Winning the lottery takes a lot of luck. However, in order to increase the chances of being lucky and win the lottery , it can helpful to transform negative emotions into positive energy. Many self-help authors suggest to avoid negative emotions such as anger, anxiety, depression, sadness, and guilt. However, I think their analysis and recommendations are incomplete because they fail to understand the distinction between non-judgmentally accepting a negative emotion and expressing it in a healthy manner versus reacting poorly to the negative emotion. My hope is this article will give you some suggestions for managing painful emotions and expressing them in a healthy manner. Expressing your emotions in a healthy manner will increase the chances of you being in a positive mindset, connecting to your inner world and becoming luckier , and winning the lottery.
First, it is helpful to understand that emotions are not black or white. Rather, there is a range of intensity in emotions. For example, a person is not either angry or not angry. Rather, anger could be on a continuum of intensity ranging on a scale of 1 – 10. Anger levels 1-3 represents no anger or perhaps repressed, denied or passive anger or bypassing the emotion. During this range of emotion (in the 1 – 3 range), people may be denying or repressing their emotion or anger (or sadness or anxiety), which is not healthy and decreases positive energy. A person may appear to be calm or happy, but really they are bottling up their emotion or avoiding dealing with an emotion. This is the risk of self-help authors telling someone to just be happy, think positive thoughts, or avoid negative emotions. Many psychologists actually characterize this response of avoiding the actual emotion as being passive, denial, or repression. Being passive or avoidant may have a short term benefit of avoiding the experience of feeling a painful emotion or avoiding confronting someone who we are angry at. However, it has a long term negative consequence of the negative emotion actually becoming worse because it was not dealt with, future outbursts, resentment towards others and self, as well as risking future boundary violations that were not initially addressed. It is also potentially inauthentic and dishonest when we avoid negative emotions because we are not being true to how we are actually feeling about our self or others.
On the other end of the emotional spectrum, anger levels in the 7 – 10 range would be extreme or aggressive anger (or depression or anxiety). Aggressive anger is usually characterized by anger (or the anxiety or sadness) controlling you, leading to acts of aggression such as yelling, intimidation, threats, insults, or violence and consequently feelings of guilt or regret after the uncontrolled expression of anger. At this level the emotion, whether it be anger or sadness or anxiety, is controlling your behavior and functioning, rather than you staying in control of your reaction to the emotion. This type of aggression hurts your chances of being lucky too and decreases the chances of winning the lottery.
Thus, anger, and all emotions (grief, anxiety, sadness, depression) vary in their range or intensity of the emotion. Our response to that intensity of emotion can affect whether we handle the emotion in a healthy or unhealthy manner and use it to create the positive energy we need to win the lottery. If we can learn to identify our emotion and then identify the intensity of the emotion, then it becomes easier to manage and express it in a healthy or assertive manner (4-6 range) or prevent it from becoming worse. For example, simply identifying that you are angry can actually help you decrease the intensity of that anger (or anxiety, sadness) and be in more control of how we respond or express the emotion.
The following steps are helpful ways to manage negative emotions emotions, transform them into positive energy, and create a state of mind that is conducive to being lucky and winning the lottery. They will not eliminate the negative emotion, rather they will help regulate the intensity of the emotion to a healthy level so that you are more in control of your emotions, response, and be able to act more authentically…
1. Identify the emotion
(Some authors actually say if you name the emotion, then you will tame the emotion.)
2. Identify the intensity of the emotion on a scale ranging from 1 – 10
3. Ask yourself: Why am I feeling this way and what do I need to feel a little better and create positive energy?
4. Focus on your breath and take some deep and slow breaths.
Ideally it is best to breathe for a count of 4 through your nostrils. Hold for a count of 2. And, then release for a count of 6. Changing your breathing in this manner will slow down the “fight-or-flight” response, activate the parasympathetic nervous system, and make easier for you to make a logical or rational decision on how you would like to respond to the emotion. This type of state of mind can help improve the chances of making good decisions when it comes to playing the lottery.
5. Accept your emotional response without any judgment towards yourself.
6. Consciously decide how you would like to respond to your emotion.
There is a poem by Rumi called The Guest House that gives a very profound and practical application of this process of non-judgmentally accepting our emotions in a healthy manner when he writes:
The Guest House
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.
Be grateful for whatever comes.
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
– Rumi
If you are able to nonjudgmentally accept your emotions and express them in a healthy manner, then you can actually create greater levels of self-acceptance and positive energy. This type of positive energy can put you in the best mindset to increase the chances of being lucky and winning the lottery.