Three Simple Steps to Becoming Emotionally Resilient
From an Emotional Detox Coach®
Sherianna’s tips for Emotional detoxing and stress relief are bursting with the energy of spirit.
Being emotionally resilient means you are able to bounce back fairly quickly after a negative or fearful emotion. Rather than ruminate, become paralyzed or panic instead, you are able to move through these intense emotions with confidence and ease. Below are three simple steps to help get you started.
Before getting there, I want you to know we all can get stuck in emotional reactivity from time to time. Even people who consider themselves emotionally intelligent or resilient may find themselves occasionally overwhelmed by emotional reactivity. This can be for a number of reasons such sleep deprivation, dehydration, high levels of stress (or pressure), inner conflict and major changes in your life such as a move or loss of a loved one.
These are times when emotional reactivity can escalate and even lead to burnout. If this is the case, it will be important for you to learn how to manage the stress of what you feel by learning to slow down and pace yourself with simple tools like mindful breathing.
Check out the mindful breathing exercises in:
If you are not going through any major changes or stressors, and you feel your levels of reactivity may be impacting your energy levels, overall mood, happiness and stress levels taking these next three steps can help you shift emotional states of reactivity into calm and ease.
Step 1:
Identify Your Reactions
In my book Emotional Detox, I define a reaction as the way you make the uncomfortable comfortable. In other words, rather than turning to mindful tools and strategies like taking a deep breath or going for a walk, instead you might make yourself comfortable by complaining, criticizing (yourself or others) or turning to food for comfort. Reflecting on the following question can help:
When I am feeling _______________________ (e.g. overwhelmed) I react by ______________.
Purpose:
Making a connection between your emotions and reactions helps you to increase your awareness. Your awareness will interrupt the cycle of reactivity by creating space between your thoughts.
Step 2
Understand Frequency
Frequency is the number of times per day, week or month you find yourself in high levels of reactivity. Like I said, we all react from time to time, yet it is important for you to identify how frequent you may be experiencing feelings (and/or reactions) of overwhelm, mental distress, physical fatigue, or stress related behaviors (e.g. turning to social media as a way to distract yourself).
Purpose:
Understanding your levels of frequency can help you determine the level of support you need. The more frequent (e.g. hourly, daily) as opposed to weekly the more support you might need. This is important because similar to a physical condition, early treatment is important. For example, if you are reacting daily you want to think about things like, checking in with your doctor, speaking to a therapist, coach so you can receive the adequate support and skills you need to release reactivity and increase calm and ease.
On the other hand, if your levels of reactivity (e.g. overwhelm, anxiety) spike (trigger) weekly you may benefit from minor adjustments such as going to bed fifteen minutes earlier, increasing your water intake or spending less time on social media.
Step 3
Ask Your Spiritual Guides for Assistance
Emotional reactivity can make you feel confused and isolated. This can stir up emotions such as self-doubt and fear. As a result, you may wonder, am I on the right path? Is there something wrong with me? Should I quit my job, move to a new location? Do people really like me? I always tell my clients, never make a decision (especially a big one) from a state of emotional reactivity.
Purpose
When you choose to call on your spiritual team you remind yourself you are not alone. You are infinitely and abundantly supported by your spiritual team. Yet, what I have learned after years of coaching, is emotional reactivity can dilute your relationship with spirit. It is your spirit (essence, light) which ignites the bounce, your emotions (as they enter a processing state) provide the means for accessing it.
Inside Just Ask Spirit: Free Your Emotions to Energize Intuition and Discover Purpose, you will find a step by step process for getting there. To help get you started, I created a FREE Just Ask Spirit Gift Set.