Why We Hate and How to Turn Those Emotions into Love

Having hate is like drinking poison and expecting someone else to get poisoned. Hate starts within yourself. Hate is more destructive to yourself more than anyone else. In the world that we live in today, hate is a negative influence everywhere. When our environment is saturated with negative actions, emotions, and thoughts, it can affect us drastically. It is critical to learn how to cope with these hostile forces and not let them destroy us and affect our thinking and acting. We can’t completely control the negative influences in our life, but we can control how they affect us and not let ourselves get sucked in. Hate appears to lie outside of ourselves, but it quickly can develop within. Hate exists in your outside environment, media, social media, and personal relationships, which all makeup part of our identity. We can be driven to conflict when our identity is challenged. It’s our job to change how we react to hate so we don’t hate others.  But how do we do that?

Although we are creatures of habit, we can change, and we need to be mindful of ourselves. We have full control of ourselves, and that’s where we need to start to turn hate into love. To change, a person must desire to change by accepting and implementing a different way of thinking. By doing this, we can have an accurate point of view of other people and the world overall. The word “mindful” may seem like a cliché term, but it can significantly affect your life and how you treat others. We are aware of our emotions and are more open to outside information and point of view when we are mindful. We can replace anger with compassion by being aware of our biases and being always conscious of our emotions. When we become mindful, we transform our internal environment into a peaceful one. Peace and compassion can be achieved and translate into your external environment when you put effort and energy into yourself.

If you struggle with maintaining peace within yourself, meditation is a great technique to regulate attention and emotion. Meditation allows increased communication between both parts of the brain. One part of the brain controls our personality, decision-making, and cognitive behaviors. The other part of your brain contains your emotions. These two parts of the brain need to communicate effectively to balance our feelings and actions, resulting in a person making a more informed reaction. Hate stems from fear. Opening yourself up to more and not blocking them out will significantly affect the changes within yourself and how you react to others and treat them. Rather than being afraid of what could happen, invest in yourself, put in the effort to change, and become interested in how you can change.

The line between love and hate is thin. These two emotions share the common denominator, intense passion, but they influence us to do vastly opposite things. With that line between hate and love being so thing, you might be wondering if it’s even possible to turn hate into love. Hatred is unhealthy and a great burden for one to bear. Hate creates stress and can become a huge factor in causing illnesses ranging from digestive disorders to insomnia to even cancer. When our bodies and minds are healthier, so are our relationships with other people. When we turn our hatred into love, our brain releases dopamine, improving our mood. Turning hate into love can seem like it is easier said than done. However, you can do things, such as helping others, meditating, and being present. When we help others, we think less about ourselves and dwell on the things that frustrate us or negatively affect us. Meditation allows you to have a higher level of self-awareness. Even just a few minutes a day can help shed light on the reasons why you are full of hate in the first place and show you how to turn it into love. Lastly, staying in the present moment and being observant of your feelings will allow you to cope with your emotions properly. Hatred often happens when we are in “unconscious” mode, letting triggers or bad memories from the past affect our current actions.