Why do we have emotions? I bet that’s a question you’ve never asked yourself. Most people consider negative emotions like sadness and loneliness to be torture and misery. It kinda is but the more important thing is why you’re feeling it.
Let’s look at it like this, emotions are feedback from our brain drawing our attention to the fact that something is either likely right or wrong with us. Negative emotions are something-is-wrong signals and call for action. Why do you feel sad? Probably because you have an assignment due soon that you haven’t done or you had a fight with a friend or you’re lonely. These are all feelings that mean you need to take action. Negative emotions are your body’s way of signalling you there are somethings you need to take action about.
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Positive emotions like happiness on the other hand are rewards for action taken. Once you complete the assignment you had, or you make up with your friend or make some friends and hangout, what your body rewards you with is the feeling of happiness or satisfaction.
Most people especially people who have been hurt or afraid to get hurt have taught themselves to repress their feelings for personal reasons. As much as this might work short term, it’ll long term cause problems. Happiness comes from dealing with your problems and you won’t be happy if you spend years avoiding your problems.
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More often, people worry too much about negative emotions and it just makes them feel worse. Feeling shitty once a while is normal. Emotions don’t last. Besides, you can’t really expect to always be happy. Life is a balance of good and shitty times.
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Emotions are merely signals and not commands(our body can’t command us lol). Just because you feel really good about something doesn’t make it good and vice versa. Hence we can’t always trust our own emotions and have to question them sometimes. You don’t sleep with your best friend’s girl because you’re lonely. Neither should you feel bad when you tell a friend the truth and they take it the wrong way, that’s up to them.
We need to stop drowning in our negative emotions and instead understand what they mean and take the necessary action. Having negative emotions simply means there is a problem that needs to be addressed. Once we have taken care of the problem, we’re rewarded with good emotions.
Our emotions are our friends regardless of whether they’re negative or positive. Let’s treat them nothing more or less than that and we’ll live our best lives.