• Recognizes details more than others, which tires them out
• Excessively nervous about environmental changes
• Others compliment them as “rich with emotion”

The Psychological Characteristics of an HSP

How many of the following points apply to you?

• I overthink over the small things
• I feel easily emotionally connected to characters in movies or stories
• I’m surprised by big sounds more than average
• I need space if there are too many people around me
• I tend to rush through when I’m given too many tasks at once
• My heart rushes when I see people expressing anger onto others
• I haven’t felt better in a while

The more points that apply to you, the higher the chance you have HSP traits. If you have a tendency to take a long time to think or are emotionally rich, those are big traits of an HSP.

The Traits of an HSP (Highly Sensitive Person)

If you have HSP traits, high sensitivity can make you susceptible to mental pain. There are many traits if we go into detail, but here, we will introduce 3 traits that are the most common.

1. Easily Hurt

Some people can stay optimistic after failure at school, sports, or work, but there are also many that keep dragging their failures with them. People with HSP traits tend to fall into the latter type where they feel easily hurt.

An HSP’s sensitive thinking puts them in a headspace where they keep internalizing and blaming themselves rather than expressing their negative feelings outwards. The lack of confidence leads to pessimism and difficulty in communication, which then accumulates more mental instability.

2. Easily Tired

People with HSP traits tend to imagine a lot from very little information because they are sensitive. Their awareness in constant small details wears them down mentally. Additionally, because they are so sensitive to their surroundings, they are easily emotionally impacted by others. When they are around negative people, they tend to turn negative too.

3. Empathetic Tendencies

An HSP is extremely empathetic. They empathize through conversations with their close ones and tend to cater their opinion to others. They also strongly relate to the emotions of characters in movies and books.

5 Ways to Live with HSP Traits

First and foremost, we need to understand that HSP is not a mental illness. It’s just a unique trait of being richer in emotions, so there’s no need to feel inferior about it.

With that in mind, we introduce the 5 methods to live with HSP traits. The common thread in these methods is to create a relaxed environment.

Method 1 : Read

Reading a book allows us to step away from the stressful reality to immerse ourselves in another world. In fact, a university study shows that reading curbs extreme emotional ups and downs. Fiction novels are great, but non-fiction self-help books can also educate how to better deal with HSP-related stress.

It can be difficult to allocate time for reading if you have a busy schedule but try to dedicate at least 30 minutes a day for reading. This can be while you take public transportation, wait for an appointment, or right before bed.

Method 2: Listen to Music

Similar to reading, listening to music has a relaxing effect.

For a person with HSP traits, mental control in gaining calmness is key to reduce stress. Mindfulness meditation is helpful for this. It’s a method where you close your eyes, relax, and meditate while you pay attention to your breath. Music is said to be helpful in assisting mindfulness practices.

The music can be anything relaxing. If you’re not sure of where to start, we recommend searching a playlist using the keywords; healing music, jazz, or nature sounds. You’ll surely find something calming within those categories.

Method 3: Get Enough Sleep

How many hours of sleep do you get per day?

Some data results suggest that the average sleep hours are about 7 hours 40 minutes if you are above 10 years old. Adults require significant amounts of time with work and parental responsibilities, so it won’t be surprising if the average sleep hours turn out to be less than 7 hours.

A university study indicates that if a person continued 2 weeks with less than 7 hours of sleep, their brain function abilities decrease as if they had pulled an all-nighter for 1-2 days. We can assume from this that lack of sleep not only negatively influences our body, but the brain, and mental as well.

For those who do not have the capacity to increase their sleeping hours, we recommend just waking up at the same hour every day. Excessive sleeping on days off messes with our internal clock, which then messes with our overall circadian rhythm. If you’re the type that tends to excessively sleep on days off, start by keeping a 7-hour sleep schedule every day. This will help relieve stress symptoms from HSP traits.

Method 4: Practice Positive Thinking

The tendency to overthink pushes people into believing negative ideas that they are the bad ones or of the fear of possible criticism.

To overcome this, we must nurture positive thinking. A good way to do this is by trying a method called “The Three Good Things.” You write down 3 positive things about your day in a diary. It’s very simple, give it a try!

Method 5: Consult with Someone

If you feel like your HSP traits are too overwhelming to deal with on your own, you can always seek professional help. There are professionals that specialize in HSP that can help you gain better perspectives and resolutions for your own HSP traits.

For those who are too busy to go consult a professional, we recommend trying counseling services through smartphone apps. SELF MIND is an AI chatbot app that can cater to each user’s needs on the go. 94.2% of the users find the AI’s counseling function helpful so far, and it can surely nudge you in the right direction for your needs.
→ Check SELF MIND in app store

Deal With HSP Traits at Your Own Pace

An HSP tends to feel easily stressed, so finding a way to relax becomes essential. HSP traits are also misunderstood as being negative, but people with these traits are very good at compassionately helping others and observing things in detail. Therefore, it is important that we understand HSP as a unique trait to embrace.

Let’s take it nice and slow. This is an opportunity to face your inner self at your own pace.

References：

HIRANO, M. (2012). Buffer Effects of Resilience on Psychological Sensitivity : The Japanese Journal of Educational Psychology, 60(4), 343–354. https://doi.org/10.5926/jjep.60.343

Minai, H. (2010). The Effects of Morning Reading – Analytics, Discussion, and Explanation. The Japan Association of Lifelong Education, 31, 23–32. https://ci.nii.ac.jp/naid/120003103893

The post HSP Traits: How To Combat High Sensitivity Stress appeared first on SELF MIND.

Have You Watched the Inside Out movie?

Inside Out (2015) is an animation film produced by Disney, with an accessible insight into our mental process of emotions. Developed under the guidance of psychologist Dacher Keltner, the film contains a lot of scientific basis in how the brain processes emotions. There are 5 anthropomorphic characters that represent our core emotions – Joy, Sadness, Anger, Disgust, and Fear. In the Inside Out movie, all humans have a version of these emotions inside of their brain. The story, however, follows a human character named Riley and her emotion characters.

The Inside Out movie may seem like a children’s film at first glance. However, the story can teach anyone at any age about the complexity of emotions and the fundamentals of emotional intelligence. The film is surprisingly accurate about our emotional developments from a cognitive, developmental, and clinical psychology aspect. It was perceived so well in the field of mental health, some journals have even been published on the topic. (See: Why patients and doctors should watch Inside Out.)

Below we’ll discuss some lessons we can learn from watching the Inside Out movie and how we can apply them to better regulate our own emotions. Furthermore, we will explore how to reduce stress through incorporating different understandings of our emotions.

Emotional Regulation Lessons from The Inside Out Movie

Anthropomorphic Thinking

A research inspired by the Inside Out movie explored anthropomorphic thinking – thinking of emotions as their own people – and how it influences our behavior. Scientists asked all participants in a study to recall their saddest moments in life. The group was then split into two, where one group was asked to write down what their sadness would be like if it were a person, while the other was asked to write the emotional impact and effects of this sadness. The group that anthropomorphized their sadness reported lower levels of sadness after the writing exercise. They then asked all the participants to make consumer choices for a meal and a computer for themselves. The group that anthropomorphized their sadness was able to make healthier choices for food and more practical choices for their computers instead of an indulgent choice.

Researchers believe that decreased sadness leads to better self-control when making decisions. Furthermore, they believe this leads to healthier choices when looking for how to reduce stress. The study suggests that “anthropomorphizing sadness may be a new way to regulate emotion”, as it makes us feel better and helps us resist temptation. On the other hand, when researchers asked participants to anthropomorphize happiness, it actually lead to lower levels of happiness. Therefore, not all emotions are recommended for this method.

Clashing Emotions in the Inside Out Movie

We all have moments where we want to block certain inconvenient and less pleasant emotions. At one point in the Inside Out movie, the emotion character Joy tries to block Sadness. This leads to the main character, Riley, completely shutting down emotionally. The film not only addresses sadness, but also other discomforting emotions such as disgust, fear, and anger. It then goes onto highlight the important roles these emotions play as an integral part of our life experience. For example, disgust keeps us safe by avoiding potential harm (poison, etc.), fear allows us to take precautions, and anger acts as a means to express frustrations and defend ourselves. These negative emotions can be hard to embrace because we associate them with being negative. However, the Inside Out movie teaches us to embrace these emotions too.

Mindfully Embrace ALL Emotions

When we’re developing emotions, it can be hard to understand healthy coping methods or how to reduce stress. This can be especially true in our teenage phase of development. A common regulation strategy is “emotional suppression”, which is to suppress certain unwanted emotions. However, experts believe this can lead to anxiety and depression. Instead, we need to learn how to validate all emotions, the good and the bad. For example in the Inside Out movie, after trying to block Sadness, Joy tries to shift the brain’s emotional responses to exclusively positive ones. Research actually finds this method to sometimes increase depressive feelings. In the end, the film shows the acceptance of sadness as an emotion that is also as important as other positive feelings.

Experts describe this acceptance as “mindfully embracing” an emotion. This means to objectively observe our own emotions without judgment nor dramatic reaction. This allows us to create space for a healthy response to better deal with our situation. Once we embrace even the seemingly negative, we can fuel those emotions towards positive growth. For example, recognizing sadness can help us develop empathy and strengthen relationships. It can even provide us with insights on how to reduce stress, if we understand how to embrace our feelings properly. For example, in the Inside Out movie, Joy learns to recognize that Sadness is behind feelings of empathy and regret. Both of these feelings prove to be very important throughout Riley’s emotional journey in the Inside Out movie.

Understanding Emodiversity Through the Inside Out Movie

Emodiversity – emotional diversity – is our ability to experience a diverse range of emotions in fairly equal measures. Once we start embracing all of our emotions, we become capable of experiencing emodiversity. The Inside Out movie shows this as the character Joy learns to accept that all emotions, positive or negative, have an important role in Riley’s life. By the end of the Inside Out movie, all emotions are working in harmony. A 2014 study with 37,000 respondents revealed that people who experience “emodiversity”, or a rich array of both positive and negative emotions, demonstrate better mental and physical health. An appropriate emotional journey, as well as finding how to reduce stress in a healthy manner, are what we need to achieve higher levels of happiness. Just as the saying goes, “variety is the spice of life.”

According to this study, the more emotions we feel for a particular situation, the more detailed understanding and perspectives we gain. As a result, this leads to better behavioral choices and potential greater happiness. Researchers also found that people high in emodiversity were less likely to be depressed than people high in positive emotion alone. In terms of physical health, a second study pointed out that emodiversity leads to less medication use, lower health care costs, fewer doctor visits, better diet, more exercise, and better smoking habits. Surprisingly, the effect of emodiversity on physical health is proven strong.

As we can see, enriched emotions are vital to our well-being and seeking how to reduce stress in a healthy manner. If you’d like to know where you stand on the scale of emodiversity, you can try a test at Emodiversity.org to see where you’re at.

Watching the Inside Out Movie from a New Perspective

Cultivating self-awareness regarding our emotions is vital for emotional regulation and finding how to reduce stress appropriately. The Inside Out movie teaches us a few important tips on how we can better regulate these emotions. First, anthropomorphizing our emotions helps our negative emotions feel less intense and give us better self-control. Second, mindfully embracing all of our emotions, even the negative, allows us to avoid emotional suppression and helps us grow and deal with situations in a healthier manner. Third, fully feeling our authentic emotions through emodiversity can be beneficial for us both mentally and physically. Understanding and embracing these lessons will help us become a better version of ourselves, as well as finding healthy ways to relieve stress regularly, leading to a happier and healthier lifestyle.

Never considered Inside Out as more than a children’s movie? It’s time to watch or rewatch it again from a mental regulation standpoint. You might be pleasantly surprised to find more insights and tips that go beyond what this article covers!

Image: Unsplash
Reference:

A new strategy to alleviate sadness: Bring the emotion to life: Researchers show how characters from the movie “Inside Out” hold the key to regulating emotions and behavior. (2019, October 3). ScienceDaily. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/10/191003103515.htm


Chen, F., Chen, R. P., & Yang, L. (2019). When Sadness Comes Alive, Will It Be Less Painful? The Effects of Anthropomorphic Thinking on Sadness Regulation and Consumption. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 30(2), 277–295. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcpy.1137


Docter, Pete. (Director). (2015). Inside Out [Film]. Walt Disney Pictures Pixar Animation Studios


Four Lessons from “Inside Out” to Discuss With Kids. (2015, July 14). Greater Good. https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/four_lessons_from_inside_out_to_discuss_with_kids


How the GGSC Helped Turn Pixar “Inside Out.” (2015, June 19). Greater Good. https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_ggsc_turned_pixar_inside_out


Keltner, D., Oatley, K., & Jenkins, J. M. (2018). Understanding Emotions (4th ed.). Wiley.


Quoidbach, J., Gruber, J., Mikolajczak, M., Kogan, A., Kotsou, I., & Norton, M. I. (2014). Emodiversity and the emotional ecosystem. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143(6), 2057–2066. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038025


Variety is the Spice of Emotional Life. (2014, December 22). Greater Good. https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/variety_is_the_spice_of_emotional_life

The post How to Reduce Stress Instantly – The Inside Out Movie appeared first on SELF MIND.

Negative Experiences are a Part of Life

A Japanese university experimented to see how people socially share their experiences when they see images that evoke unpleasant feelings. When participants were left alone in a waiting room with a friend after seeing the unpleasant images, 95.3% of them told their friends about the images. Even when they were told not to disclose, 53% of them ended up talking about their experience a week later. Our desire to share bad experiences with others is so strong, and we struggle to keep it to ourselves.

In clinical psychology, verbalization of emotions is believed to have a cathartic effect that removes anxiety and tensions. Verbalizing emotions is also linked to better mental health, as it has significant implications for depression recovery. People seem to derive these effects from “cognitive” and “interpersonal” aspects of this behavior, which we will discuss below.

Emotional Support Stabilizes Our Feelings

Tough times can make us feel frustrated and anxious. When these experiences occur, our trust, self-image, perception of others, and the world can be shaken. We all desire to sort out what happened, why it happened, and know what kind of social support we can get. When there’s something out of our control, we feel the need to discuss it with peers so that we can restore our faith again. Receiving the emotional support from our peers makes us feel better about the mistakes we made. These are the “cognitive” reasons we vent our feelings to others.

Staying Connected to Society

When we’re upset, we tend to focus on ourselves and our negative experiences. As a result, we tend to forget about the rest of the world. We try to recover from the loneliness we experience during these times by sharing our negative experiences with friends and family. Our desire to communicate stems from wanting society to know how we’re feeling and to feel accepted through emotional support. This is the “interpersonal” reason why we talk about painful things.

Do We Want to Share Our Embarrassment?

It’s not rare to share the little embarrassing things that we experience. Like when we mess up during a presentation or trip on a flat surface. A Japanese university set to find out if and when students would talk to others about their saddest, angriest, and most embarrassing experiences. Researchers expected results to show that participants seldom shared their embarrassing experiences. However, 71.4 % of participants claimed to share their most embarrassing experiences with others. Also, more than half shared their experience almost immediately after it happened.

Everybody Shares Their Feelings with Others

Sharing feelings is part of our universal behavior. A social study of shared emotional behavior across six countries, including Belgium and Suriname, found no differences by country, age, or gender, in the way that humans shared emotions. Talking about embarrassing or upsetting occurrences seems to be a common phenomenon for men and women of all ages and backgrounds worldwide.

Nevertheless, it can be somewhat stressful for a listener to hear someone’s negative experience, as well as to provide undivided emotional support. It’s wiser to spread your venting among several people rather than dumping everything onto just one person.

Sharing difficult or embarrassing experiences is natural. We should always support our circle of family and friends to help each other get through these experiences.

→Looking to improve your mental health? Try the SELFMIND app FREE for 1 week!
If you’re looking for more tips on how to care for your mental health, check out some of our past blog posts!

Image: Unsplash

Reference:
Kawase, T. (2000). Why We Talk About Our Emotions: Why Do People Talk About Negative Emotions to Others? Bulletin of Miyazaki Municipal University Faculty of Humanities 7(1), 135-149.

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What is Email Fatigue?

Worldwide, roughly 306.4 billion emails are sent and received each day in 2020. Email traffic is projected to increase even more each year. Moreover, according to research by Edison Software, 74% of Americans feel overwhelmed by the emails they receive. In terms of email volume, 33% feel stressed when they receive too many emails.

Email Fatigue is a term in email marketing, and describes a state where we feel overwhelmed with handling emails. Most of us have likely tried to combat email fatigue and relieve stress in one way or another. For example, closely managing inboxes, or spending hours deleting unwanted messages.

The Effects of Email Engagement

The University of British Columbia published a 2014 study that tested the frequency of email-checking and its effects on wellbeing. For one week, 124 adult participants limited their email-checking to three times a day. Then, for the following week, they checked their emails for an unlimited number of times. When email usage was limited, participants felt less stress, tension, and were less distracted by incoming emails. With lower stress levels, their overall health and wellbeing also improved. Consequently, participants experienced positive outcomes such as higher mindfulness, increased self-perceived productivity, and better sleep quality.

According to a 2017 Jobvite survey, on average, 45% of Americans tend to check their email after work hours every day, many at the request of their employers. Many of us feel pressured to check our emails frequently for one reason or another. Another study found that monitoring work emails during non-work hours is detrimental to the health and wellbeing of not only employees, but their spouse and family members as well. Even when a person didn’t actually work, the expectation of availability over emails during non-work hours increased stress, which then leads to strain and conflict within family relationships.

University of California, Irvine found that it takes an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds for someone to regain focus after a distraction. In other words, constantly tending to emails throughout the day requires multi-tasking and scatters our focus. If we are always checking our emails, we’re not only decreasing focus time, we’re also spending additional time trying to regain that focus.

Ways to Relieve Stress from Email Fatigue

Allocate a Daily Email Allowance

Each person is different in the way they need to prioritize the amount spent on emails. Consequently, each person requires different ways to relieve stress from email fatigue for their wellness.

One way to limit email engagement is by setting the times we allow ourselves to check emails throughout the day. For example, set yourself to only check and respond to emails 3 times per day: morning, afternoon, and evening. Setting specific times like 9:00 am, 12:00 pm, and 5:00 pm, can also be helpful.

Another way to set boundaries is by assessing how much time we really need each day for email and communication. How much time do you spend checking notifications while you’re at work, on the bus, or waiting in line? A lot of these small moments of checking can be gathered into a few time frames. Consequently, we can stay more present in what we’re doing. Once you’re done with a self-assessment, set a few brief checks (5-10 minutes max) per day where you can reply to urgent emails, but also allocate a specific amount of time in your day where you can really concentrate and deal with emails.

Try to keep the email tab closed and notifications on phones turned off otherwise for optimum stress relief!

Better Email Management

Managing emails can feel mentally overwhelming if there’s a lot to go through. Sometimes, it’s not about the time spent on emails, but a matter of how we manage our workflow dealing with emails. Try to use email managing tools, or set up a filtering system for your inbox in a way where you won’t feel overwhelmed when you check-in.

An easy way to feel less clutter is by unsubscribing. For example, spend some time going through newsletters subscriptions and social media email notification settings. Our engagement and attention are exactly what many businesses want, and they’re becoming smarter in reaching us. Therefore, cutting some of the unwanted solicitations will bring more peace to our inbox. This activity alone can be a cathartic way to relieve stress.

Take an Email Sabbatical for Your Wellness

We all need time off to disconnect and reset once in a while. For example, if constant emails are clearly affecting your health and wellbeing, an email sabbatical can be a great solution to relieve stress. Some people do this when they go on vacation. Communicate with your boss, co-workers, and collaborators in advance and finish all necessary important email communications before a sabbatical. There are ways to set emails to filter and forward to certain addresses or give automated responses so that people know when they’ll get a response. This may require some planning and understanding, but an email sabbatical can be a great way to rejuvenate!

Healthy Relationships with the Internet

Electronic communication has become so integrated into our lives, but the constant reach can tire us out. If you felt like limiting emails could help your mental health and wellbeing, this article on social media detox may also be helpful!

If you’re looking for more tips on how to care for your mental health, check out some of our past blog posts!
→ Looking to improve your mental health? Try the SELFMIND app FREE for a week!

Image: Unsplash
Reference:

Becker, W. J., Belkin, L., & Tuskey, S. (2018). Killing me softly: Electronic communications monitoring and employee and spouse well-being. Academy of Management Proceedings, 2018(1), 12574. https://doi.org/10.5465/ambpp.2018.121
In-text citation


Business Wire. (2017, August 30). Edison Unveils 2017 State of Email Report on 35th Anniversary of Email. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170830005343/en/Edison-Unveils-2017-State-of-Email-Report-on-35th-Anniversary-of-Email


Jobvite. (2017). 2017 Job Seeker Nation Study. https://www.jobvite.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/2017_Job_Seeker_Nation_Survey.pdf


Kushlev, K., & Dunn, E. W. (2015). Checking email less frequently reduces stress. Computers in Human Behavior, 43, 220–228. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.11.005


Limit the Time You Spend on Email. (2014, November 2). Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2014/02/limit-the-time-you-spend-on-email


Mark, G., Gudith, D., & Klocke, U. (2008). The cost of interrupted work. Proceeding of the Twenty-Sixth Annual CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems – CHI ’08, 107–110. https://doi.org/10.1145/1357054.1357072


Statista. (2020, October 2). Number of e-mails per day worldwide 2017-2024. https://www.statista.com/statistics/456500/daily-number-of-e-mails-worldwide/


Stop Email Overload. (2015, August 12). Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2012/02/stop-email-overload-1

The post Instant Ways to Relieve Stress – Limit Time Spent on Emails appeared first on SELF MIND.

What is Emotional Differentiation?

One helpful technique in regulating our negative emotions is called emotional differentiation. In short, this refers to our ability to identify and label our emotions. Ph.D. at Harvard University, Erik Nook explains, “Some people are very specific in making sense of what they’re feeling, whereas other people might just say they feel bad, but can’t be more specific than that.”

Nook says our ability to differentiate emotions score high as a child. This is because we only start with very straight-forward single emotions to identify with. However, from childhood to adolescence, our emotional differentiation skills decrease to an all-time low. This is due to the shifting developments we deal with to understand complex emotions. This is part of the reason why we struggle to make sense of emotions during our teen phase. Then, as we grow into adulthood and gain more experience with complex emotions, our emotional differentiation skills tend to improve again. In other words, you learn how to control your emotions as you grow older. Emotional differentiation skills are also crucial in building our future emotional intelligence.

Why is Emotional Differentiation Important?

We Can’t Fix What We Don’t Understand

As adults, we all vary in our levels of emotional differentiation skills. For instance, a 2012 study at Michigan University asked participants to identify and note their emotions throughout the day for a week. As a result, emotional differentiation skills widely differed between depressed and healthy individuals.

• People vulnerable to stress have a vague understanding of how they feel and have more trouble differentiating their negative emotions.
• People resilient to stress are skilled at differentiating their negative emotions.

In other words, mentally healthy people put labels such as “anxiety” or “sadness” to their negative emotions. In contrast, people prone to stress tend to leave them unarticulated in one pile as “bad”. Therefore, unless we can clearly identify the core of our negative emotions, it becomes a challenge to help ourselves or reduce stress. Overall, the more you learn how to identify your emotions, the more you learn how to control your emotions in a healthy way.

Emotional Control and Coping Skills

Another 2015 joint study by George Mason University and Northeastern University found that emotional differentiation correlated with how well we could cope in intensely stressful situations.

• People with LOW emotional differentiation skills were up to 50% more likely to resort to unhealthy coping methods such as binge drinking, aggression, and self-injurious behaviors.
• People with HIGH emotional differentiation skills naturally down-regulated their neural reactivity in the brain regions that formed negative feelings. Thus, they experienced less anxiety and depressive disorders.

According to these findings, the experience of a negative emotion widely varies depending on our skills. Thus, this is an essential developmental processing skill that reduces our psychological problems and increases our sense of wellbeing.

How to Control Your Emotions Using Emotional Differentiation

Identify Negative Emotions

All of the above research teaches us that we should never over-simplify our negative emotions. Moreover, carrying a vague sense of terrible feelings will not help us in any way. Instead, let’s try to ask questions that assess these negative emotions. For example, are you feeling angry? If so, what’s one of the root emotions that’s causing this anger? In effect, focusing on identifying these feelings can instantly steal our attention away from experiencing the damaging effects of negativity. Consequently, you will have a better grasp on how to control your emotions and reduce stress in an appropriate manner.

The Negative Emotion List

However, it’s not easy to immediately identify our feelings in the heat of the moment. In this case, a reference list of negative emotions comes in handy. According to psychologist and California State University professor Tom G. Stevens, our primary negative emotions can be grouped into three main groups of anxiety, anger, and depression.

Emotional Control Takes Practice

Of course, there are many more emotions, and complex emotions can have more than one label. The lines between the emotion groups can also be blurry, as some emotions may overlap groups. In essence, try to create group categories and labels that work best for you. Write them down on a piece of paper or on post-its. Whenever you need to reduce stress, take a look at the list of words and try to see if you can identify and organize the source of your feelings. Above all, ientifying and understanding feelings is the cathartic step towards better understanding how to control your emotions.

Overall, if we want to help ourselves, we must first allow ourselves to understand how we feel. Although it may seem unpleasant to explore negative emotions, this is an essential step in developing our emotional intelligence skills. Next time you feel “bad” don’t discard it so quickly. Instead, pull out your chart of feelings to find better coping methods and figure out how best to control your emotions.

Looking to improve your mental health?

Try the SELF MIND app FREE for 1 week!
If you’re looking for more tips on how to care for your mental health, check out some of our past blog posts!

Images: Unsplash
Reference:

Demiralp, E., Thompson, R. J., Mata, J., Jaeggi, S. M., Buschkuehl, M., Barrett, L. F., Ellsworth, P. C., Demiralp, M., Hernandez-Garcia, L., Deldin, P. J., Gotlib, I. H., & Jonides, J. (2012). Feeling Blue or Turquoise? Emotional Differentiation in Major Depressive Disorder. Psychological Science, 23(11), 1410–1416. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797612444903


Kashdan, T. B., Barrett, L. F., & McKnight, P. E. (2015). Unpacking Emotion Differentiation. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 24(1), 10–16. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721414550708


Reuell, P. (2018, September 21). Harvard researchers examine evolution of emotion differentiation. Harvard Gazette. https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2018/09/harvard-researchers-examine-evolution-of-emotion-differentiation/


Stevens, T. G. (n.d.). Choose To Be Happy and Overcome Negative Emotions such as anxiety, anger, or depression. You Can Choose To Be Happy. Retrieved August 26, 2020, from https://web.csulb.edu/%7Etstevens/anxiety,_anger,_and_depression.htm

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Causes for Car Accidents by Location

According to the WHO, while the car ownership population has increased, the ratio to car accident death has not changed.

Low-income countries almost never decline in car accident deaths and have 3 times a higher probability for death. These countries and poor regions don’t have the infrastructure to create sidewalks and bike lanes or don’t have laws that hold speeding and drunk drivers accountable. Some regions have very lax rules for driving and this also accounts for reasons of car accidents.

However, developed countries that don’t have these problems still face car accident issues. The most common reasons are; falling asleep behind the wheel, drunk drivers, and elderlys who mishandle control.

Among the many reasons, it is known that our emotions contribute to these errors as well. Dangerous driving and road rage happens when a driver’s emotions take over. Strong emotions create certain beliefs to over capacitate a driver’s abilities, which then results in car accidents.

Road Rage Statistics

The NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) defines aggressive driving as “the operation of a motor vehicle in a manner that endangers or is likely to endanger persons or property.” Road rage can result in traffic violations, and can sometimes even escalate to a criminal offense.

According to an AAA survey in the US, “Regardless of gender, nearly 8 in 10 (79%) American drivers demonstrate aggressive behaviors when behind the wheel.” Dr. Leon James, who has done extensive research on driving psychology, also demonstrates evidence that road rage has become a cultural norm in the United States.

Although the degree of aggressive behavior varies, surveys indicate that many people around the world have encountered aggressive behavior while on the road.

How Does Anger Influence Driving?

According to the NRSPP (National Road Safety Partner Program), “anger makes us feel more confident, leading us to overestimate our control and make stereotypical judgments.” In other words, aggressive driving is a manifestation of our emotional state.

There are 4 big reasons anger is triggered on the road:

• Traffic Obstruction: Long traffic lights and traffic jam
• Traffic Violation: Witnessing other cars that don’t obey traffic laws
• Traffic Manners: Rude and inconsiderate gestures such as honking and cutting in
• Traffic Danger: Almost hitting another car or sudden animals/humans jumping in front

• The likelihood of crash involvement is 35 times higher
• Accident risk increases nearly 10 times

Therefore, it is important we learn how to manage anger and know how to control our emotional states when we take the wheel.

Anger Management and Risk Control

How to Better Manage Anger on the Road

Anger is said to reach its precipice after 6 seconds. According to how the brain functions, there’s also about a 6-second gap between us feeling angry to gaining back rational control. Therefore, the first 6 seconds are crucial when we try to handle our emotions while out on the road.

Anger management helps us better deal with our anger, and is a great way to train our emotional response to avoid road rage. As an example, here are things to try for the first 6 seconds when you feel angry or stressed out while driving:

• Take deep breaths
• Simple mathematics (Example: Start from 100 and keep subtracting 3)
• Rate your anger (Objective quantifying gives us the space to gain rationale)

According to a survey here are a few methods that people typically choose to relax after a road rage incident:

• Listen to music or a podcast: 30.5%
• Think of something more peaceful: 19.2%
• Letting off steam by yelling in the car: 9.5%

Don’t Let Road Rage Take Over

Any driver should assess risk factors and learn how to control their anger before it turns into road rage. In England, drivers are required to take a Hazard Perception Test (measures the driver’s ability to recognise potentially dangerous situations on the road with appropriate response) when getting their license. Overconfidence often causes risk-taking behavior too. Therefore, in Sweden, drivers are required to go through Risk Sensitivity Training where discussion and feedbacks are given on the weak points of each individual driver.

It’s very important that we keep our stress levels low so that we don’t exhibit aggressive behaviors that could lead to accidents. Anger management is crucial to staying safe for the sake of ourselves and others on the road.

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References：

Budget Direct & National Road Safety Partnership Program. (2020, September). Road Rage Study & Statistics | Car Research & Statistics — Budget Direct™. Budget Direct. https://www.budgetdirect.com.au/car-insurance/research/road-rage-study.html

Carslake, J., Fetalvero, G., Cooke, K., Xavier, C., Stephens, A., Khouzami, Y., & Roberts, T. (2020). NRSPP Australia » NRSPP Fact Sheet: Aggressive Driving – What Is Aggressive Driving? National Road Safety Partnership Program (NRSPP). https://www.nrspp.org.au/resources/nrspp-fact-sheet-aggressive-driving-what-is-aggressive-driving/

Covington, T., & LinkedIn, T. C. (2021, April 20). Road Rage Statistics in 2021. The Zebra. https://www.thezebra.com/resources/research/road-rage-statistics/

Gross, A. (2020, December 10). Survey Says: Men Are More Aggressive Behind the Wheel. AAA Newsroom. https://newsroom.aaa.com/2020/12/survey-says-men-are-more-aggressive-behind-the-wheel/

James, L. (2000, August). The Effect of Age, Gender, and Type of Car Driven Across the States. DrDriving.Org. http://www.drdriving.org/surveys/interpretations.htm

Ogawa, K. (1993). Risk Perception and Hazard Perception. The Faculty of Human Sciences, Osaka University, 19, 27–40. https://doi.org/10.18910/5893

Precht, L., Keinath, A., & Krems, J. F. (2017). Effects of driving anger on driver behavior – Results from naturalistic driving data. Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour, 45, 75–92. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trf.2016.10.019

Renge, K. (2000). Psychological processes of risk-taking behavior in driving and new approach toward promoting risk-avoiding behavior. IATSS Review, 26(1), 12–22. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/view/download/digidepo_8217800_po_26-1-06.pdf?contentNo=1&alternativeNo=

Richardson, R. (2018, January 28). Who Is In More Accidents? Men or Women? | OSV | Learning Centre. OSV. https://www.osv.ltd.uk/iam-research-confirms-men-more-likely-to-be-involved-in-crashes-than-women/

Shimofure, T., & Kiyama, K. (2016). A study on introduction significance of anger management to health and physical education. Annual Reports of the Faculty of Education, Gunma University. Art, Technology, Health and Physical Education, and Science of Human Living Series, 52, 57–70. https://gair.media.gunma-u.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/10087/11067/1/07%20GKGEI-KIYAMA.pdf

Stuster, J. (2004, March). Aggressive Driving Enforcement: Evaluation of Two Demonstration Programs. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/34137

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What Kind of Tears are Effective?

There are several types of tears when we talk about tears. For one, there is the basic functional tear called the basal tears. These are tears that are constantly released to keep the eyes from drying up. The second type is reactive tears. These tears are produced when the eye is stimulated through dust getting into the eye, or when we cut onions. Finally, emotional tears. These tears are considered to be effective in relieving stress.
Note that reactive tears from cutting onions don’t help with stress-relief because it doesn’t accompany any emotion.

Why is Crying Good for Us?

Emotional tears are released in large quantities through the tear glands when a person feels deeply moved. Our autonomic nervous system has both sympathetic and parasympathetic nerves, and it’s generally believed that a sympathetic-dominant state promotes tension and stress, while a parasympathetic-dominant state allows the brain to relax. Tearful responses are triggered when our minds are stimulated through emotions of sadness, frustration, or feeling deeply moved. Shedding these emotional tears relaxes the sympathetic nervous system, instantly creating a state of parasympathetic dominance.

In general, we should cope with stress through mental and physical resting, so that our parasympathetic nervous system gradually switches into a dominant state for natural relaxation. To effectively do this, it usually requires meditation and self-reflect or the use of methods that help switch mind states like aromatherapy. In comparison, our tears can effectively switch the nervous system into a parasympathetic-dominant state in an instant. Our tears can instantly reset any stress that the mind is carrying.

How to Hold Proactive Cry Sessions

The stress-relieving effects of crying have attracted a lot of attention in recent years, especially in Japan. A new activity called “Rui-katsu” (literally “tear activity”) is emerging where people are encouraged to shed tears together to manage their mental wellbeing. Rui-katsu group cry sessions are held across the country gathering people under various stresses. They watch emotional movies and talk about sad stories with each other to trigger tears.

Of course, there’s no need to attend a public cry session event in order to shed stress-relieving tears. Below we’ll share tips on how to cry and stress relief at the comfort of your home.

Sympathize Through Stories

Stress-relief can be more effective when we cry and sympathize with compassion for what others are going through – like when we invest in a movie character or story plot. This is supposed to be better than crying for our own negative experiences and emotions of anger or sadness. Events that are not directly related to us doesn’t require any difficult action from our side to resolve the situation. This is why we feel more refreshed and exhilarated after shedding tears for others because, in the end, the character’s problem is not ours to solve. Try to hold a self-cry session through the power of tear-jerker movies!

Find What Triggers The Tears

People who generally lack opportunities for tears may find it difficult to cry through typical movies that strike our heartstrings. Some people are easily moved by sports games, while others are easily moved by the innocence of animals or children. Knowing what moves your heart and what stimulates a natural tear flow is essential in crying more efficiently, and holding personal cry sessions.

Create an Environment to Focus on Crying

If crying in front of others or holding cry sessions aren’t your thing, create an environment where you feel safe to cry alone without concern. Prepare tissues and handkerchiefs or have a cushion or stuffed animal to hold onto. It may be difficult to concentrate on a movie or TV series when our body is tired and deprived of sleep. When we engage in cry sessions, we want to make sure that we’re ready in terms of physical condition and environment so we can concentrate.

Wash Away Stress Through Tears

People today are under a lot of daily stress due to complex relationships and social anxiety. If we are exposed to excessive stress and do not have a way to relieve it, the accumulated stress may eventually lead to serious mental conditions such as depression. It’s beneficial to occasionally return to our childhood state of mind and just wash away our sorrows through crying.

Image: Unsplash
References:
Arita, H. (2007). Rui-Katsu and Stress Relief. Folia Pharmacologica Japonica, 129(2), 99~103. doi: 10.1254/fpj.129.99

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