LeadWithGOOD June 2016 | Page 14

3 Spiritual Ways to Handle Negative Emotions - Aditi Verma “Judge nothing, you will be happy. Forgive everything, you will be happier. Love everything, you will be happiest.” ~Sri Chinmoy Each one of us goes through negative emotions from time to time. Anger, frustration, pain, disappointment, etc. are all negative emotions and one cannot completely avoid them. It is completely normal to feel such emotions. However, it is also important to be aware of the cause of these negative emotions and make every effort to overcome them to avoid any damaging health problems. Several early morning discussions with my father-in-law on spirituality and negative emotions made me recognize that Acceptance, Forgiveness and Unconditional Love are 3 ultimate ways to free yourselves of negative emotional burden. These may be tough to practice but are worth the challenge and here is why: 1. ACCEPTANCE How often do you judge people around you? How often do you get annoyed by their action or behavior? Accepting the people the way they are is one way you can try to prevent the buildup of negative emotions. Not everyone in this world is here to make us happy. Our encounter 14 with people has many different purposes, and almost all of these experiences are meant to teach us some lesson in life. These encounters help us grow in life. Just few months ago, in June 2015, my family (myself, my husband, our 6 year old son and 1