Relationships 

Advertisement

The happiness workshop: week two

continued from page 1
Understand your emotions
To live a full life, you need to experience your emotions - be they positive ones like joy and enthusiasm or negative ones like fear and anger. If you want to be happy:

Admit it when you feel bad. If you try to ignore your negative emotions they'll just bounce back again. Treat these emotions as you would a needy child: acknowledge their presence, be kind to them, give them some attention. It may seem as though you are indulging your negative feelings, but if you give them respect, they will slowly dissipate.

Release your emotions safely. If negative feelings build up, suppressing them can lead to depression or even physical illness. If you feel sad, have a good howl. Nervous, take ten deep breaths. Angry, have a good shout.

Be assertive. When you feel negative about a friend, family member or partner, don't fall into the trap of aiming your negativity in their direction. It never helps and will always create more bad feeling. Instead, learn to be more assertive, via a book or a local evening class, and make your point clearly.

More resources

Stand Up for Your Life by Cheryl Richardson (Bantam Press)

Mind Over Mood by Dennis Greenberger and Christine Padesky (Guildford Press)

Delicious     Digg     reddit     Facebook     StumbleUpon

  Get the latest iVillage news on your desktop    Sign up for more iVillage RSS feeds

© iVillage Limited 2000-2008. All rights reserved. | © iVillage inc. 1995-2008. All rights reserved.
iVillage Ltd is a UK company registered in England & Wales (3837269) at 80-110 New Oxford Street, London WC1 1HB