Proven Benefits of Negative Emotions

Mar 30

Happy smiling woman with curly hair lounging on couch.

Truth bomb: it’s totally healthy and normal to get overwhelmed.

As we attempt to navigate the often our often chaotic world, the range of emotions we experience in a day can change dramatically.

But it’s not all doom and gloom. When managed thoughtfully, even negative emotions have proven benefits for our wellbeing.

1. Negative emotions can help us pay attention to detail

While positive emotions signal that all is well in our immediate environment, negative emotions let us know that there are challenges or new stimuli that requires our more focused attention (Forgas, 2013). Sadness or overwhelm gives us an alert that something is not right and asks us to examine what might be causing it and what we should do to fix it.

2. Anxiety can encourage new ways of problem solving

When we feel anxious, we’ll try almost anything to avoid feeling that way anymore.

Anxiety is linked to our fight or flight response, which allows your body to draw on energy quickly. When faced with dangerous situations, anxiety will take over and encourage us to seek solutions quickly to escape danger (Biswas-Diener and Kashdan, 2014).

3. Guilt can help us change unwanted behaviors

Guilt can be an extremely useful emotion when properly understood. Guilt is directly linked to our moral compass. That means it’s a good indication that we may have behaved or spoken in a way that hurt someone we care about. Think of guilt as our internal system for punishing ourselves when we’ve done something wrong.

Fun fact - those of us who are more prone to feeling guilty are also less likely to steal, resort to violence, or drive under the influence (Biswas-Diener and Kashdan, 2014).

4. Jealousy Motivates Us to Work Harder

Envy has been shown to encourage students to perform better on tests, as seeing another student earn a good grade made it appear more tangible for them to achieve as well (van de Vien, Zeelenberg and Pieters, 2011).

So next time you feel jealous that someone else has achieved your dream, try to see this as a good thing. It means that this goal is achievable for you, too!

References:

YoForgas, J. P. (2013). Don’t Worry, Be Sad! On the Cognitive, Motivational, and Interpersonal Benefits of Negative Mood. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 22(3), 225–232. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721412474458

Parks, A. (2015). Review of the Upside of Your Dark Side: Why Being Your Whole Self – Not Just Your “Good” Self – Drives Success and Fulfillment, by Todd Kashdan and Robert Biswas-Diener. International Journal of Wellbeing, 5(1), 74–76. https://doi.org/10.5502/ijw.v5i1.5

Van de Ven, N., Zeelenberg, M., & Pieters, R. (2011). Why Envy Outperforms Admiration. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 37(6), 784–795. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167211400421