Feeling Bad Is Actually Good 163
Specifically, fear- based (that is, fight- or- f light) and anxiety-
based (that is, worry and avoidance) reactions help people
survive and avoid injury (Perkins and Corr 2014). These
emotional reactions certainly are instrumental in nature;
without either emotion, the human population might be
very different (for one thing, there would be far fewer of us!).
Sadness is yet another example of a negative emotion that
has adaptive properties (Forgas 2014b). Specifically, it has
been shown that sadness can activate cognitive and behav-
ioral strategies that are well suited to managing the require-
ments of a demanding emotional situation (Frijda 1986). To
review, negative emotions encompass a wide array of useful
functions, including (a) motivating individual behavior, (b)
guiding thoughts, attention, and memory, (c) communicat-
ing information to yourself and others, and (d) prompting
additional useful emotional experiences.
Practice Take a moment to consider how your anxiety has both
motivating and adaptive properties and contrast these with how
you actually respond to your emotions in real life. For example,
perhaps you characteristically avoid that which makes you anxious,
but in reality, your emotion is prompting you to confront and over-
come your fear.
Mindf ully Accepting Emotions
Mindfulness has been shown to confer a number of
benefits for successful regulation of emotions, including
fostering acceptance of both positive and negative emo-
tions. Research on mindfulness has consistently shown
that higher dispositional mindfulness, or one’s awareness and