I first learnt about emotional strength when I broke my ankle playing football in 2010. Three surgeries, three months of crutches and countless physiotherapy sessions later I was "fixed" (according to the medical professionals) so why didn't I feel fixed? I realised (after a lengthy time) that I was stuck in a thought pattern that wasn't good for me. My resilience skills (one of the emotional strengths listed below) was not as refined as it could be. But how was I supposed to improve my thoughts? You either have resilience or you don't, or, so I thought...
By focusing on emotional strengths, this can change your perspective from someone who may feel like a victim or prisoner to an injury to someone who can help their situation and return to positive wellbeing.
There are a number of factors that can contribute to one's emotional strengths, which are outlined below:
IDENTIFYING EMOTIONAL STRENGTH & TRIGGERS
Emotional triggers refer to anything that threatens an individual’s emotional wellbeing or any topic or situation that makes an individual feel uncomfortable.
Identifying emotional triggers is a way of discovering which aspects of your life might be making you feel frustrated, insecure or unsatisfied. Emotional triggers can be intrinsic/internal (e.g. negative thought processes, lack of resilience) or extrinsic/external (e.g. people, injuries, lack of finances). Emotional triggers can vary and they can arise from everyday events, such as:
The death or illness of loved ones
Loss of a job or problems finding employment
Social isolation
Poor physical health
Breakdown of relationships
Food cravings and emotional eating
An injury which is affecting day-to-day life, and/or
Lack of finances causing difficulty maintaining healthy emotional wellbeing.
A medical diagnosis
STRATEGIES TO PROMOTE EMOTIONAL RESILIENCE AND WELLBEING
Resilience (as mentioned above) is the ability to ‘bounce back’ or to recover from challenges or difficulties in an effective manner. There are various strategies that can be implemented (I employ some of these strategies throughout my client consultations to assist clients in building their resilience). There is so much more behind these but at very least I want to put these here to firstly, help you become aware of them and secondly, consider if you want to explore these further. Strategies to address emotional challenges include:
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
Motivational Interviewing
Establishing intimacy, and/or
Expressing gratitude more regularly
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a counseling technique that focuses on teaching mindfulness and acceptance skills, allowing you to respond to unexpected and uncontrollable life events. This approach encourages you to accept what is out of your control and commit to changing the aspects of your life lives that you can control. Rather than removing unwanted thought patterns, feelings or physical sensations, this approach aims to increase your "psychological flexibility". Psychological flexibility can be defined as the ability to change behaviour depending on how essential this behaviour is to the individual’s life.
Want to know more? Watch this recording, "Psychological flexibility: How love turns pain into purpose" from Steven Hayes (TEDx University of Nevada).
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a short-term technique that can assist you in finding new ways to behave by changing your thought patterns. Its purpose is to assess the negative thoughts you may be having and your view of the world, and to replace them with more positive and constructive thoughts and behaviours. In summary, CBT focuses on how the following factors can affect your feelings and behaviours:
Thoughts: What you think can also affect your feelings and behaviours.
Feelings/emotions: What you feel can also affect your thoughts and behaviours.
Behaviours: How you behave/act can also affect your thoughts and feelings.
Want to know more? Watch this recording, "What is CBT? | Making Sense of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy" from Mind, the mental health charity.
Motivational Interviewing is probably best explained by example. Let's say you wish to reduce your consumption of sugar in order to stop gaining weight; however, you find it
extremely difficult due to constant sugar cravings and lack of energy to exercise. In this instance you work on identifying exactly what your motivation is (i.e. is there a reason why you wish to stop gaining weight?), and what makes the changes difficult (e.g. sugar cravings and lack of energy). Then you explore what would work best for you in this situation,
Gratitude is an emotion that an individual expresses when they have an appreciation or are grateful for what they have as opposed what they don't have. It takes a more positive ‘glass half full’ mindset rather than a more negative ‘glass half empty’. It takes practice to pay attention to what we are grateful for, which in essence helps you feel more kind and compassionate towards the world at large. Expressing your gratitude and appreciation more regularly can motivate you to make positive changes in your life. In addition, having gratitude (especially expressing gratitude) is also associated with positive factors such as:
Increased energy
Optimism, and
Empathy.
Studies show that people can deliberately cultivate gratitude by literally counting their blessings and writing letters of thanks, for example. This proactive acknowledgement can increase well-being, health, and happiness.
Intimacy relates to the trust, compassion, respect, acceptance and reciprocity between individuals and can extend to what you decide to share in regards to feelings, advice and past experiences. Intimacy encompasses the closeness of the relationship between (but not limited to) family members, friends, work colleagues and partners/spouses. Intimate social connections/relationships greatly influence emotional wellbeing as it requires one to have genuine trust in individuals that you engage with, and an ability to feel capable of being vulnerable.
SUMMARY
Gaining emotional strength involves work, just as gaining physical strength does. If you've been struggling with making healthier nutrition choices for example (even though you know what you should do) or you're finding it hard to move on from an injury and you're not quite sure what to do next, perhaps some of the above has provided some food for thought (pardon the pun). As a registered Nutrition Advisor & Health & Wellness Coach, with the National Council of Australia I work with clients, to devise plans that are conducive to overcoming their barriers, ones just like the above. If you would like to discuss any of the above further please feel free to in touch through the following contact form.
Disclaimer: This article and all our content is intended for general information only. It is not intended as medical advice. If you believe you have a medical condition, including one discussed in any of this content, you should see your doctor or other registered healthcare professional without delay. DO NOT use this content to diagnose yourself.
References:
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