Beat Negative Emotions With Your Imagination

Emotions are part of us, which means we can’t escape them no matter how hard we try. It is normal to feel anger, jealousy and resentment, although it is important to know how to deal with them in order to defeat these negative emotions. The big problem is that no one teaches us how to do this. But with the help of our own imagination we will be able to achieve it.

We know that negative emotions really aren’t something to brag about, so we often try to suppress and hide them. But this is not smart, because as you probably know they will eventually come out anyway. While you can’t choose which emotion you will feel, you can choose what to do with it.

Emotions are trains that come and go

What do trains do? Do they stand still? No, they move, they come and go. We could also see our life as a train; people get in and some stay while others get out. Now use your imagination to visualize the same train, but instead of people, it carries your negative emotions.

Sometimes it feels like you won’t be able to free yourself from your anger. It’s in you and you can’t get it out. But what’s really going on is you don’t let go; you let your anger stay. Begin to see it as if you were on a train that, in a few minutes or an hour, will begin to follow a different route.

Maybe it’s hard for you to imagine this, or maybe you think it’s impossible to help you. You may not be aware that your mind is the most powerful thing you have. If you believe that something is possible, then it is. If you think you’ve reached a point where you can’t go any further, this will happen.

Answer this question: why don’t you worry about your positive emotions? If they don’t worry you, your negative emotions shouldn’t either. The problem is that the negative emotions get too much attention because they cause such a bad feeling. But you shouldn’t make them more important than they are. Don’t focus on them. This way the train will be able to start driving and they will get off at some point.

Beat negative emotions by describing them first

This can be a helpful technique to use with children, but it can also work well with adults. Sometimes we suppress our emotions so much that we run away from them and ignore them, even though they are still there.

It can therefore be very helpful to give your emotions a physical form. Let your imagination run wild and try to imagine yourself holding your jealousy or anger in your hand. Try to imagine how much the emotion weighs, what color it is, whether it is large or small. What you ultimately do with this is to describe, analyze and observe the emotion.

This will enable you to deal with it more effectively. Instead of ignoring the emotion, describe it, and this will help you control it. Perhaps you see the emotion in front of you as very big, dark and heavy. This will make you think about whether this one is for real, or maybe you’re turning a mosquito into an elephant.

This technique can also help the little ones at home, as they don’t yet know how to deal with their negative emotions. And sometimes we don’t know it ourselves – or maybe it’s not that we don’t know, but we don’t want to confront them. However, remember that you can ignore them as much as you want, they won’t go away. And if you don’t dissolve them, they will eventually consume you.

If they scare you, laugh at them

Negative emotions frighten us. When you apply the above technique, you may be confronted with a terrible monster that embodies the anger you feel inside. Or maybe it’s a long, dark shadow, the silhouette of jealousy. Whatever it is, if you wish to free yourself from it, you will have to fight the fear you feel.

A good solution is to laugh at the emotion, because of this it will quickly lose strength and it will be difficult to survive. So grab the emotion, that horrible monster, in your hand and imagine it has a ridiculously high-pitched voice, or is wearing a hideous skirt and an idiotic hat. This will make you laugh, and believe it or not, it will help you let those negative emotions flow and make them disappear through that hole you opened for them.

You cannot escape your negative emotions, but you can release them. By using your imagination, you can avoid continuing to feed and magnify the emotions. If you focus too much on your anger, you could end up doing things that you later regret.

These techniques may seem like a ridiculous way to deal with your emotions, but they will certainly help you. Don’t think about how silly they seem – save the mockery for your negative emotions. If you approach the matter in this way, you will be able to rid yourself of the burden of negativity and harmful thoughts. Your imagination is much more powerful than you think.