How to Let Go of Negative Experiences & Emotions
How to Let Go of Negative Experiences & Emotions
Does your mind swirl in loops after a negative experience?
Are you desperate to let go of the negative emotions and turn your attention away from the upsetting experience and towards happiness?
You’re not alone.
Most people struggle to bounce back after a fight, rejection, humiliation, tragedy, being fired, failure, or the end of a relationship. We admire the resilient among us who process the negative emotions, learn the right lessons, and move forward with a smile or optimism.
The most inspirational use the negative experience as fuel to propel themselves forward to make a life change, achieve a dream, or make a positive difference in the world.
What’s the good news? You can learn to let go of negative experiences and emotions with more efficacy and speed. Resiliency is a skill. You need to practice.
Step 1 Enter a State of Flow
Yoga is one of the optimum ways to work deep into negative experiences and emotions and change the energy in your body quickly. Specific yoga classes are even tailored to heal grief, depression, anxiety, or uplift your spirits.
An hour of turning your attention to deep, focused breathing releases your mind from the circular fixation on what happened.
Meanwhile, the movement, strengthening, and stretching you do while flowing through yoga postures works deep to undo emotional knots to your body. The lower back, neck, shoulders, hips, and chest can all be reservoirs of unprocessed emotions.
A vinyasa or ashtanga yoga flow can heat and relax these areas of the body and start to allow the tightness and emotional debris to relax and clear from your body, mind, and emotions.
You don’t need to go to a yoga studio or your gym to enjoy the benefits of a yoga session. You want fast relief when your mind is grasping on to a negative experience. You want to escape the intense negative emotions as fast as possible, such as desperation, grief, rage, or powerlessness.
Yoga videos are available for immediate streaming wherever you are ready to practice. You can practice in the cozy comfort of your living room or bedroom. Do you want to supercharge your results from your yoga practice? Go outside. Whether on your patio, in your garden, or on a rooftop terrace, doing yoga underneath an open sky and in nature will increase your emotional rebalancing.
Can’t bring yourself to do an hour of yoga?
Download an inspirational podcast or book and head outside for a long walk, bike ride, hike, or run. Shifting your attention away from the negative experience while exercising will give your mind, body, and emotions a break and time for a shift in perspective.
The exercise will trigger the release of endorphins, and you will return home with more feel-good energy. Try a five or ten-minute short yoga session after your walk, bike ride, or run to stretch and flood your body with oxygen and relaxation from the deep breathing and stretching.
Step 2 Shift in Vantage Point
The next step requires a space for reflection. Where is a place of haven, happiness, or enjoyment? Is it a bustling café overlooking a town square? Is it the top of a nearby hill, your bedroom, the library, next to a burbling stream? Take a notebook, a pen, and head to one of your favorite spots.
Once settled in with your steaming cup of coffee or your feet dangling in the lake, its time to start writing. Shift your vantage point of yourself and your life to the third person omnipotent. Imagine you are someone watching your life from above, on a movie screen, or reading about it in a book.
Give the negative experience context. What happened before the incident that was cause for intense happiness, jubilation, despair, frustration, anger, or sadness?
Next, write out the negative experience that is a weight on your life in the present moment. Write down the question: how can I leverage this to change my relationships, my life, the lives of others, or the world for the better?
Last, of all, create an ending that would please an audience. You’ve read enough books or watched enough movies to know what people want to see in a happy or satisfying conclusion.
Write without editing or overthinking. Let your hand constantly move as you write from intuition and the heart.
Wait a few minutes and then reread the story you wrote. Read your ending twice. Write down three proactive steps you can take today to shift your life so the story you wrote can become your new reality.
Never forget that you are the storyteller of your life.
Step 3 Be the Kindest, Toughest Friend You’ve Ever Met
One of quickest ways to release a negative experience and the associated emotions is to hear a few words from a kind friend who wants your best interests.