The Importance of Emotional Resilience in Today’s World

In today’s fast-paced and ever-changing world, emotional resilience is becoming increasingly essential to our overall physical and emotional well-being. However, sometimes, ‘staying tough’ can be challenging when we have to deal with stressors ranging from work, family and relationship issues to societal problems like financial difficulties and rising prices.

But emotional resilience isn’t about ‘staying tough’ or ‘putting on a brave face’ – quite the opposite. Resilience is the ability to understand and accept our true emotions and react to them in a balanced way and constructively, unlocking that inner strength we’ve had hiding all along.

Often, when we face our internal issues, we find the natural courage to face, take on and deal with the challenges of our external worlds.

With emotional resilience we can face whatever comes our way and grow stronger with every setback.

In this guide, we’ll take a closer look at what emotional resilience means and how you can build it through techniques such as challenging limiting beliefs and mindfulness. We’ll also explain how psychotherapy and counselling can play a role in your journey to personal freedom and empowerment.

What Is Emotional Resilience?

In many cultures throughout the world, people are often raised to believe that certain emotions are ‘bad’ or signal an inherent weakness. Whether explicitly or implicitly, we’re encouraged to bottle things up and, at the very minimum, convey strength and success to others. However, as organic living beings, we’re not supposed to ignore our true emotions and feelings. When we attempt to suppress our true emotions, the resulting internal conflicts can result in mental and physical health problems that can last for life – but they don’t have to.

If we believe that resilience is defined by our ability to maintain a brave face and a smile in the face of adversity, we will overlook the inner struggles of those who seem to have it all on the surface.

True emotional resilience isn’t about hiding from negative emotions or accepting defeat by them. Instead, we can improve our resilience and mental health by understanding the source of our emotions, developing coping strategies, embracing all emotions – whether good or bad – as natural without self-judgement, and utilising our emotions to overcome adversity and improve our outcomes.

By building your resilience, you may even start seeing negative emotions as opportunities for growth.

Why Is Emotional Resilience Crucial in Today’s World?

It’s not just cultural outlooks and our upbringing that can damage or delay the development of our emotional resilience. In today’s world, we’re faced with new stressors constantly. Keeping up with the rapid technological and societal changes alone can be stressful, but staying on top of the basics is getting increasingly difficult in many parts of the world where, materially, a high quality of life was once taken for granted.

Experiencing depression in the face of economic hardship is not a sign of weakness. Rather than shameful, negative emotions are a completely natural reaction to stressful situations such as job losses, debt and tensions within the community. As if our daily lives aren’t hard enough, we’re non-stop bombarded with the tragedies of the world, which – while certainly deserve our attention – often distract us from the turmoil of our inner world.

If we lack emotional resilience through no fault of our own, we may lack the ability to adapt to difficult situations as they arise, making matters worse much like a chicken and egg scenario.

Fortunately, there are many ways to build emotional and psychological resilience so that you can handle stress without your long-term emotional and physical health taking a beating. Instead, as your ability to cope improves, you’ll bounce back from life’s challenges as a stronger and more resilient person, even more capable of coping with any hurdles the future may present.

Building Emotional Resilience – Key Techniques

Building resilience takes time, but every step of the journey can be a rewarding and uplifting experience. Some of the most effective techniques include:

Exploring Core Beliefs

Many people unknowingly hold core beliefs that limit their emotional development and ability to handle the stresses of daily life. We might have grown up with parents or guardians suffering from their own internal conflicts, inadvertently instilling us with fearful beliefs. Some people are subjected to traumatic environments that can have significant impacts on how they view themselves and others.

Exploring core beliefs often involves listening to those painful emotions instead of trying to push them away. While it can be challenging, the path to growth might mean processing suppressed feelings, allowing you to change your core beliefs and put the past behind you, and using negative experiences for growth rather than limitation. If these painful emotions are a lot to handle, it will work wonders to talk them through with a trusted loved one or a compassionate psychotherapist. Sometimes, just being heard for who we really are can make a world of difference.

Strengthening Social Connections

At our core, we’re social animals that thrive around people. If we feel like we don’t have meaningful relationships, the resulting loneliness can manifest into a range of negative emotions and mental health problems. In some situations, the worse we feel, the more we isolate, exacerbating problems in a chain reaction.

Building support systems of people that you can share your true thoughts and feelings with is one of the most effective ways to build emotional resilience – it’s a technique that dates all the way back to the dawn of humanity.

Of course, diving back into social life if you’re suffering with loneliness can be much harder than many people understand. Just remember that you can start as slowly as you like. Nowadays, there are forums online where you can anonymously discuss sensitive issues with understanding people. When you feel comfortable enough, you can join support groups without being under any pressure to speak until you’re ready. You can attend meetings for weeks or even months without speaking if you wish, but you’ll almost certainly find that, with time and by hearing the stories of others, you’ll feel increasingly comfortable with sharing your true self.

If it’s accessible to you, psychotherapy and counselling can be an amazing way to share your story with somebody who understands and genuinely cares.

Mindfulness and Self-Care

We live most of our daily lives on autopilot, often striving to simply ‘get through it’ without having to think about anything that distracts from the task at hand. Sometimes, we may have to put things to the side temporarily, but burying our thoughts and feelings almost always results in mental health challenges.

Being mindful simply means paying attention to both your internal and external world without judgement. Instead of batting thoughts away, let yourself have them without acting immediately or judging yourself for their content, just be the observer. Your thoughts and feelings are some of the best indicators of your overall internal state and emotional wellbeing.

Practices such as meditation, yoga and mindful walking have been shown to improve mental health and even cognitive abilities. Incorporating mindfulness techniques as well as physical exercise into your lifestyle can result in emotional health improvements faster than you might think.

How Can Psychotherapy Boost Long-Term Emotional Resilience?

Different psychotherapists take various approaches to building emotional strength. Drawing on four decades of experience not just as a psychotherapist but also in various people management roles, I help people unlock their hidden yet innate inner strength by guiding them towards the answers they had hidden all along.

In so many cases, our emotional resilience takes a hit due to internal conflicts and core beliefs that stem from our pasts, particularly during our formative years. I can help you develop coping strategies that utilise your hidden strength to build resilience that will provide long-term benefits while reducing anxiety, depression, and a host of mental health challenges.

If you want to find out how psychotherapy that incorporates a tailored blend of the techniques detailed above plus many more can potentially transform your outlook on life, please give me a call.

 

Category: Blog