Fear, anxiety, depression, and other negative emotions are harmful and can cause people to feel doubtful, uncertain, and even hopeless at times if they don’t have ways of coping with them. While you might feel powerless towards these types of thoughts and feelings right now, there are different ways to address them and increase your mental fortitude and sense of well-being. This article will share some effective tips on becoming more emotionally resilient so you can regain control over the way you feel.
1. Practicing Mindfulness Meditation
Do you worry a lot about the future or dwell on the past a lot, and it’s causing you to feel exhausted and preventing you from being as positive as you could be? If so, you could benefit greatly from practicing mindfulness through guided meditation.
It can become easy to get trapped in negative and repetitive thinking patterns, and at times, it can become an obsession. When we focus all of our attention on these recurring problems rather than how we can solve them, it’s known as ruminating.
With mindfulness meditation, you learn how to stay in the present, accept the thoughts for what they are, and realize that they are temporary and will pass.
By practicing mindfulness regularly, you can become less fixated on the things that are making you feel poorly, and you will also learn how to relax your body and mind. Over time, you will gain a better perspective of yourself as a person, translating to reduced stress and better emotional resilience.
2. Confronting Your Fears
It’s entirely natural for people to want to avoid the things that create distress; however, even though it’s instinctual, it’s not necessarily the most helpful strategy. In fact, it can actually be very problematic.
Avoidance behaviors are developed in response to stressful scenarios, but even though they are effective at one thing – keeping you away from trouble, avoidance conditions you to feel more fearful and have an aversion toward specific things.
This is how mental health conditions like phobias, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder can be so persistent and take over one’s life. The mere thought of being near our fears can create crippling anxiety.
However, even though we can be conditioned to avoid something at all costs, it can also be reversed, and by exposing yourself to the source of your fears, you can become desensitized to them. It will take a lot of practice, and the process of deconditioning can be scary at first, but you’ll be surprised at how much progress you can make – something that’s anxiety-inducing now might not be so troublesome in the future.
3. Find Support
Learning how to build emotional resilience isn’t something you need to do entirely on your own, and reaching out to a counselor or therapist could be the solution you need to address any issues in your life so that you learn how to cope with them in a healthy manner.
Even regarding the previous section, people who consistently rely on avoidance behaviors will reach out to professionals to help them have a more structured way of dealing with their fears and not feel like they’re diving right into the deep end. Exposure therapy is one of these techniques, and having guidance can make things feel much more manageable.
Other concerns that could be holding you back from feeling stronger emotionally, such as depression, can also be resolved by working with a therapist who can change how you think and feel through cognitive behavioral therapy.
Online therapy is a very popular way to connect to licensed and professional counselors and therapists, and there are also many articles and resources online to help you find free advice on topics such as resilience, such as this one from BetterHelp!
Conclusion
All humans are capable of adapting, and your way of thinking is no exception. Learning how to cope with stress is no easy task, but it can be done. Whether it’s learning how to stay calm and accept your thoughts for what they are, dealing with obstacles head-on, or even connecting to someone who understands, you are making an effort to adapt. With consistency, you can become more resilient when facing adversity, and this can lead you to feel happier and more fulfilled in your life.
Author Bio:
Marie Miguel has been a writing and research expert for nearly a decade, covering a variety of health-related topics. Currently, she is contributing to the expansion and growth of a free online mental health resource with BetterHelp.com. With an interest and dedication to addressing stigmas associated with mental health, she continues to specifically target subjects related to anxiety and depression.