This video explores the importance of acknowledging and accepting negative emotions as a part of being a whole person. It provides practical steps, such as practicing self-compassion, to help individuals manage and react to these emotions in a healthy way.

The fact that it's so common to have difficulty communicating any emotion other than happy and good shows how little credence has been given to the emotional whole. Phrases like "emotions are for the weak" and concepts like "toxic positivity" only further showcase this. We're admonished for being "Debbie Downers" and advised to "keep a stiff upper lip," denouncing, ignoring, or avoiding negative emotions, which is likely some of the worst advice ever. Instead of integrating and maturing, we've chosen amputation, and since it's never been openly out there, most of us have little idea how to deal. Negative emotions are an integral part of being a full person. As such, we need to learn how to care for ourselves, acknowledging this aspect, and teach ourselves how to react in a healthy way, rather than being inactive or making it worse. 1. **Acknowledge and Accept Your Emotions** Seems simple enough to say, "I am angry and ashamed," so why does it stick in our throats? Honest acknowledgment like this may have been disciplined out, being slandered as shameful, or taken as an indication that you are wrong for that feeling. You may have been told the right way is to shut it away and maybe dress it up as something else. Wait, would you ever put a cork in a volcano? You know what we mean. Going "la la la, I don't hear you" to negative emotions doesn't make them magically dissipate into the ether; they ripen until they're ready to burst like rotten fruit. The result is something destructive to yourself, like depression or maybe harming others. When negative emotion yells, "I'm getting angry, you won't like me when I'm angry," don't hide the beast away. Pull up a chair and be there when it hits its peak. Accepting the emotion and letting it do its thing reveals the extreme point is temporary. On their own, emotions can't hurt you; that's what your reaction to them decides. This acknowledgment is the first fundamental step in a process on how to get a handle on the negative. The next step is… 2. **Practice Self-Compassion** Great, so negative emotion and I are talking, and I feel like garbage. What now? Hey now, understand you're not garbage; you are a complete, valid, whole being who deserves support. Confused? We understand you may have been taught that any show of negative emotion makes you a lesser person, undeserving of support and love. And that is a lie. The concern and love you have for yourself is real and important. Practice self-empathy. Self-empathy is not "what I feel is more important than anyone else"; it's a practice of being able to say, "I was wrong and I feel bad." This means that I'm capable of emotion, not stunted. I am and always was valid for feeling and acknowledging I screwed up. In fact, being able to understand you're still the same good, solid you, even when you stumble.