Whether you’re trying to manifest your dreams, trying to overcome depression, or simply want to have a better day today than you did yesterday, learning how to respond to negative emotions is an essential skill that can help you to lead a happier and more inspired life.

In this post I’ll outline key tips that Abraham Hicks teaches on how you can deal with negative emotions when they arise because – like it or not – sooner or later you’re going to feel bad…and that’s ok.

Learn more about Abraham’s 5 Steps to Alignment.

What To Do When You Have Negative Thoughts

Often, when we feel bad, we have a tendency to think that everything is collapsing around us. The progress you have made appears to have disappeared, and normal life stresses can easily turn into seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

Fortunately, there is a clear system you can use to help you get into the vortex, and begin to experience the world from a more positive state.

1. Accept Where You Are

The first step is simply to accept where you are. This doesn’t mean that you choose to wallow in your negativity and remain depressed or angry at the circumstances around you. It means that you have to acknowledge that, at this moment, you are not thinking (or acting) from your highest perspective. Acknowledging this point is a crucial step, because it begins to turn your mind away from the negative circumstances, and towards the desire to feel better.

Accepting where you are also helps you to realize that, no matter how practiced you may be at raising your vibration quickly, you probably can’t immediately jump from an extremely negative state to an extremely positive state. The Law of Attraction won’t let you move immediately from a state of depression to a state of love. So, you have to work yourself through a step-by-step process to begin feeling better gradually.

2. Know That Your Negative Emotions Are Helping You

The second step is to understand the role that negative emotions play in helping you to lead a better life. One of the biggest obstacles we have towards overcoming negativity is the belief that our negative emotions are bad.

When we think our emotions are bad or wrong in some way, we end up berating ourselves and increasing the negativity.

Related Post: What To Do When You Wake Up Depressed.

Instead, realize that your negative moods are just as important as your positive moods. They help you to know that your current thoughts are out of alignment with your Inner Being, and they even outline the roadmap for you to move from where you are to where you want to be.

3. Get Into Alignment

Only when you accept the first two ideas above can you begin the process of moving into alignment with your aims.

You can click here to see a list of the 22 processes for alignment from Ask and It Is Given, but the basic premise is simple: you want to move from your spefici negative thoughts to more general negative thoughts. This slows your momentum and allows you to begin to respond to the world more favorably.

Then, find a general positive thought, and gradually work to increase the momentum of the positive thought by becoming more specific about it. In this way, you can move across the emotional grid, and begin to feel the state of energy you want to express.

, and begin to feel the state of energy you want to express.

Abraham explains this process in more detail in the video below.

Practical Tips for Dealing With Depression, Sadness, and Other Negative Emotions

If you want to learn more about how to change your vibration from a different perspective, you might be interested in reading more about Bob Proctor’s method for shifting paradigms. In it, he explains how the key to any change you want is always through raising your awareness and your energy.