Interpreting negative emotions for positive change
“Turning Negative Emotions into Your Advantage” by Yoshihito Naito
By Jin Yu-young
As human beings, we feel a large spectrum of emotions from uncontrollable bliss to spiraling grief. While we rejoice in some of them, such as happiness and triumph, we hide and are ashamed of others, like anger or jealousy.
In the book “Turning Negative Emotions into Your Advantage,” best-selling author and one of Japan's most famous psychologists Yoshihito Naito, tells readers how we can re-focus our negative energy into bringing about positive results. The book was recently translated into Korean by Park Jae-young.
Naito first explains that bad emotions are not “bad” in and of themselves, they are merely indicators of unfavorable situations. They are useful as they give us warning signals, insights into our inner selves, and can be even more telling than positive emotions.
Rather than rejecting these emotions and hating ourselves for feeling them, the author stresses we must learn to accept that they are an integral part of us. “Once we learn the proper way to utilize negative emotions, they can be a crucial turning point in our lives,” says Yoshihito.
We can reinterpret negative emotions as opportunities for positive change. For example, anxiety can be a catalyst to become more productive, shame can be a signal to help rather than burden others, and pessimistic thoughts can lead to prudence.
We can also control to a certain extent, the impact of such negative emotions by mentally preparing ourselves for difficult situations. By doing so, the emotional toll from such events will be much more manageable.
Each chapter of the book is designated to a particular emotion and how we can spin it to our advantage. The author backs up his stance with science and explains previous research results. Like in the chapter about worrying, for example, Yoshihito claims that the more someone worries, the higher chance he or she will bring about favorable results. He supports this claim by mentioning a study done by Adam Perkins, a British scholar, who published a study proving this point.
In total, the author provides over 40 tactics to capitalize on negative emotions. We can do this without having to change anything about ourselves, and merely readjusting our focus. Through this book, Yoshihito emphasizes that there are pros and cons to all situations, and that accepting life as it comes, rather than selectively welcoming parts while rejecting others, will work in our favor.
Jin Yu-young is a Korea Times intern.