It can be hard to pull yourself out of a negative rut, but here's some good news: it seems negative feelings and emotional pains can be helped by simply putting them into words. When study participants were shown angry faces their brains triggered a "danger" response, but when they called the face what it was -- "angry" -- a different area of the brain became active. Talking with somebody, journaling, or any other way you can use to "label" the emotion triggers brain responses that are designed to manage emotions and essentially "put the brakes" on bad feelings.

I think most people agree that talking things out with somebody or writing in a journal can help a lot with emotions of all kinds, but who knew it had such a scientific basis? Does it work for you?