Speak Up. Reach Out is Freshered's mental health initiative.
Dealing with emotions like stress and sadness is never easy. Trust me, I’ve been there. Here is how I cope with unwanted emotions.
Listening To Music
Music is the one of the best emotional releases. Some may use music as a way of distracting themselves, listening to upbeat pop to push out negative emotions. I on the other hand prefer to play music that sounds the way I’m feeling.
More often than not this results in me crying (that is assuming I was listening to music while sad). Despite many making it seem so, crying is not a negative expression of emotion. I always find that, after crying, I feel a lot better and a lot lighter.
I have a playlist on Spotify titled “Pulling On My Heartstrings” (dramatic… I know) that I play any time I’m feeling low. I cannot recommend making your own sad playlist enough.
Creative Expression
Expressing how you feel through creative methods can help you to understand how you’re feeling as well as expelling negativity. My chosen creative expression when dealing with unwanted emotions is poetry. I am by no means a poet, but I find that, whenever I’m down, I turn to my notes app where I house my poems and add another one to the collection. They aren’t for anyone to read, just for me.
One of my close friends turns to painting to deal with their emotions. They tend to paint a word or a phrase that expresses how they are feeling and then turn it into a beautiful work of art.
Your options are endless. You could choose to write poems, paint, sing or write a diary entry. You could even try out a few methods and see which works best.
How Do You Meditate Properly?
Meditation can be hard to get into. The first few times you try it, you may find that you don’t feel relaxed at all. That’s perfectly normal. It takes time to learn how to let go and truly relax through meditation but it’s not impossible.
I stress very easily. My first few times meditating I found that it was stressing me out even more, so I wasn’t ‘de-stressing’ at all. What I had to do was get rid of that impatience.
It took time but I finally learnt and the best way to do so is through guided meditations. If you’re new to meditating then definitely don’t do it solo, you’ll be doing too much thinking. Guided meditations can be found on music/audio streaming sites and even for free on YouTube!
The most important things to remember when meditating are the following:
- Ensure you are in a quiet space. Noise will not allow you to relax!
- No multitasking. There can’t be anything else going on at the same time. So don’t leave your food in the oven while meditating because that won’t allow you to fully let go.
- Give yourself time. I tend to nap after meditating; give yourself time to relax and sleep off those unwanted emotions.
Cooking
Cooking may not be everyone’s cup of tea. However, I find cooking to be very therapeutic. I see it as an art. The art of chopping, throwing together seasonings, cooking and then being rewarded with a delicious meal. What’s not to love about it (besides the washing up)!
My favourite things to cook when feeling down are comfort foods or meals that remind me of home. My all-time favourite comfort food is Mac-and-Cheese – the cheesier the better.
