White Sails***** Painting by Kirstin McCoy
Whether that's from a person, work or a personal issue, negative emotions come up more often than not.
I used to talk to myself 'Think positive. This will pass'. Although I self talk in my head, the negative emotion stick around longer than I wanted. It doesn't work.
Recently, I learned a trick. The trick is to observe the emotion. Imagine standing in front of the emotion as an object and look at it. Interesting thing happens.
First, it's not easy nor pleasant. There's temptation to be distracted. But, I just need to look at it like looking at an art in museum,..and observe it. See the fear, anger, frustration, or disappointment, all those negative emotions.
'Where are these coming from?'
Asking these questions and trying to think objectively, the thinking leads to no where surprisingly. There should be something but there's nothing. All the elements and different emotions doesn't have solid ground or true. It's floating abstract feeling that's associated with some random experience or thoughts and it sometimes feel bigger than what it is temporarily. But it's not worthy of spending the time. Because it's just a thing, another thing out of million other things.
Try the trick. It works. (most of the time!)