What are negative emotions?

Negative emotions are feelings that make us feel upset, sad, or angry, just like when your favorite toy breaks.

Imagine you have a big cookie jar full of happy cookies, and each cookie represents a good feeling, like happiness or excitement. But sometimes, there are also negative cookies in the jar, like the ones that make you frown or feel grumpy. These are negative emotions, and they show up when something doesn’t go our way.

Sometimes, we get a sad cookie when we lose something we love, like a pet or a friend. Other times, we get an angry cookie when someone takes our toy without asking. These feelings are normal and help us understand what’s going on around us.

Just like how you need both sweet and sour flavors to make a tasty meal, you also need happy and negative emotions to feel complete. They’re like your feelings having a fun game of tag, sometimes you run after them, sometimes they run after you!

Negative emotions might not be the most fun part of feeling, but they help us learn and grow, just like when you fall down and then get back up again.