15 Jan Managing Negative Emotion
If you’ve been exposed to A.A. Milne’s famous character Winnie-the-Pooh, then you probably also know Pooh’s friends. The one most pertinent to this discussion is Eeyore, the gray stuffed donkey who is generally pessimistic, gloomy, and depressed. Everyone knows at least one real-life Eeyore who always tends to see the glass of life as half empty. This type of person can be difficult to deal with, especially if you are in a position to manage or help them, as you might be in a life coaching situation.
But, rather than trying to change their whole disposition on life, a better approach might be to try and understand what contributes to their pessimism or lack of hope. Every person has a story that if understood by someone would help to explain that pessimistic person’s behavior and attitude.
With that in mind, another related question needs to be addressed: Are there truly “negative” emotions in contrast to “positive” ones? Or, are all emotions simply an expression of what is going on for that particular person at a given time? For example, most people consider anger to be a “negative” emotion. But, anger is a legitimate expression of feelings.
Perhaps the larger question isn’t whether there are negative or positive emotions, but rather how to best express a difficult emotion, such as anger, grief, disappointment, sadness, etc. Most people overestimate their emotional intelligence, or their ability to make sense of their own emotion and communicate it effectively to another person. Perhaps we should put the emphasis on better emotional awareness and communication instead of trying to suppress or avoid what is often termed “negative” emotion.
In the final assignment of the course, you will have the opportunity to explore this landscape of emotion in greater detail. Specifically, you will examine what we often refer to as negative emotion and how to manage it in others from the life coaching perspective. It is stating the obvious to say that when someone expresses strong, negative-like emotion, it can be very challenging. You’ll have an opportunity to see how you might approach these types of emotion using the framework of positive psychology as a guide.
Upon successful completion of this assignment, you will be able to:
· Describe how to manage negative emotion using life coaching principles from positive psychology.
Background Information
An important part of this assignment pertains to the final question: How might you view your own “negative” emotion if you applied a principle or two from positive psychology? As a future life coach, you need to have a firm understanding and comfort level with your own emotion. When your inner life is familiar to you, you can be comfortable entering into the inner life of another person. For example, if you have worked through where your anger tends to come from and have learned to express it in a way that lets others hear you and respond favorably, then you will be effective in helping others with their anger. As a life coach, your own honest work on yourself will always enhance your work with others.
Instructions
1. Read Chapter 12, “Negative Emotions in the Context of Positive Psychology” in your textbook Positive Psychology in Coaching: Applying Science to Executive and Personal Coaching.
2. Review the article “ Why We Need Both Negative and Positive Emotions (new tab) .”
3. After completing these steps, respond to the following questions using at least four substantive paragraphs:
a. How can you tell the difference between a person who is discouraged and could be helped with coaching from a person with discouragement who would benefit more from therapy?
b. Comment on the following points: Some people believe that emotions shouldn’t be labeled as positive or negative. In other words, why should we say that anger is negative and happiness is positive? Can’t anger or sadness or discouragement be positive if viewed through the lens of positive psychology? Explain your response.
c. How could you begin to see some of your “negative” emotions differently by applying a principle from positive psychology?
4. Be specific in your responses and use concrete examples from the textbook, supplemental readings, outside sources, and personal experiences to frame your writing.
5. Use at least two scholarly resources in addition to the readings assigned in this workshop.
a. Use in-text citations and APA7 format for direct quotations and references to the readings
