Reducing negative feelings

[firecat]

What works for me to reduce irritation is to concentrate completely on the feelings, invite them in (which is different from dwelling on them. Hard to explain). Then they suffuse through my body and there is no longer a part of me trying to push them away. For me, the pushing away is what maintains the negative emotion.

This works with physical irritations, such as itches, as well as mental irritations.

It sometimes works for fear. I can process low levels of fear more easily if I let my body twitch and do nervous things. Fear tends to be stronger for me if I try to contain my body language, and if I do the standard "breathe deeply" things, it also get stronger because it feels pushed against.