No matter how calm the seas may seem at times, life will always bring its share of storms. Some come as rip currents, pulling us under for a moment before we find our footing again.
Others roll in as full-fledged hurricanes, threatening to upend everything in their path. But with the right skills and mindset, we can weather any storm that comes our way.
How we weather these storms and emerge from them, determines not just our short-term wellbeing, but also our long-term resilience and ability to thrive.
Emotional Agility & its Transformative Power
Cultivating emotional agility – the ability to recognize, accept, manage and shift our emotions in a healthy way – helps us navigate life’s storms with greater grace and ease. It encourages us to embrace our emotions instead of resisting them, and asking them what they are trying to tell us. It teaches us that emotions are not our enemies, rather messengers that are trying to teach us something .
Emotional agility, a term coined by Susan David, PhD is the key that unlocks our resilience. It means being able to lean into uncomfortable emotions without getting swept away by them. It requires self-awareness to identify our feelings without drowning in them, openness to accept them instead of avoiding them, and the wisdom to act in accordance with our values even when emotions run high. With practice, we can learn to ride the waves of change and turmoil rather than feel overwhelmed by them.
To navigate life’s turbulent waters, we must cultivate emotional agility as well as emotional balance.
Mindfulness is a great tool to guide you on how to calm your mind and soothe your spirit. It teaches you how to practice self-awareness and self-regulation.
Practicing Emotional Agility
When faced with a difficult situation or strong emotion
go through these steps:
- Feel the trigger
- Make a pause & breathe in and out slowly through your nose to lower the intensity of the feeling.
- Acknowledge the emotion
- Accept and embrace the emotion as a messenger. Do not resist it.
- Name the emotion: This is anger. This is sadness. This is shame, fear, ……
- Bring awareness to the part of your body where you feel that emotion. Is it in your throat? In your chest? In your belly? Emotions visit us in waves. They may come in the form of tears. When you allow the tears to come out, the emotion will soon vanish.
- Remember this emotion is temporary. Listen to it so you can learn from it. This will help you move through it faster. After all, every storm eventually passes, leaving us wiser and stronger for having weathered it.
- Recognize this is a challenge, but overtime you will gradually learn how to handle it, until one day it will become an automatic habit.
- Show yourself compassion
- Engage in soothing activities: walking in nature, taking a warm shower, listening to your favorite music, getting a massage, dance or move your body in some way.
- Focus your attention on what you CAN control, and let go of what you cannot control. This will help you keep a balanced perspective
- Practice gratitude for all the beauty in your life. Anxiety cannot exist in the presence of gratitude.
- Connect with loved ones for support.
- Journaling about your experience is another powerful way to release unexpressed emotions that may overwhelm us.
And most importantly, show yourself compassion through it all. After all, every storm eventually passes, leaving us wiser and stronger for having weathered it. The journey may be rough at times, but we all have the inner strength needed to reach the shore. The next time a storm hits, remember – you already have everything you need to navigate your way through. The calm waters will return.
The Emotional Agility Quiz
“The Emotional Agility Quiz gives you personalized feedback on how to be more effective with your thoughts and emotions, so you can come to your everyday choices and your life with more intention and insight.Emotional Agility helps you cultivate real thriving at work and at home.”
If you want to explore where you stand in Emotional Agility, take this free quiz and find out
An Invitation for You
If you would like to learn & practice more ways to approach life challenges with mindfulness, join us on the last Tuesday of the month for a virtual free session at 7 pm.
If you would like to have private individual mindfulness sessions, visit this page
If you would like to get support through mindfulness & meditation, I invite you to join me every Monday at 11:30 am for a free virtual community gathering starting on October 7.
Very Warmly,
Monica Jordan
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