What Never to Do If You're Feeling Bad

Sometimes we feel like lumpy dirt…

It’ll happen. And if any expert, doctor, or speaker tries to convince you otherwise – run for the hills and KEEP RUNNING

Because it’ll happen to us all, the question is how long do we stay there and how frequently does it happen.

There is an insidious type of feeling bad though.

It’s where you feel bad… about feeling bad.

Sad about feeling sad
Guilty about feeling guilty
Anxious about feeling anxious

It’s an emotional double-whammy.

Because we aren’t just feeling bad but judging ourselves in the process. And now research has finally started catching on to the consequences.

A study done by the University of California, published by the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology took 1,300 adults in the Denver and San Francisco area to look at the connection between psychological health and accepting emotions.

Here’s what one of the researchers, Brett Ford, found:
“People who accept these emotions without
judging or trying to change them are able to
cope with their stress more successfully.”
 
I agree with Sir Ford.

It’s important first and foremost to be honest about the emotion you are feeling.
 
Not to tell yourself, I shouldn’t be feeling this way… This shouldn’t be a good deal…
 
So accept the emotion you are feeling.
 
It does NOT mean you have to stay there for long.
It does NOT mean you are settling.
It does NOT mean you are giving up.
 
It just means you are recognizing the feeling for what it is.
 
Then you can have power over it… then you can try to change it.​

P. S. Here’s something to feast on: I mentioned the emotional pattern of feeling bad-about-feeling-bad. But what if you were to use this same pattern on positive emotions?
 
Feeling excited about feeling excited
Feeling happy about feeling happy
 
Can you do that? Absolutely.
Easy? Not at first. But like any habit it’s possible to build it up.