Master Your Emotions

How to Handle Negative Emotions

A Step-by-Step Guide to Handling Negative Feelings with Social Anxiety

Many people don’t know how to handle their emotions when faced with a specific situation. Understanding the different emotions and how they are triggered can be overwhelming if you have social anxiety. There isn’t one set way that everyone handles these feelings, but some ways may help or help relieve them. You should try some different methods until you find one that works best for you, so here is what I do:

Awareness

When in the situation, I might say, “I’m feeling anxious right now”. Then, I consider what emotion I am feeling and then evaluate whether it is good or bad. If it is good, I should actively try to move forward with the situation.

If it was a bad one, I should get out of the situation or space and have a break from people for a while. You may consider that you are having negative emotions when you feel anxious or uncomfortable. Still, you should be able to distinguish between them to know which ones are okay to deal with and which are worth escaping from. When dealing with negative emotions, think of them like a switch that can be turned on or off based on how they impact your well-being.