Accepting your emotions can help improve your emotion regulation, lead to fewer mood swings, and improve emotional balance. However, accepting emotions can be difficult for some people. Here, we discuss why accepting emotions is so important to mental well-being and why it can be so difficult for others.
What Is Emotional Acceptance?
- Often when you have an uncomfortable feeling, such as sadness, fear, or shame, your first reaction is to reject that feeling
- When you reject your emotions, you may make things worse
- Emotions serve a variety of purposes, including providing helpful information about the world
- Getting rid of or pushing away emotions is not the best idea
- Accepting means that you practice allowing your emotions to be what they are without judging them or trying to change them
How to Practice Accepting Emotions
- Difficult or intense emotions don’t feel very good, so your instincts may tell you to avoid them. With persistent practice, though, you can learn how to be more accepting of your emotions
- Strategies that can help you become better at understanding and accepting your emotions include mindfulness, meditation, and psychotherapy
Accepting Emotions Is Not Resigning Yourself to Pain
- Acceptance simply means being aware of your emotions and accepting them for what they are right now, knowing that they won’t last
- Feelings are fleeting and usually go away within seconds, minutes, or hours. Acceptance is the act of putting down your weapons and walking away from the fight
Why Accepting Emotions Is Helpful
- You have emotions for a reason, so you shouldn’t want to get rid of them completely
- Emotions are part of a complex system that helps you decide what you should stay away from and which you should approach
- Emotions also help you maintain lasting relationships with other people
