In a world where almost every other person tells you to stay positive, feeling negative emotions such as anger, fear, frustration and sadness is completely normal and natural. At some point or the other we all try to curb these negative emotions and come out with that bright smiling face because we have always been taught to stay positive. Not just this but many of us feel ashamed and guilty for expressing these emotions. This feeling of guilt and shame is undoubtedly a stem of our cultures overriding bias towards the positive attitude and positive thinking. Although there is nothing wrong in staying positive and having positive thoughts, it is important to understand that feeling and expressing the negative emotions is equally important. The importance of these emotions have been extended to a degree that these emotions are actually said to be the key to a person’s well being. Let us take a deep dive into this article to learn about the importance and impact of these negative emotions with Dr. Milan Balakrishnan, Consultant Psychiatrist, Masina Hospital.
Importance of Negative Emotions
Where we have felt ashamed and guilty of expressing those negative emotions like anger, heartbreak and stress, it is high time that we all realise all these emotions are completely normal. Not just normal but these negative emotions are actually important for humans just the way positive ones are. It is important to express yourself fully and not just the positive emotions that you have. Here let us take a movement to understand how these negative emotions are important for us and look at what Dr. Balakrishnan has to say about this -“Positive and negative emotions, both are part and partial of our lives. Feeling sad, angry or upset, all of it is completely normal and we all go through it. When these emotions become persuasive, it is the only time when it turns out to be a problem. Till that time all these emotions are actually important for us. An emotion such as anxiety is also a useful emotion which helps a person to focus and prepare better, helps in taking active steps in order to prevent discomfort in the future. Fear is another very important and useful emotion which is protective in nature and helps us protect ourselves against the things that could hurt or harm us.”
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As by now we know that hiding negative emotions and running away from them is not a good option, so let us dig a little deeper and ghetto know about the importance and benefits of these negative emotions such as fear, anxiety, guilt, mindlessness and self-doubt.
Also Read: Long Working Hours Making You Sad And Gloomy? Here are Tips To Manage The Condition
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#1. Self doubt helps us to Perform Better
Throughout our lives we all have grown hearing that “you should believe in yourself and do your best”. To the contrary the best of you comes out when you are in a state of self doubt. It is important to realize that doubt in moderation can help a person to perform and function better. Being a psychological state of mind that promotes a person to enhance our skills and improves the areas where we might be lacking behind, the condition of self doubt can be really helpful. When a person is uncertain about his/her performance, they foster a personal reflection that motivates a personal development and as a result helps them to accept the change and become a better person.
Self-doubt is a negative emotion that can enhance a person’s performance. As there is a positive linear relation between self-confidence and performance. When a decreased confidence results in increased efforts it gives rice to better performance and more efficiency.
#2. Guilt helps us to become a Better Person
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An emotion that plays a crucial role in regulating our moral behavior, guild is a negative emotion that can do more good to us than any harm until it turns out to be persuasive. Being an emotion that makes us caring and socially sensitive, guilt helps us in becoming a better person and do good for the people around us. This emotion helps us in correcting our mistakes and preventing any kind of misconduct and wrong doing in the coming future. Some researchers have found that negative emotions such as guilt can motivate a person to take actions in order to repair the damage. Guilt is an emotion that comes along with a sense of responsibility along with distress and encourages a person to apologise, confess or excuse a certain kind of behaviour. It not just helps one to become a better person but is also beneficial for the society as a whole.
#3. Mindlessness gives rise to Creativity
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Creativity is something that has been associated with unconscious incubation for ages. Mindlessness is something that operates upon something that your mind and body already knows. To understand this in a better way take a moment to think about whether you make a conscious judgement while breathing? The answer to this is a simple no. Mindlessness depends upon simple snap judgements and sometimes results in things like daydreaming. There are moments when the problem to a solution occurs to your mind in the least expected way and helps in solving that problem creatively.
#4. Anxiety helps in Solving Problems
Also Read: Does You Fear Makes You Anxious? Here Are 5 Types Of Exercises To Reduce Your Anxiousness
Where we try various ways to get rid of anxiety such as the grounding technique, to our surprise anxiety is an emotion that helps us to enhance our problem solving abilities and solve an issue effectively and speedily. High anxiety levels are known to make your brain work more efficiently. Although it might not help you to solve a maths problem or derive an equation but can surely be helpful in solving the problems from your social life. There are high chances that in a situation of danger, your anxiety might prevail over positivity. Anxiety helps people to discover a solution quickly in the situation of danger and helps to get out of it without getting hurt or causing any harm.
#5. Fear helps in Protecting us from Danger
As we all try to fight our fear in more than one possible way, we have to face it in order to overcome it. In some cases a little fear can be really important for a person and can do more good than bad. As when we fear something we try to maintain a safe distance from that particular thing. As these fearful things can be really damaging and can cause a lot of harm this fear can help us to protect from any damage or harm being caused due to it.
To understand it better let us take an example of Acrophobia, the fear of heights. A person who is scared of climbing high points will refrain himself/herself from doing so and hence their chances of falling from up there and getting injuries get nullified and hence their fear in a way or the other helped in protecting them from the harm.