Negative emotions, key for well-being

Hi, wanted to share this article:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/negative-emotions-key-well-being

http://www.jamesallen.wwwhubs.com/think.htm

Thanks for sharing I will do the same lol !

Manu wrote: Hi, wanted to share this article:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/negative-emotions-key-well-being

What are your thoughts on this?

Makes sense.

We all have a positive and negative side (light and dark). So to deny, reject, or discourage our dark side is to reject what we are as humans.

When I was little my mom used to lock herself away at night, alone, When dad was gone at work to watch Titanic. I never understood why. As I got older I was allowed to be apart of her secluded moments and observed *when she thought I wasn't looking* That should would break down and cry during this movie... Which just brought more questions...why would she purposefully watch a movie that made her cry....multiple times?

Now I am an adult and a Mother....

And I understand now.

Sometimes it is necessary and important to visit Sadness within you, to visit anger, to visit hatred, To do so in a safe and controlled manner. And for her (And myself) the safest way is during a "Sappy movie."

The soul needs to be free and expressive, and all those "negative" emotions are apart of you.

Rickie wrote:

Manu wrote: Hi, wanted to share this article:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/negative-emotions-key-well-being

What are your thoughts on this?

I think Kitsu Tails said it best:

Kitsu Tails wrote: Sometimes it is necessary and important to visit Sadness within you, to visit anger, to visit hatred, To do so in a safe and controlled manner. And for her (And myself) the safest way is during a "Sappy movie."

The soul needs to be free and expressive, and all those "negative" emotions are apart of you.

I like Jung's concept of the Shadow. The whole of our unconscious has within it the full range of possible emotions. We are happy, we are sad, we are angry, we are glad. We have within us both the potential for creation and great destruction. The Shadow is that part of ourselves that we usually do not acknowledge as being of ourselves. Like the usually calm person who would never consider anger to be a hidden quality, or the always faithful person who would never admit to thinking he could be treacherous, these negative aspects lie largely ignored, until something triggers them.

The important issue is, how do we deal with our negative aspects when they are triggered?

There is a tendency to separate what IS us from what IS NOT us. Because of this, when something arises from the latter, we enter a state of denial and try to willfully suppress that feeling (I cannot be attracted to this person, I am faithful to my wife!), and having swept that feeling under the rug of our conscious attention, it festers and becomes stronger until it eventually overpowers us.

The alternative is to accept that this feeling that IS NOT us actually IS us, and through that acceptance gain awareness and finally decide what action to take.

It's like having a toothache. We can try to deny it for a while, either playing it tough or drowning the pain in a sea of analgesics. But eventually the underlying issue the toothache was signaling will get worse, until it is undeniable, or worse... uncurable. But, if we accept the pain and say "what is causing this?", then we actually do something helpful, and attend the underlying issue so we can decide how to solve it.

what i consider to be "proper" type of positive thinking is to affirm ones ability to handle stress and setbacks

its nothing to do with any sense that everything is ok - "EVERYTHING" is NOT ok, and it never will be

to think positive, imo, means to accept that some things are not ok, and to consider what one may do in order to make things as ok as one can, and to do ones best to do those things, and to trust that they will make a difference even when we cant see it immediately, and then to let that be enough

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i think that sometimes, some people get confused when they read or hear something like "negative emotions key for well being"

accepting that we have negative emotions is key for well being

but "having negative emotions" is not

there's no way to change the fact that we react poorly or negatively to certain things

some things ARE NEGATIVE in and of themselves

and it would be unhealthy to refuse to acknowledge the truth of our feelings, or to add negativity by "punishing" ourselves for having these feelings

and sometimes being angry (for instance) is the right feeling to have

but i think that its definitely not healthy to brood on negativity for excessive amounts of time, or to direct ones mind deliberately or habitually towards resentment or fear