We all know that feeling of being overwhelmed. Whether it’s a project at work, a looming deadline, or a personal stressor, it can be tough to stay calm under pressure. But what if we could train ourselves to be more emotionally resilient? To have the skills to manage our emotions, stay resourceful, and healthily cope with stress? It turns out that emotional resilience is not only possible, but it can lead to better outcomes in both our personal and professional lives. Here’s how.
The Benefits of Emotional Resilience
When we’re resilient, we’re able to bounce back from setbacks and stressors more quickly. We’re less likely to get bogged down in negative emotions like anger, fear, and anxiety, and we’re more likely to maintain our productivity levels despite challenges. As a result, we can achieve better outcomes in both our personal and professional lives.
In our personal lives, emotional resilience can lead to improved relationships, increased life satisfaction, and better physical health. In our professional lives, it can lead to greater job satisfaction, increased productivity, and reduced absenteeism. And while emotional resilience is something we’re born with to some extent, it’s also something that we can develop over time with practice.
So how do we become more emotionally resilient?
There are four key things that we can do:
- Develop a positive mindset: A positive mindset is key to emotional resilience. When we believe that we can cope with challenges and setbacks, we’re more likely to actually do so. One way to develop a positive mindset is to practice gratitude—focusing on the things in our lives that are going well instead of dwelling on the negative.
- Build strong relationships: Strong relationships provide us with social support—a crucial ingredient for emotional resilience. When we have people we can rely on during tough times, we’re more likely than those who don’t have social support to weather challenges successfully.
- Be proactive: Another important ingredient for emotional resilience is self-efficacy—belief in our ability to influence our own lives. When we take an active role in managing our emotions and stressors instead of passively reacting to them, we’re more likely to cope in a healthy way.
- Learn from setbacks: Finally, it’s important to remember that setbacks are inevitable—but they don’t have to define us. Emotional resilience allows us to learn from our mistakes and use them as opportunities for growth.
While challenges are a fact of life, how we deal with them makes all the difference. When we’re emotionally resilient, we’re better equipped to cope with stress in a healthy way—which can lead to improved outcomes. So next time you’re feeling overwhelmed by a challenge, remember these four tips for becoming more emotionally resilient: develop a positive mindset, build strong relationships, be proactive, and learn from setbacks. With practice, you’ll be surprised at how much calmer you can feel under pressure—and how much better you’ll be able to handle whatever life throws your way.
By developing resilience, we can learn to tolerate uncertainty and volatility and use it to inform our direction and decision-making. How valuable could resilience be to you?
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