When we aren’t very well, is there anything we can do to feel better immediately?
You realize that not all days are the same. We cannot wake up, work with the same joy and energy every moment.
Our mood can change at any time from a bad awakening, something we have just heard, seen, experienced or a memory.
So when we don’t feel happy, we instinctively try to drive away bad emotions and thoughts and replace them with more positive ones in order to move up more dynamically.
Is this always possible? Of course not.
According to Mo Gawdat, author of the book Solve for Happy, this may be one of the most ineffective ways to feel good. In fact, what we most need at the moment is to do just the opposite. Let’s face it.
“Try to find out why you don’t feel well”
“When something or someone triggers the release of negative emotions, let’s recognize and embrace them”, he argues. He even compares this process with the pain that we may feel in our stomach for a while and we try to think of what we have eaten and caused the pain.
“Try to find out the reason you don’t feel well”, says Gawdat. “Even if you don’t find it so you can ‘fix it’, recognize the feeling and say to yourself ‘I’m not feeling well”.
Change of mood: 3+1 things you can try
This may seem strange to you, but recent research confirms what the Egyptian author says.
A study published in the August issue of the Journal of Experimental Psychology argues that for some people, the key to touching happiness is the ability to feel bad at times.
In the survey participated 2.300 students from the United States, Brazil and China, who were asked to answer the following questions: Which emotions would they like to feel more or less and what do they really feel? Those who reported being more satisfied with life and feeling less negative, eventually proved to be those who felt any emotion seemed right at a given time, even if it was negative.
In conclusion, it is not bad to not be well, it is bad to do everything to get rid of this feeling. So next time, try – even as an exercise- to recognize it, find what causes it, and accept it. It may be the shortest and most effective way to get rid of it.
