How to be Emotinally Strong for mental wellbeing

How to be emotionally strong: 5 tools to help you through tough times

Emotional strength is a notable power to overcome any adversity in your life. Staying emotionally strong is an art of exercising control over your thoughts when nothing seems to work to your advantage.

A die-hard Brazilian football fan of the yesteryears will definitely remember the 1950 FIFA world cup final. Playing in front of the home crowd, the Brazilians were the favourites to win and lift the world cup against Uruguay. A Brazilian newspaper in its early edition for the day had even announced, ’These are the world champions’ with a picture of the hosts. As predicted, Brazil scored and took lead. Soon, the match turned upside down and Uruguay scored two of its most historic goals in football history. They went on to lift their  second world cup title and handed out one of the most painful defeats ever to Brazil, a nation which is famous for its love for the game of football. This story never gets old simply because it teaches us an important lesson – that life is unpredictable and we should be emotionally strong to handle any obstacles it throws at us.

Not just the game of football, our daily routine and experiences are also prone to a myriad of intense emotions. Positive emotions give us the courage to face consequences and stay motivated. However, negative emotions have the potential to put us on the path of self-destruction. To generate optimism and re-ignite passion in life, we need to be in control of our emotions to help us through tough times.

Soulveda recommends these 5 tools for you to harness the enormous benefits of being emotionally strong.

Inhale and exhale deeply

When you are confronted with a painful situation – like the sudden loss of a loved one or losing a lot of money in the stock market, you may get overwhelmed by negative emotions thinking that life is no longer worth living. However, exaggerating your negative feelings can take you away from the present moment and put you on a spiral of anxiety and distress.

A simple yet effective tool here is to inhale and exhale deeply. Sit in a comfortable posture, preferably cross legged and concentrate on your breath. The gushing sound of air going in will fill you with positive energy. This moment of realization and awakening that you are alive and healthy, will help achieve mindfulness, bringing a calming effect to your sensory organs and escorting you back in the moment; the present where you still have the power to challenge and control the consequences. So, inhale and exhale deeply for an emotionally stronger you.

Activate your body

It is well known that the mind controls the body. This is true in normal circumstances when the mind itself is functioning well. But when under duress or facing immensely stressful situations, the mind itself can stop performing at its optimum. Just like a computer freezes when given too many commands, the mind too gets disturbed with too many issues at hand or too much stress and negativity. A fresh start becomes the need of the hour.

At this point, learn to stretch your body, take a stroll or jog if possible. A long walk or performing yoga is also immensely helpful in activating your body. Physical activity helps your brain release endorphins, the feel good neurotransmitters. Thus, calming your mind and releasing all the stored tension in the body muscles. Apart from that, endorphins also help you concentrate better and feel mentally sharp. So activating your body is a green signal for your brain to stay emotionally strong.

Look to your affirmation

During the Covid 19 pandemic, many among us struggled, seeing their loved ones suffer from the disease. For some, it was a disastrous turn of events when they werent able to save a precious life. A horrid time like this proved detrimental to our emotional stability.

For many, affirmations work greatly in times like these. Affirmations are positive statements that pep up your mind to challenge destructive and negative thoughts. Repeating affirmations make you believe in those words and once you learn to convert it into a belief, you start working towards achieving it. The sheer positivity of an affirmation like ‘I am calm’ can convince you to acquire the necessary strength to remain calm without worrying about adverse consequences.

Similarly, ‘I am brave enough’ is an affirmation that puts you on a solid path to remain motivated and live with courage.

Express your feelings constructively

The biggest drawback of emotions is that humans cannot differentiate between thoughts and feelings. When faced with a sudden rush of emotions, it is your mood, the situation or people around that decide the extent of reaction and not necessarily our logical thoughts or facts.

To help see us through tough times, it is paramount to note that de-constructing our feelings is essential. For this purpose, we can start writing a journal or note down specific feelings. Talking to close friends or even paid consultation with psychiatrists can be a great way to express our emotions and separate feelings from thoughts. In the process, our mind gains rational power and helps us identify the real reason for our distress. Expressing our feelings opens up our heart and removes the negativity associated with a loss or a particular uncomfortable situation. Once we are able to see the reason clearly, we come one step closer to finding a solution. Most importantly, detaching from our negative feelings allows us the freedom to let go and decreases our suffering.

Practice intermittent thinking

Another effective tool to help you through tough times is related to the intensity of your emotions. More often, the intensity of an emotional experience is the most damaging part if it is negative in nature. There are only 2 ways to handle it. Absorb the intensity of an argument so that your emotions do not destroy you further or delay your reaction so as to dissipate the negative energy. By practicing intermittent thinking, you allow sufficient time gaps between emotional triggers and their inherent destructive responses thereby soothing your nerves and allowing rational thoughts to take over your mind.

Take a short break for tea or coffee, gaze through your window or perform a daily chore like cooking at that very moment of negativity  to cut down the intensity of your destructive emotions. To exhibit emotionally strong behaviour in the long term, make a conscious effort to do things that are genuine in nature and remember to never engage in activities just to avoid or delay facing a challenge. Intermittent thinking allows your mind breathing space, puts out your destructive feelings and re-energizes your mind to take control of the tough times and emerge emotionally stronger.

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