Stressful situations can not only bring up negative thoughts but also negative emotions as well. This ‘little voice’ with all the accompanying emotions can sometimes hold us back.
Have you ever been in a situation where you thought,”I’m not good enough. This is too overwhelming. I’m bored. I’m too tired. This is too difficult. I am so disappointed. I’m so frustrated. And on and on.
I would like to share three unique techniques I use when my negative emotions get in my way. The great thing is that these don’t require any medications, psychologists, psychiatrists or therapists. I learned these from Little Voice Mastery by Blair Singer and they work for me. Try them! See if they work for you.
How Am I Feeling Technique
The first technique is to ask yourself, “How am I feeling right now?” When confronted with a new situation or one that is causing some sort of stress, it is very helpful to assess the feeling. There is a feeling scale (see next technique) and when you can move yourself to a more resourceful place, it is easier to accomplish the task that you consider stressful. When I was confronted with a daunting task, I had to take myself from fear to hope in order to move the energy forward and accomplish the task.
This technique assesses your feelings and when combined with the next technique – “choosing your feeling technique”, you can find the appropriate feeling to get you back to a state of resourcefulness.
Choose Your Feeling Technique
Sometimes we feel ‘in the dumps’. Identify what you are feeling (technique 1) and then your next step is to move your emotion higher up the emotional scale. The emotional scale is simply the range of emotions we are capable of experiencing; from the most positive to the most negative.
The Emotional Scale
1. Joy/Appreciation/Empowered/Freedom/Love
2. Passion
3. Enthusiasm/Eagerness/Happiness
4. Positive Expectation/Belief
5. Optimism
6. Hopefulness
7. Contentment
8. Boredom
9. Pessimism
10. Frustration/Irritation/Impatience
11. Overwhelmed
12. Disappointment
13. Doubt
14. Worry
15. Blame
16. Discouragement
17. Anger
18. Revenge
19. Hatred/Rage
20. Jealousy
21. Insecurity/Guilt/Unworthiness
22. Fear/Grief/Depression /Despair/Powerlessness
Ask yourself where you are on the emotional scale. Then ask, ‘Where do I want to be? How do I want to feel right now? Do I want to feel (choose a higher emotion) or do I want to feel (choose the one you are currently feeling)?’
Recall a time you felt the way you now want to feel. How did that feel? You can now choose to ‘recapture’ that feeling. This is very simple but it has an amazing impact when you do it. It puts you back in the driver’s seat.
Remembering Successes
When you repeat an action over and over again, your body will remember it more easily. So, when you are faced with something frightening, overwhelming or frustrating, for example, you can simply say ‘yes’ with the same intensity as you said it with your fist being drawn back to your body. (Please refer to the ‘Celebrating Wins’ technique in my Blog Post – ‘How to Quiet Your Negative Self Talk’). You can remember the success you had before – the one that you anchored into your body and bring that successful feeling back into your consciousness at a time when you need it.
This also interrupts our little voice that is caught in a state of negative emotion and does what is called a ‘pattern interrupt’. If you practice this new habit regularly, you will be able to deal with negative emotions much more easily than before. I use this as a quick fix when dealing with negative dis-empowering emotions.
Watch for my next article on clarity of purpose.
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Until next time,
Charlene
