2 Negative Emotions That Can Suck the Life Out of You

Being unhappy is not what you strive for or to achieve. You want to be happy and put a smile on your face every single day. It is always not possible for that to happen, you'll experience negative emotions that put a frown on your face.

You can’t be happy every time for the rest of your life. Unhappiness will happen once in a while which is normal cycle of life.

You should always strive to make a life for yourself that will lead to happiness. How happy you are and your quality of life are co-related, have you achieved some of your goals?

Do you love how your life is right now? Are you doing anything to change or improve your life? These are just some of the questions you should ponder on to determine if you are truly happy.

There are also certain principles or concepts that are guaranteed to make you less happy. You might have experienced them before but they are always a thorn in your flesh.

You know how effective they are on your happiness levels but they sought of overwhelm you.

So let’s check out these emotions one by one.

1. Uncontrollable Fear

Approximately 10% of people in the U.S. experience fear (phobias) according to the National Institute of Mental Health.

Most of the time fear is a positive emotion meant to alert you for an impending doom. Without fear humans wouldn't have survived on this planet. But when that fear becomes uncontrollable you know that its negative for you.

You have experienced it before and are all too familiar with fear. It makes you doubt yourself and have this great effect on your self-belief.

You are afraid of taking that chance or risk because all this different fears on how bad things will turn out are stopping you. You don’t like this fear because it always pops out when you are about to push past your comfort zone.

Studies have shown that one of the most effective ways to overcome a fear is to be continually exposed to it. Through constant exposure, the brain’s tolerance for the fear increases dramatically according to National Geographic.

You can’t live with it but you can’t live without it. Fear has its place in you with helping you identifying threats and dangers. This is great for you because you’ll avoid what might kill or harm you.

But the bad thing is that this fear manifests itself in situation that won’t kill you for instance taking a cold shower.

Fear has a great effect on how happy you are. If you are conquering your fears then your happiness level will increase. If fear has a hold on you, you won’t be happy at all.

You have accepted that those fears can’t be conquered and living life so afraid and fearful. You got to change this if you wish to be really happy. These negative emotions are not helping you in any way, you are mostly afraid and full of anxiety. That is not the life of a face your fear kind of person.

The University of British Columbia psychologist Stanley Rachman, a leading expert on fear, has studied people in the world’s most dangerous professions, from bomb def-users to paratrooper. He has concluded that courage is misunderstood when it’s defined as complete fearlessness. Ranchman makes the case courage is not the absence of fear, but the decision to go forward in spite of it.

Brave people aren’t merely numb to danger or discomfort; they feel and acknowledge fear, and just refuse to allow it to dominate their behaviour according to The Atlantic Monthly.

1. 2. Deadly Regret

Regret is feeling sad, repentant, or disappointed over (something that has happened or been done, especially a loss or missed opportunity), according to Encyclopedia.com.

What do you regret? Living life with a whole lot of regrets isn’t the best and happiest life there is. Those regrets will weigh you down; make you see your life as this waste of time and resources. It's these negative emotions that afflicts a majority of people.

According to Psychology Today, regret can have damaging effects on mind and body when it turns into fruitless rumination and self-blame.

In a research reported in the AARP Newsletter, it shows regret can result in chronic stress, negatively affecting hormonal and immune system functioning. Regret impedes the ability to recover from stressful life events by extending their emotional reach for months, years, or lifetimes.

Nobody sets out or starts this journey of life on a mission to have a bunch of regrets. But unfortunately that is what usually happens, from regret on not showing love to that person to regret on being there for a friend.

What you regret will haunt you and its one of these things that sticks with you. You have to be striving to live a regret free life; you know the other side of having regrets. Increase your happiness level by living your life with no regrets.

According to Mindful in an interview with Bronnie Ware, author of The Top Five Regrets of the Dying highlighted this five (5) regrets and they were;

-I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.

-I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.

-I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.

-I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.

-I wish I had let myself be happier.

Conclusion

You got to be happy to live a fulfilling life which can only be achieved with a no fear and regret policy. Of course conquering that fear won’t happen immediately, you go to start taking baby steps.

For instance you are afraid of travelling; you can start off by just travelling to your next town. Explore that town and see what it has to offer, you will later realise that nothing catastrophic happens while travelling. Baby steps are the differentiation here.

Achieve happiness to achieve the best life that you wish and want. Regret can be taken care by taking into account that you have one life and that there is no reset button. Once it’s gone there’s no coming back.

Fear isn’t the best feeling in the world, its paralysing and the scenarios it replays in your mind seem like the end of you with no way to recover. But fortunately you can recover from your fears and conquer them, fear is necessary but you don’t have to let it be controlling.

Have you experienced fear and regret before? Do you know of any other negative emotions that will make you unhappy that I haven’t mentioned?

Then do share and tell in the comments section below. I would love to hear from you. Also share this with your friends and family, sharing is caring.

-Michael Kamenya