These are the 5 benefits of negative emotions

In recent years we have experienced the rise of currents that defend tooth and nail everything that is related to positivism or happiness. However, this "buenrollismo" is far from the reality of people and can even become somewhat frustrating.

The truth is that negative emotions are also important, and although it is always obvious to us, they can provide us with a large number of benefits. Next, we will talk about them and how they can help us.

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The importance of these mental states

Traditionally, society has taught us to think that negative emotions and feelings cannot bring us any benefit and that only give us moments of sorrow, frustration, anxiety or fear, as well as a great quantity of tears conceived as useless.

However, negative emotions are necessary. Reaching mental balance is only possible if we experience all kinds of emotions. The moment we start to repress any feeling that is unpleasant to us, we make the mistake of not fully developing as people on a psychological level.

The experience of different experiences in which all kinds of emotions appear, they shape us as people and help us grow fully; this being the first and most important benefit of negative emotions.

Obviously, if we settle into these psychological states, or allow them to invade our mind on a daily basis, we could be at risk of developing some type of psychological disorder. However, experienced naturally they are essential to maintain our mental balance.

The need for wealth of experiences

If we only experience positive emotions or experiences, if we never let some negative feelings or feelings associated with suffering surface, we could never become complete and complete people. frustration would take over us.

In the same way, without negative emotions we would not give any value to all those experiences or positive feelings and, in the same way, we could not differentiate between what is good or what is bad in our life.

Therefore, it is necessary to assimilate that we do not have the obligation to always feel happy, but to we must accept our feelings whether they are positive or negative. This can be tremendously complicated, since we are not used to facing them, either out of fear or out of comfort.

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What benefits do negative emotions bring us?

Although sometimes it is hard to believe, if we manage our emotions well, experiencing negative feelings or living moments of affliction, provides us with mental balance, as well as knowledge about ourselves and skills to solve and cope with greater ease, future unpleasant situations.

In general, the main benefits that negative emotions bring us are mental balance and experience. In addition, each of the negative emotions can provide us with a series of much more specific skills.

1. Mental or emotional balance

As previously discussed, the main benefit of experiencing negative emotions is to achieve or maintain mental stability or balance that we will not achieve if we repress them.

Emotional balance is essential to experience inner calm, improve our self-esteem and live life to the full; and this obviously includes negative emotions.

Of course, each emotion has its specific moment and opportunity to appear, and that is when we must allow ourselves to experience it. If we don't let them surface, they will remain latent within us and will end up appearing at the least opportune moment.

If one day we get up on the wrong foot and feel in a bad mood, or something happens that makes us sad and we feel like crying, we should not repress these emotions. We have to be able to experience them and let them flow, so that they pass by and we can feel completely good again.

However, despite the fact that we cannot feel guilty for the emotions we experience, the acts or behaviors that we carry out guided by them are our responsibility. That is, we should not hide behind them to do whatever we want.

Finally, one of the keys to achieving mental balance is forget what society imposes on us, living and finding our own balance between positive and negative emotions.

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2. Skills and experience

Like the experience that all kinds of situations give us, the experience of negative emotions also provides us with a series of skills and knowledge that will help us to deal with future complications more effectively and with less emotional intensity.

Just as we learn to relate to other people, the appearance and experience of negative emotions teach us to deal with them and manage them correctly in forthcoming circumstances.

It is useless to want to experience only one type of emotion, either positive or negative, since the rest will end. for appearing sooner or later and its containment only deprives us of the possibility of learning from all kinds of feelings.

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Advantages of some negative emotions

In the previous point it is already mentioned that there is a specific series of emotions or feelings, traditionally described as negative that, well Managed and experienced in an effective way, they can provide us with a series of really useful skills or abilities to face the situations of the day to day.

1. Sadness

Sadness is a common and basic emotion. Experiencing feelings of sadness is something natural since there are an infinite number of factors that can turn a happy day into a sad one.

If we do not allow it to settle in us and remain longer than necessary, sadness is very useful in the development of problem solving.

However, we must be careful, since if we let it flow for too long it can affect our self-esteem or become a depressive condition.

2. Anger

Several studies have found indications that the feeling of anger is a motivator of analytical thinking, which helps us think more rationally. It is necessary to specify that this refers to the emotion of anger, which not to be confused with anger, with which the opposite occurs.

A mishandled feeling of anger can end up turning into anger; and while anger helps us release tension, anger increases this emotional and mental tension.

3. embarrassment or shyness

Although, a priori, shame is not considered an essential emotion or with positive or negative overtones, it is true that some people do not consider it beneficial.

However, thanks to feelings of shyness we better analyze how we relate and interact with other people, being a little more introspective and helping us get to know each other a little better.

4. fear or worry

Fear is an adaptive reaction that helps us stay alert to danger. A sense of fear that is rational and proportionate to the context that surrounds us can help us maintain perspective about what surrounds us.

However, when this fear becomes disproportionate or irrational, it can turn into anxiety or one of the following: conditions that are associated with it, so that, as in the rest of the emotions, the key is not to let them dominate.

5. Disgust

The sensation or feeling of disgust helps us maintain our health, both physically and emotionally, since it makes it easier for us to move away from what may be harmful or harmful.