Imagine how much easier your life could be if you strengthened your emotional resilience and used the productive tool to manage stress. Emotional resilience refers to your ability to adapt to stressful situations or crises. Resilient people “roll with the punches†and handle adversity without lasting difficulties. Everyone encounters hard, trying situations, but you don’t need to let the problems overwhelm you or cause you to give up. It’s true that tough times breed tough people, and even the most passive individuals can learn how to build their emotional resilience levels.
Ways to Build Emotional Resilience:
• Be Optimistic: You can choose to look on the bright side, even in dire situations. Remain hopeful in a realistic way; not being delusional or pollyanna. During hard times, don’t remain focused on the negative. Look beyond the trying situation for a better outcome and work toward that goal.
• Stay Connected to Family and Friends: Loved ones and friends truly are a life raft when times get tough. Our brains need social support to function optimally. A social connection with others releases oxytocin in our bodies, which calms our mind and reduces stress.
• Have a Moral Compass: Emotionally resilient people maintain a strong sense of right and wrong. Despite navigating through situations that could hamper your life, it helps to think of others, in addition to yourself. Setting moral boundaries to assist you through hard times relieves stress and keeps you focused on making positive decisions.
• Exercise: Staying physically fit adds to staying mentally sound. During difficult times it’s imperative to keep your body and mind strong. The stress and endurance of physical exercise helps us adapt to the stress we feel when we face life’s challenges.
• Use Your Brain Power: Resilient people are often lifelong learners. It’s healthy to continue to grow your mind, learn and adapt to new information about the world. This keeps your mind sharp and provides many emotional benefits.
• Face Your Fears: Neuroscience has proven that the best way to overcome stress and anxiety is to face your fears. The more you tackle your fears, the less frightening they become. When you walk through scary situations, no matter how stressful they are, you build grit and confidence. Eventually the bad circumstances will no longer look terrifying and you can view them as obstacles to master.
By building your emotional resilience, you will learn how to manage life’s stressors with energy and conviction. Situations that may be tough at the time will be viewed as challenges to conquer and control. We may go through some bumpy rides on this train of life, but with work and determination, we can always bounce back.
Nancy Mangano is an American beauty/fashion/style influencer, fashion journalist, screenwriter and author of the Natalie North murder mystery book series. Visit Nancy on her global online fashion/style/beauty magazine Strutting in Style! at https://nancymariemangano.com, her Facebook page Nancy Mangano at https://www.facebook.com/nancymmangano/ Twitter @https://twitter.com/nancymangano and her author website http://www.nancymangano.com
