Coping with sadness and other negative emotions can be quite difficult. A simple but effective trick, described by nutricist and author of books about a healthy lifestyle, Susan McKillan, can help you get through a difficult period.
A few years ago, when dietician Susan McKillan had a conflict with her husband and felt intense anger towards him, the therapist taught her a simple trick: “Look at your spouse and imagine him as a little boy — just a baby. Seeing in front of you not an adult, but a child, you can feel compassion for him and forgive him.
McKillan says that it really helped her: it turned out to be impossible to feel as much anger and frustration towards a child as towards an adult man. This technique can be used in other personal relationships, Susan is sure, because it often helps to reduce the degree of stress.
“What if we could mentally shape the emotion itself?” she continues. According to a group of scientists from the Hong Kong Polytechnic, Texas and Hong Kong Baptist Universities, this is quite possible and quite effective.
Practice Visualizing Sadness
The researchers asked two groups of subjects to write about a period when they were very sad. Then they asked the first group to anthropomorphize feelings — to imagine sadness as a person and make a verbal portrait of it. Participants most often described sadness as an older, gray-haired man with sunken eyes, or a girl walking slowly with her head down. The second group was asked to simply write about their sadness and its effect on mood.
The researchers then used a questionnaire to measure participants’ sadness levels. In the second group, where the subjects did not visualize the feeling, its intensity remained at a high level. But the level of sadness in the first group decreased. The researchers suggest that by «revitalizing» emotions, participants were able to view them as something or someone separate from themselves. This helped them not to identify themselves with the experiences and to cope with them more easily.
Паметан избор
In the next phase of the experiment, the researchers found out which of the groups will make more intelligent decisions about purchases — more «sad» or one where the level of sadness decreased after «humanization».
Participants in both groups were asked to first choose a dessert: fruit salad or cheesecake. Then they were asked to choose between two computers: one with productivity software or one with lots of entertainment apps. Those participants who anthropomorphized their emotions were more likely to choose salad and a productive computer than those who simply wrote about their feelings.
After working with sadness, the researchers conducted a similar experiment, testing the effects of anthropomorphizing happiness. They found that positive emotions also decreased after study participants humanized them. So for obvious reasons, this technique is best used to work with negative emotions.
mogućnosti
Upon completion of the study, the scientists said that they were inspired by the popular cartoon «Inside Out» for the project. The child’s emotions — both positive and negative — come to life there in the form of characters.
This is not the only psychotherapy technique that allows you to take a different look at your feelings. A narrative approach and art therapy help to rebuild from emotion, to separate it from oneself. Their ultimate goal is to help us get through a difficult period and cope with negative emotions.
About the Expert: Susan McKillan is a nutritionist and author of books on nutrition and healthy lifestyles.