How To Channelize Your Emotions Constructively – 18 Ideas To Get Positive Outcomes From Negative Emotions
We go through a lot of ups and downs in life experiencing a variety of strong emotions. Such strong emotions can be in the form of euphoria, absolute joy, awe, and amazement. Sometimes they can come in a form of eye-openers and life-transforming realizations. However, the real challenge people face is while dealing with strong negative emotions and how exactly to channelize such emotions in a proactive way.
Someone said something hurtful to you. You faced some life challenges, roadblocks or a frustratingly stuck state. The current state of society annoys or infuriates you. You experienced a loss, materially or of a loved one. You went through some harsh phases of life. During any of such happenings of life the strong emotions that we experience contain a lot of hidden energy that has the potential to be channelized and translated into a force of good.
Most of the great things in the world happened out of such seemingly painful emotions. There is a purpose for them.
I like to call them “indicators”. They are indicating something, bringing your attention towards something. Something deeper than you apparently see.
Often, the purpose of these indicators is to notify us that maybe it’s time for a change, or time to take a step up and see things in a new light.
How can I Control my Mind from Negative Thoughts?
Nobody wants to stay stuck in a negative state, yet often so many of us find it challenging to change the negative state into a positive one.
Today I’m Not going to tell you a several step process, as I often do in my guides. Today, I’ll share with you just ONE insight that if you apply, you can powerfully transform your life. Believe me.
Ever wondered how to master your emotions?
Well, if you apply this ONE thing, you’ll instantly begin to gain mastery over your emotions:
It not about “controlling” your mind, your thoughts or emotions. It about disciplining them and CHANNELIZING them in a proactive way.
Personally, this is one of the biggest learnings that shaped my own life. Had I not learned and applied it, I don’t know where I would be and what I would be doing.
And this is not just my personal experience but the experience of thousands of people who are now living a fulfilling life and making a positive impact on the world.
What does it mean to Channelize Your Energy and Emotions?
It simply means that you take that raw, pulsing energy from anger or frustration or that emotional pain or sadness, and then put it to something constructive and creative.
In fact, this energy is absolutely crucial to push you further in the direction of your goals, purpose and life vision.
A lot of people take setbacks, other people’s negative comments, rejections, and embarrassments in a disempowering way, which ends up demotivating them. But when you develop a resilient and stubborn mindset, everything changes. Such apparently demotivating experiences become a source of sheer commitment to grow forward and get above all this nonsense.
How to Channelize Your Emotions?
In order to channelize our emotions, one thing is very important to realize, such painful or negative emotions contain a LOT of raw energy that can be utilized towards achieving greater tasks. If directed in the right direction, they can provide a lot of momentum for progress in a particular task.
Several years ago, I learned to channel my strong emotions towards something higher and fuel the purpose of my existence. Emotions such as:
anger
frustration
sadness
anxiety
insecurity
uncertainty
rejection
embarrassment
guilt
empathy
Whenever I would feel such strong emotions, instead of wasting them in an argument, debate, complaining, or self-pity, I would contain them and let them out when I would work towards my ideas.
I found out that such emotions contributed to the inner fire and hunger to grow forward. I learned to be aware of them and consciously utilize them as fuel to my fire towards growth and purpose.
Learning to channel my emotions towards something productive that inturn feeds my life’s purpose, is one of the things I treasure. Now, whenever I feel any such emotions, it usually contributes towards something better because over the years I have programmed myself to constantly channelize them in a productive manner and accelerate my work.
It’s important to tie several aspects of life together so one thing feeds the other. It’s important to learn to connect the dots. This is one thing many people struggle with as I’ve seen over and over again while working with clients and observing people in general.
Another thing to consider is that, In essence, emotions are usually neutral in nature. It is WE who make it either a negative or a positive experience or direct it towards a negative or positive action. It all depends on how we use all that energy generated by those strong emotions.
In fact, researchers and authors Todd Kashdan and Robert Biswas-Diener mentioned in an article written for the University of California Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center, that emotions such an Anger can even increase optimism, creativity, and effective performance if used in a productive manner.
You can truly make something great out of emotions such as Anger or Frustration or anxiety. An honorable person who feels angry when he sees injustice and unfair treatment in society, his anger might make him take an initiative towards bringing a change in his surroundings. A social worker who feels frustrated when she sees the condition of the poor might be driving to take action towards the welfare of those individuals.
Similarly, someone who got rejected or embarrassed in front of people might make a commitment to grow forward and improve themselves. Someone who went through sad or depressing times might be able to understand and help other people who are facing the same.
So you see, there is a flip side to such negative experiences and emotions. We just have to be open to see it in a new light. I personally give a lot of credit to the most difficult phases of my life because that is what made me get off my butt and make a lot of progress. That is what gave me the fire to build a better and wiser person within me, and to improve the experience of my life.
You can do it as well my friend.
How to Turn Negative Emotions into Positive?
With a bit of research, I found a lot of different forms of questions people ask regarding channelizing emotions in a constructive way.
Maybe some of you might have similar questions:
How to turn sadness into motivation?
How to change anger to positive energy?
Is Anger a good motivator?
How do you release/vent anger constructively?
Is anger a healthy emotion?
How to overcome embarrassment?
How to get over the guilt?
To answer all of these questions I’ll share with you some ways to constructively translate your emotions into a positive direction.
“You must learn to translate wisdom and strong feelings into labor.”
– Jim Rohn
Healthy Ways to Express and Channelize Negative Emotions
Here are a few ideas and ways through which you can translate your energy into something more meaningful and productive.
1. Writing
I’m a big advocate of writing as it is a very simple way to articulate your thoughts and emotions and make sense of things. When you write, you process and ponder over things from different angles and perspectives as you put your emotions and thoughts down into written form.
Writing also helps you arrange your thoughts in an organized manner. If you make it a habit to write regularly, over time you’ll notice that your thought processes become more clear, and the way you express your thoughts will become more articulate and confident.
In my experience, writing helps you connect with yourself and your thoughts, not in a narcissistic way, but in a more analytical, eye-opening manner.
So make it a habit to write. Whether it be in the form of a personal diary or a personal blog where you share your two cents in terms of life lessons and wisdom. Don’t write publicly if you are concerned about how people will perceive your thoughts, just keep it private then.
Also, one thing I would like to mention is the “social media postings”. I would recommend that you avoid it. Seriously. That can mess up and clutter the mind even further. I’m saying this because of multiple reasons, that I might write a separate article later on.
2. Art
Art is an amazing and indulgent way to express your emotions in a beautiful and creative manner. You don’t need to be an artist and have amazing art skills to do this. Just enjoy the process of expressing yourself in whatever art form you prefer.
Oil painting, water painting, acrylics, sketching, tapestry, wall painting, even digital art if you are into that, or you can just simply pick up crayons or colored pencils and let your inner child out.
Forget about showing it to people. Do it for yourself and don’t worry about how anyone else would see it. Just express yourself and enjoy the catharsis.
3. Purposeful Work
If you are already working on some creative idea or a project, that is even better than you have a very definite direction where you can channelize your emotions and make the most productive use off of it.
Whenever you get angry, frustrated, anxious, sad, stressed or the like, just put your head into your work and power your vision with all these emotions. Believe me, tough phases of life and tough experiences are the greatest motivators if you have a clear direction in life and a vision.
All of that emotional energy can be put to greater use and nothing will push you as much in your endeavors as difficulties and challenges of life. So be smart and make the most of it!
4. Helping Out Other People with your Experiences
Part of purposeful work can be to help out other people who might be going through similar experiences as you have been through in the past. You can utilize your own wisdom and life lessons from those tough experiences to help them out and become a ray of light for them.
Contribution and knowing that someone has deeply benefitted from your existence on this earth is the most fulfilling thing in life. No amount of material achievements or fame can ever beat the contentment gained from true selfless contribution.
Make a commitment to put your own misery to good use. Develop a higher purpose and vision for your life and you can turn all of your negative experiences and painful emotions into a source of fulfillment and joy for yourself and others.
5. Meditation
If you are going through stress or if you feel like your life is going too fast for you to catch up and comprehend, make it a habit to slow down and allow your mind to have some air to breathe.
Meditation is a great practice to de-stress and declutter your mind and to gain more awareness of your thoughts and the working of your mind. It helps you to step out of the current frenzy of the world and constantly bombarding thoughts and observe things from an open and neutral standpoint.
You can try guided meditation apps such as Calm. Additionally, also download my free guided Deep-Relaxation-Therapy that will help you destress, relax, and program your mind to cultivate positive thoughts.
Get My Free Guided Deep Relaxation Therapy Here.
6. Exercise (Physical Movement)
Physical movement is great for catharsis as it balances out energy very well. Whether you are feeling low or you’re bursting with hyper emotions, exercise brings the energy back to equilibrium.
Different forms of movements have different effects on the mind and body. Try out yoga, weightlifting, cardio, boxing, etc. and see which suit you understand what circumstances. It’s good to have a combination of different forms of exercise.
If you are feeling low or ungrounded, try out yoga to center yourself and bring your energy up. If you are going through higher energy emotions then select a more vigorous form of workout.
Translating your emotions into exercise is not only a proactive way to balance out your emotions but a great opportunity to work on improving your health.
7. Observe, Reflection, and Contemplate
Sometimes it is necessary to just sit and reflect over the happenings of life turning all those emotions and challenges into wisdom and learning.
Contemplate over the life lessons there are for us to learn and grow.
Observing our emotions and other people’s point-of-view from a neutral and unbiased standpoint.
8. Spend Time in Nature
Connecting with nature to ground your energy and uplift your emotional state. The calm and tranquility of nature is a great opportunity to settle your thoughts and bring your attention back to the present moment, senses and feeling the tiny nuances of the surroundings.
9. Gratitude Practice
Channelize and transform your emotional energy into gratitude. No matter what emotional state you are in, bring your attention to the things you’re grateful for in life or start counting the good qualities of the person you are angry at. It’s an instant shift in mindset and diffuses any negative energy or animosity towards the other person.
10. Utilize Anxiety as a Motivation to Work Harder and Grow More
If you are anxious or stressed regarding something, let’s say your work or your future or a particular situation you might have to face, focus your anxiety towards working on your growth.
If you are anxious about money, utilize the anxiety to step up and take certain actions that’ll improve your situation down the road.
If you are worried about how you are going to achieve a certain goal, utilize that worry in working towards developing your skills that’ll ease your journey.
11. Reorganize your Space for Fresh Clean Look
If your mind is cluttered or overwhelmed, begin by decluttering your surroundings. Reorganize your space (home or office), move things around a bit and try a different setting.
12. Play Sports
Sports are a great way to let your competitive spirit out and a great opportunity to socialize.
If you have been into some sports in the past or wanted to try a certain sport, don’t hesitate to give it a go.
13. Get into a Creative Hobby
A creative hobby is almost like a companion that helps you get into the zone away from the usual rut of life and channelize whatever you have inside into creative potentials, while at the same time, connect with other like-minded individuals.
14. Go for a Thoughtful Walk to Clear Your Head
A Stanford study found that walking can greatly boost creative inspiration and flow of thoughts. The article published by Stanford discusses the reason why people like Steve Jobs used to hold important meetings during long walks and used walking to brainstorm new ideas.
15. Use Affirmations to Realign Your Focus (program your mind in an empowering direction)
The use of affirmations is an extremely effective way to redirect your thoughts and shift your mental and emotional state. Affirmations help you focus on things that put you in an empowering and positive state.
Check out my articles on affirmations, how to use them and a variety of affirmations designed specifically to program your mind for empowering:
200+ Morning Affirmations You Must Go Through EVERY DAY
16. Communicate Your Feelings to the Relevant Person in a Calm Manner
If you are having problems with a particular person, it’s better to plan out how you’re going to effectively communicate with that person regarding this. Often people don’t realize that their behavior or actions can impact someone negatively. It’s important that this is communicated to them in a calm yet assertive way.
Let me tell you beforehand, this kind of conversation might not be the most pleasant or go as you expect so have patience. It will help you clear the air between you two and get the burden off of your chest.
17. Derive Wisdom from Bad Experiences and Mistakes
Ask yourself,
“what could I have done on my part to make things better or avoid that bad experience?”
“What was my mistake? And what is there for me to learn from my mistakes?”
“How can I avoid making such mistakes in the future?”
“How can I improve my response to certain scenarios?”
18. Take Time off for Self-Care and Relaxation
Sometimes it’s better to just let go and take some time off to reconnect with yourself and relax. Spend some time doing things to nurture and take care of your mental, physical, emotional well-being. Indulge in things that bring you joy and put you in a light mood. Just give some love and attention to yourself.
Conclusion
Knowing how to channelize your emotions and making it a habit to regularly translate your feelings into something positive is one of the greatest life skills that’ll drastically increase the quality of your life and help you out every step of the way.
Make a commitment to not just “try” but to your program yourself to channelize your emotions constructively by incorporating some of the ways we discussed into your daily life until it becomes natural and automatic to you.
Talk to you soon!
