions, there are only emotions for matching situations.
A mismatch therefore is what we may perceive as negative.
This knowledge and awareness can be helpful in determining your emotions and moods, and your thoughts about
them.
By example feeling an emotion like "Frustration", and acknowledging this feeling, may help you to specify what you are frustrated about and if this feeling is the appropriate one to have for your situation.
Lets have a closer look at frustration:
Frustration is the emotion you get when you don't get what you want to get.
I know that sounds slightly complicated.
I choose that description because it matches my favourite line:
"if you do what you always do, you get what you always get."
Do you like what you always get? If not, you are more than likely frustrated.
In other words, you are not getting the kind of outcome that you want and expect, but you keep hoping,
and ( there is still the possibility of achieving your outcome), this hope is what keeps you doing what you are doing.
The positive side of frustration is consequently the motivation and energy to keep doing whatever you are doing.
With anything worth pursuing, the emotion of frustration may be a valuable asset to have.
Would you ever have thought before of choosing an emotion like frustration as an aid to help you in whatever you are doing?
The key word here, for positive frustration to work, is 'hope'- if there is no possibility of getting what you want to get, frustration would be truly frustrating and hence the wrong emotion to choose!
The Negative form of frustration therefore is to feel frustrated when in reality there is no hope left.
In this instance frustration becomes negative, as it is not the appropriate emotion to have.
You are stuck in frustration - you get what you always get and you don't like it a bit. It's time to change!
To change, you could choose a more appropriate emotion, which is one step up in the scale of emotions.
It is disappointment and it will stop frustration instantly and free you from your stuck victim position.
By the way disappointment is a short term emotion, it will be overcome quickly by you going on with your life.
this weekly column was brought to you by:
useNature's Editor: Dieter L. - Australia
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Editor's Contributions:
Free for all to use, not related to any products or marketing strategies, un-biased result of a lifetime of natural lifestyle outcome experiences, not claiming to be the ultimate answer. With too many individual factors to consider, all written material only ever claims to be a sensible guide, and feedback is invited.
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