Everyone gets stuck at one time or another. What if we could cycle through the awful, paralyzing emotions and get to the positive, happy ones more quickly?

Figure Out if Your Pain Is Clean or Dirty

Fast-tracking your way out of a dark period starts with figuring out what kind of pain you’re feeling. Clean pain is the raw emotion that results from what happens to you. It’s real, and it’s logical. It crops up when you lose a spouse or your job or discover someone’s betrayed you, and it often causes you to say things like “I feel so lost” or “I miss him so much.” Dirty pain, on the other hand, is when you try to explain why the event happened or predict what will happen next, saying things like “He never loved me” or “My life is never going to be the same again.” What this does is add a distracting dose of punishment. Another way to think about it? The clean version is a recognition of what you’re feeling. The dirty version is a judgment about why you’re feeling that emotion and how long it will last. The more you can stick with the former, the quicker you’ll get through the tough times.

Put Yourself Through 90 Seconds of Total Hell

Resisting and avoiding pain sucks energy – and time. What usually happens is that we try to divert ourselves from what’s upsetting us. We eat something or buy something or do whatever is going to make us feel better in the moment. But “research has shown that when you sit with those clean, pure emotions like sadness or anger, they actually pass through you in about 90 seconds.” So if you can just be with it and say, “I can handle this feeling,” it will burn up and dissipate. This doesn’t mean you’ll be over your breakup or your dog’s death in 90 seconds. That emotion is going to come back. But, the more you let yourself feel those minute-and-a-half moments of hell, the quicker you’ll start feeling those minute-and-a-half moments of happiness.

Add the Extra Sentence

Many of us have a punishing, critical voice in our heads. Every time it yells at us, it sidetracks us from figuring out what we really need to do. Silencing it is the ideal solution – but that might take some serious long-term practice: add one extra sentence to each negative, discouraging thought. For example, if the voice inside your head says, “My husband died, and I’m never going to love again,” you add, “in that way.” Another example? If the voice says, “I lost my job, and I’m never going to find another one,” you add, “exactly like the last one.” When you eliminate the punishing conclusion by tacking on a more positive (more realistic) one, you eliminate the weeks soaked with guilt and worry. You may find in one of your add-ons, an unanticipated possibility.