Emotional exhaustion: what is it and how to fix it

How do people manage to survive psychological trauma? How is it that in situations where some people want to lie down and die, others demonstrate amazing resilience? Stephen Southwick and Dennis Charney spent 20 years studying people with inflexible character.

They interviewed Vietnamese prisoners of war, special forces trainers and those who had faced serious health problems, violence and trauma. They collected their discoveries and conclusions in the book “Resilience: The Science of Mastering Life's Greatest Challenges.”

Be optimistic

Yes, the ability to see the bright side helps. What’s interesting is that in this case we are not talking about “rose-colored glasses.” Truly resilient people who have to endure the most difficult situations and still go to the goal (prisoners of war, special forces soldiers) know how to maintain a balance between a positive outlook and a realistic view of things.

Realistic optimists take into account negative information that relates to the current problem. However, unlike pessimists, they do not dwell on it. As a rule, they quickly abstract from problems that are currently unsolvable and concentrate all their attention on those that they can solve.

"Unbreakable: The Science of Confronting Life's Challenges"

And it was not only Southwick and Charney who identified this feature. When American journalist and writer Lawrence Gonzales studied the psychology of people who survived extreme situations, he found the same thing: they balance between a positive attitude towards the situation and realism.

The logical question is: how the hell do they do this? Gonzalez realized that the difference between such people is that they are realists, confident in their abilities. They see the world as it is, but they believe that they are rock stars in it.

What are emotions and why are they needed, how do they differ from feelings, what functions do they perform?

Emotion is a psychophysiological complex of states and processes, the main thing of which is emotional experience.
Emotions are a subjective assessment of the significance of perceived situations in terms of their relationship to the needs of the individual, manifested in the format of direct emotional experience: it can be fear, joy, pleasure, etc. Emotional experience is accompanied not only by mental, but also physiological manifestations (changes in breathing rate, pulse, pupil diameter, hormone release, etc.), changes in expression (voice, facial expressions, pantomime). All this is designed to force the body to respond correctly to an external stimulus - to slow down or prepare for action, to stop or intensify current activity.

Emotion combines psychological, motor, and somatovegetative components, which is explained by the participation of the limbic system in its formation. This is a phylogenetically ancient brain system, which includes parts of the cerebral cortex (hippocampus, cingulate gyrus, etc.) and the diencephalon (hypothalamus, thalamus, etc.), and is connected with other parts of the cortex and the autonomic nervous system.

“Emotions appeared in the PROCESS OF EVOLUTION

as a means for determining the biological significance of body conditions and external influences"

Biological significance forms the emotional tone of sensations, according to which emotions are divided into positive and negative. Psychologists emphasize that such a division is conditional, since for a person all emotions are necessary and useful, they all must be accepted and lived.

But the conditional division presupposes the following classes of emotions: positive (caused by beneficial influences and encourage the individual to achieve and maintain them) and negative (needed to avoid harmful influences).

In the process of evolution and as the nervous system developed, emotions were distinguished into different types with certain psychophysical characteristics. Modern people have not only lower emotions (associated with the physiological needs of the body), but also higher ones (associated with the satisfaction of moral, aesthetic, intellectual and other social needs).

Higher, also complex, emotions are formed with the participation of the cortex (consciousness) under the influence of sociocultural influences, and can inhibit and control lower emotions. Example: hunger directs an individual’s behavior to search for food, but if he sees someone more needy or weak nearby, then moral feelings will prompt him to share first.

In the process of individual development, each person repeats all stages of the evolutionary development of emotions. Newborn babies initially show only emotions of pleasure/displeasure in connection with the satisfaction of physiological needs.

But as the brain grows and develops, an emotional sphere is formed with individual distinctive features that reflect a combination of innate (biologically determined) and socially acquired characteristics.

Emotions and will to a large extent determine the personality of an individual and his characterological characteristics. Emotions are needed to organize instinct-based behavior and gain individual experience: in the process of performing the function of positive/negative reinforcement, they help the individual to learn useful and avoid unjustified forms of behavior.

“Emotions HELP THE INDIVIDUAL

on the basis of hereditary and acquired experience, make decisions and carry out necessary actions without rational justification for their expediency"

Intuitive, emotional thinking predominates in lower animals, and is often observed in humans capable of thinking rationally. And the more emotional an individual is, the less capable he is of rational knowledge.

Emotions have a serious impact on the life and behavior of a person, who often does not even realize it. Therefore, the clinical assessment of emotions is based not only on the patient’s subjective reports, but also on the results of observing his emotionality in behavior, facial expressions, and thinking.

Basic functions of emotions:

• Estimated

  – to perform a quick generalized assessment of everything that is happening around.

• Communicative

  – thanks to facial expressions and pantomimes, people can convey their experiences and demonstrate their attitude to what is happening.

• Incentive

  – emotions help shape behavior based on an assessment of one’s needs and current events.

Emotions cannot be considered outside of various emotional manifestations. For a more understandable and effective consideration of the issue, psychologists have proposed a certain classification, which is not exhaustive and the only true one.

What types of emotional phenomena are distinguished:

1. Emotions

– emotional reactions, direct experiences of emotions. The phenomenon is short-term, associated with the situation that caused it, and is easily denoted in words. There are many emotions, but there are only six fundamental ones: surprise, joy, anger, fear, disgust, sadness. Emotional reactions can be expressed in varying degrees of intensity and are accompanied by certain physiological and behavioral manifestations.

2. Feelings

– the result of a generalization of a number of higher emotions (emotional reactions) associated with a certain object or situation. Formed feelings turn into determinants of a person’s emotional life and determine the appearance and content of new emotions. A strong dominant feeling is called passion.

3. Emotional state

– longer and more stable compared to emotional reactions. A long-lasting, formed emotional state that does not have objectivity (a specific focus on an event or object), coloring all experiences is called mood (emotional background). Mood affects mental processes, general neuropsychic tone, and behavior.

If feelings are directed towards a specific object/event, then the mood is manifested in the peculiarities of the emotional response to any events/objects, even if provoked by a specific reason. Mood is a reflection of a generalized emotional assessment of everything that happens to an individual.

4. Emotional properties

– persistent characteristics of a person’s emotional sphere, peculiarities of his reactions, characteristic throughout life or a significant segment of it. Emotional properties can be assessed according to different criteria: excitability and reactivity (strength and speed of emotional response), lability (variability of emotions), rigidity (persistence of reactions), etc.

In simple words, emotions can be called mental reactions to everything that happens around, which manifest themselves at the mental and physiological level. They significantly influence behavior and actions, form feelings, and create states. Therefore, being able to recognize and understand, accept and experience emotions is extremely important.

On the one hand, emotional reactions shape our experience and allow us to separate the useful from the dangerous, to build a life based not only on rational considerations, but also on intuitive feelings. On the other hand, by surrendering to the power of emotions, you can lose touch with reality and stop thinking logically, reacting and acting adequately.

It is important to be able to maintain a balance, living through the emotions that come, but not giving them complete control over what is happening. And if there are constant difficulties with understanding and experiencing emotions, it is advisable to seek professional help.

What are the pathologies of emotions and when should you consult a specialist:

1. Pathologies of emotional reactions

– this includes only affects as a variant of an inadequate response to external stimuli. Affect is characterized by high intensity and short duration of reaction, accompanied by physiological changes and pronounced motor manifestations.

Affects as emotional phenomena are characterized by great strength, the ability to inhibit and suppress other mental processes, imposing one or another type of reaction. In animals, affect appears as a method of urgently solving a problem situation (at the level of biological needs and instincts); in humans, such a reaction can arise as a result of a violation of social relationships.

The phenomenon can usually be observed under extreme conditions. In a broader sense, affect is a general designation for different states and emotions (affective disorders).

2. Pathologies of emotional states

– depression, anxiety, mania, etc.

3. Pathology of emotional properties

– emotional lability and dullness, callousness or apathy, etc.

4. Pathology of feelings

– this category is distinguished conditionally, exclusively in the case of transformation of feelings into passion (a stable, strong, all-encompassing feeling that dominates other experiences and motives, directs a person’s actions and thoughts).

If you suspect any of the above phenomena, the help of a psychologist, psychotherapist or psychiatrist is required. Information about emotions was taken from the website psychiatr.ru.

Look fear in the eyes

Neuroscience says the only real way to deal with fear is to look it in the eye. This is exactly what emotionally stable people do. When we avoid scary things, we become even scarier. When we face our fears, we stop being afraid.

To get rid of the memory of fear, you need to experience that fear in a safe environment. And the exposure must be long enough for the brain to form a new connection: in this environment, the stimulus that causes fear is not dangerous.

Researchers hypothesize that fear suppression involves increased activity in the prefrontal cortex and inhibition of fear responses in the amygdala.

This method has proven effective when used to treat anxiety disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder and phobias. Its essence is that the patient is forced to face fear face to face.

Medic and Special Forces instructor Mark Hickey believes that facing fears helps you understand them, keeps you on your toes, develops courage, and increases your sense of self-worth and control over the situation. When Hickey is scared, he thinks, “I’m scared, but this challenge will make me stronger.”

"Unbreakable: The Science of Confronting Life's Challenges"

How to greet the morning in a good mood

To have a successful day, you need to get up in the morning with joy and maintain a positive attitude throughout the day . This is not at all difficult to do.

Here are a few tips to consider on how you can boost your positive mood throughout the day:

1. There is an opinion that good deeds help the production of the happiness hormone in the human body, so in the morning you need to hurry to please someone. Even if it’s something as small as a cup of coffee or a compliment to a loved one. Soon one will see how his grateful smile will improve the mood of the giving person;
2. nutrition experts believe that sweets also help develop positive emotions , so you can eat something sweet in the morning, then the production of “happiness hormones” will be guaranteed;
3. physical activity, for example morning exercises , will be very helpful for your mood. It relieves fatigue, promotes vigor and improves mood;
4. You should not think about difficulties that still cannot be solved in the morning; perhaps, you are worried about an eternally dissatisfied boss or negative relationships in the team. If there is no way to influence the solution of these difficulties, it is better not to think about them in advance ;
5. drink a cup of black coffee - this drink not only adds vigor, but also improves your mood;
6. Don’t forget to take a shower in the morning before work , this will not only refresh you and get a boost of energy, but also look at things with a positive attitude.

We wish you to always wake up only with positive thoughts.

Set your moral compass

Southwick and Charney found that emotionally stable people have a strong sense of right and wrong. Even when in a life-threatening situation, they always thought about others, not just themselves.

During the interviews, we realized that many resilient individuals had a strong sense of right and wrong, which strengthened them during periods of great stress and as they bounced back from shock. Selflessness, caring for others, helping without expecting a return benefit for oneself - these qualities are often the core of the value system of such people.

"Unbreakable: The Science of Confronting Life's Challenges"

Listen to your favorite music or sounds

Our brain is designed in such a way that surrounding sounds and images have a direct influence on it. With the help of sound you can scare, make you laugh, excite, upset and delight. Therefore, it makes sense to use appropriate sounds and music to lift your mood and improve your emotional background.

Remember your favorite musical compositions and listen to them for at least 10-20 minutes - you will see that your mood will begin to change. Think about what sounds are associated with pleasant emotions. This could be the sound of waves, birds singing or the crackling of wood in a fire.

Find these sounds on the Internet and listen to them with your eyes closed, return emotionally to the pleasant state that is associated with them, imagine yourself in this environment, live this moment again. You will definitely feel better - try it.

Turn to spiritual practices

The main feature that unites people who were able to survive the tragedy.

Dr. Amad discovered that religious faith is a powerful force through which survivors explain both the tragedy and their survival.

"Unbreakable: The Science of Confronting Life's Challenges"

But what if you are not religious? No problem.

The positive effect of religious activity is that you become part of a community. So you don't have to do anything that you don't believe in, you just have to be part of a group that builds your resilience.

The relationship between religion and resilience may be partly explained by the social aspects of religious life. The word “religion” comes from the Latin religare, “to bind.” People who regularly attend religious services gain access to a deeper form of social support than is available in a secular society.

"Unbreakable: The Science of Confronting Life's Challenges"

Know how to give and receive social support

Even if you are not part of a religious or other community, friends and family can support you. When Admiral Robert Shumaker was captured in Vietnam, he was isolated from other prisoners. How did he maintain his composure? He knocked on the cell wall. The prisoners in the next cell knocked in response. It was ridiculously simple, but it was these tappings that reminded them that they were not alone in their suffering.

During his 8 years in North Vietnamese prisons, Schamaker used his keen mind and creativity to develop a unique method of tapping communication known as Tap Code. This was a turning point, thanks to which dozens of prisoners were able to contact each other and survive.

"Unbreakable: The Science of Confronting Life's Challenges"

Our brains need social support to function optimally. When you interact with others, oxytocin is released, which calms the mind and reduces stress levels.

Oxytocin reduces activity in the amygdala, which explains why support from others reduces stress.

"Unbreakable: The Science of Confronting Life's Challenges"

And it is necessary not only to receive help from others, but also to provide it. Dale Carnegie said, “You can make more friends in two months than in two years if you are interested in people instead of trying to interest them in you.”

However, we cannot always be surrounded by loved ones. What to do in this case?

Classification

Emotional disorders can be independent disorders or components of other mental illnesses. Pathological intensification of emotions is manifested by an increase in their intensity while maintaining adequate content. This group of disorders includes:

1. Depression.
   The structure of depressive states is dominated by low mood and depression. Patients feel anxiety and a feeling of inferiority. They perceive everyday difficulties as insurmountable and provoke crying, despondency, and reluctance to do anything.
2. Mania.
   Manic states are manifested by elevated mood, accelerated rate of mental activity, and increased physical activity. A person becomes hyperactive, fussy, strives for achievements, to learn new things, but he lacks concentration and focus.
3. Euphoria.
   In euphoria, people are dominated by carelessness, elevated mood, and infantility. Critical abilities and serious attitude to situations decrease. Passivity and excessive complacency do not allow you to perform daily duties.

Another option for psycho-emotional disorders is weakening of emotions. Regardless of the events taking place - joyful, sad, provoking aggression - people remain indifferent or experience weak feelings that do not correspond to the significance of the situation. Examples of such disorders:

1. Emotional flattening.
   With some mental illnesses, for example, with schizophrenia, emotions become impoverished - they become monotonous, primitive, and weakly expressed. In severe cases, only some manifestation of dissatisfaction in situations of discomfort remains. Other events - meetings with relatives, the loss of a loved one - do not evoke any emotions.
2. Apathy.
   A state of apathy is typical for patients with depression. There is a general decrease in all emotional reactions. The patient is indifferent to what is happening, unable to experience joy, sadness, fear, anger. Often apathy is combined with a decrease in motor activity and abulia - pathological lack of will, the inability to begin any action.

When the mobility of emotions is impaired, a person’s ability to control the duration of the experience changes. This is manifested by stuckness, suddenness, or rapid uncontrollable changes in emotional states. There are several variants of the dynamic aspect disorder:

1. Emotional lability.
   With affective lability, emotions arise easily, quickly replace each other, and depend on fleeting external events or random memories. Such conditions are considered normal in early childhood, when a child’s tears suddenly give way to laughter, but in adults they are a sign of emotional disturbance.
2. Explosiveness.
   This term refers to emotional explosiveness. After a period of calm, a person suddenly demonstrates anger, irritation, anger, and then just as quickly returns to a state of balance. During explosive outbreaks, aggression and provocation of conflicts are possible.
3. Inertia.
   Synonyms for inertia are stuckness, stiffness. Such people experience one emotion for a long time, cannot be distracted and change it at will, and are in a state of irritability, melancholy, and anger.

The most striking psycho-emotional disorders are disturbances of adequacy. Inappropriate emotional manifestations are classified as pathological according to the content criterion: what a person feels has no connection with his thoughts or external events. This group includes:

1. Inadequacy.
   With emotional inadequacy, a person experiences and demonstrates emotions that are completely inappropriate for the situation. For example, laughter occurs in response to the news of the death of people, outbursts of anger when meeting a loved one (mother, friend).
2. Ambivalence.
   People with schizophrenia often experience ambivalence of experiences - the simultaneous existence of opposing emotions. This condition is difficult for a healthy person to understand. Outwardly, it manifests itself as a constant, unconditional change of joy and melancholy, tenderness and anger, anger and tearful weakness.
3. Emotional tension.
   Inappropriate experiences may include pointless fear, unmotivated anxiety, an inexplicable feeling of anger or dissatisfaction with oneself. In such conditions, people are in emotional tension, but cannot determine what is causing it. Usually they say: “the soul is restless”, “the soul suddenly sinks into the heels.”

Imitate strong personalities

What supports children who grow up in miserable conditions, but continue to live normal, fulfilling lives? They have role models who provide positive examples and support them.

Emmy Werner, one of the first psychologists to study resilience, observed the lives of children who grew up in poverty, in dysfunctional families with at least one parent who was an alcoholic, mentally ill, or violent.

Werner found that emotionally stable children who became productive, emotionally healthy adults had at least one person in their lives who was truly supportive and a role model.

Our research found a similar connection: Many people we interviewed said they had a role model—someone whose beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors inspired them.

"Unbreakable: The Science of Confronting Life's Challenges"

Sometimes it is difficult to find among your friends someone you would like to be like. This is fine. Southwick and Charney found that it is often enough to have a negative example in front of you - a person you never want to be like.

Less than 30 days

Most people begin to take their physical and mental health seriously when not just alarming symptoms appear, but real destructive problems. During a sore throat, we remember that we need to wear a scarf, and we learn to get rid of stress when we are deeply depressed. But as soon as improvements come, we immediately return to our old life.

Surprisingly, we spend much more time on physical problems and spend a lot of effort and energy on them. It doesn't matter why this happens (for example, physical illnesses may manifest themselves more clearly), but this is true.

However, physical pain is not always stronger than mental pain. Unfortunately, we look in the mirror more often than we look into our souls.

This article will help you look at the emotional and mental issues that may be overlooked in the rush of your days, and then provide you with the tools you need to improve your long-term well-being.

What is emotional health

Emotional health is a state of positive psychological functioning. It includes a person’s ability to feel good regardless of external circumstances.

According to the Mental Health Foundation, emotional health is a state of well-being that enables a person to function harmoniously in society and meet the demands of everyday life.

A person whose level of emotional health is high enough shows resilience during life’s troubles. At the same time, he treats them completely differently than someone who has big problems with this area of ​​life.

The two definitions we gave above are a good starting point for an initial understanding of the problem, but for the purpose of this article, we need to delve deeper and find out what it means to live an emotionally healthy life.

Signs that you are emotionally unhealthy

There are no absolutely mentally healthy people in this world, so the main thing is to understand how far the problem has gone and learn to normalize the mental state at any level. Analyze the following signs and find out what condition you are in. Whatever the result, we advise you to use our tips, which we will provide later.

Touchiness

Of course, sometimes we have very good reasons to be offended by loved ones or strangers. But even if they exist, this does not mean that such behavior can be considered healthy.

And if you are also offended for no reason, then this is one of the most striking signs that you should take a closer look at. When you are easily hurt, it indicates multiple problems hidden deep within.

Intrusive thoughts

A simple principle applies here: the more negative obsessive thoughts and the longer they remain in consciousness, the greater the harm to the psyche.

Only you can choose what thoughts to keep in your head. And if some of them are destructive and still affect you for a long time, you need to take immediate action and improve your emotional health.

Frequent mood changes

Mental instability is one of the most striking signs. Alternating between sadness and happiness several times a day is not normal. A person who loses his temper due to slight provocation or irritation is emotionally unstable.

We tend to constantly justify our mood changes by external factors. However, they should never completely throw you off balance.

Poor relationships with others

If you often get into conflicts and look for flaws even in loved ones, you should start improving your emotional health.

There is an opinion that the person who finds fault and conflicts with others is trying to get rid of internal pain and aggression. Think about how your relationships change when you don't get enough sleep or have a stressful day.

Low or high self-esteem

If you have low or high self-esteem, this is a significant indicator of emotional problems. The situation becomes worse if you are thrown from self-deprecation to a feeling of superiority. In this case, there is a risk of becoming schizophrenic.

Bad relationship with yourself

We are engaged in an eternal dialogue with ourselves. And if your inner voice often criticizes rather than praises, humiliates rather than inspires, then you have big problems.

Answer honestly whether there are similar signs in your psyche. This will help you recognize the problem and begin to deal with it. Otherwise, you risk destroying your emotional health.

How to Improve Your Emotional Health

Below are a few tips to help you increase your emotional health over the long term. When you start introducing them into your life, you will begin to experience satisfaction and increase your level of happiness. As a result, self-confidence will begin to grow along with motivation. Suddenly it turns out that you are able to enjoy things and have not lost your zest for life at all.

Let us make a reservation once again: this is a process that will require a long period of time for “treatment.” We sometimes take longer to treat a sore throat than our soul, so the world is filled with people who lose their temper over any stupidity and do not know how to cope with even the simplest problems.

Emotional health is very similar to physical health. You can start exercising today, but you won't see immediate results. Or, for example, you will immediately get good results and be very pleased with them, and then there will be a temporary decline, during which the main thing is not to quit the “treatment.”

Recommendation One: Guard Your Mind

Emotionally healthy people do not succumb too quickly to fear, anxiety, and stress. This means that they notice the negative impact of such emotions in time and immediately overcome them. They know how to separate themselves from what they are experiencing.

When circumstances don't turn out the way you wanted, it's easy to fall under the influence of destructive thoughts and emotions, uncontrollable anxiety and bad habits.

The best tactic is to guard your mind. This means:

• Don't watch the news.
• Do not enter into conflicts (except for individual cases when your honor is hurt or injustice occurs).
• Learn to break the chain of negative thoughts.
• Read inspiring and motivating books.
• Create your own mantras and affirmations.
• Stop watching what upsets you.

Start by not cluttering your brain with negative information. This does not mean running away from problems, it is a way to avoid creating unnecessary worries for yourself when you are emotionally sensitive and unstable. Protect yourself from everything unnecessary that causes unpleasant emotions: within a week you will feel better - the human body comes to its senses surprisingly quickly if the poison stops getting into it.

Tip Two: Feed Your Mind

If you have limited access to negative information, a vacuum is created that needs to be filled with something useful. You need new knowledge and skills. This will help you get new ideas and look at yourself and the world around you differently.

Feed your mind with:

• Books
• Educational videos
• New people
• Visiting new places
• Any inspiring information

But be careful: you must understand that the first and second recommendations are not temporary, but forever. Once you realize that these tips work, it will be tempting to go back to old habits. As a result, the original behavior will return: more negative information and less positive information.

Recommendation three: take care of your body

Emotionally healthy people understand that their body and mind are inextricably linked and mutually influence each other.

Understanding this, they find at least an hour a day to take care of their body:

• Running
• Swimming
• Eat healthy food
• Get enough sleep
• Are in sunlight
• Doing morning exercises

This helps them to always be in a good active mood. Of course, they drink little or not at all, do not smoke or take drugs.

As you noticed, to improve your emotional health, you need to take care of your body as a whole. There is no magic pill in this matter, there is only long-term work on yourself.

Recommendation Four: Nurture Your Relationships

We are surrounded by people everywhere, and besides, by nature we are social creatures. Nowadays it has become fashionable to be an introvert and be proud of it, but this does not mean that you should not learn how to maintain good relationships.

Healthy interactions with people provide the mental, physical, and emotional support needed to cope with the difficult challenges life throws at you.

You need to not only take something, but also give in return. Selfish relationships ruin the lives of both parties: there is no winner in this game. Try to be sincere, honest and provide your help without expecting any favors in return.

Recommendation Five: Maintain a work-life balance

Perhaps you are very passionate about your business and are ready to do it all day long. However, work is not everything.

A happy and fulfilling life is only possible if you maintain a balance in at least the following areas:

• Job
• Family
• Rest
• Entertainment
• Education

Of course, sometimes you need to sacrifice some areas, but at the same time understand that you will definitely make time for those areas that you have not worked on for a long time.

Even if you feel like you've found your calling, other areas of your life can help you gain inspiration and new perspectives, and look at your work in a completely different way.

Recommendation six: free yourself from negativity

Negativity penetrates us not only in the form of news and other external information. Often it is forged from the inside, which, by the way, takes a lot of energy and time.

Stop making mountains out of molehills and considering yourself a global sufferer. If you encounter a problem, great, start solving it by applying all your past experience or discovering an unexpected solution.

Recommendation seven: learn to cope with negative emotions

Negative emotions are overwhelming and depressing. With their long-term influence, there is no desire to overcome problems; you just want to sit on the sofa and look at one point.

To be an emotionally healthy person, you need to learn not to allow negative emotions to influence decisions or the logic of behavior.

If you want to read step-by-step instructions and get full guidance on how to do this, read one of the lessons on emotional intelligence called “Managing Negative Emotions.”

Recommendation Eight: Create Daily Rituals

Almost all great people created their own daily rituals. Moreover, these are not only our contemporaries like Tony Robbins and Tim Ferriss, but also individuals who have long been firmly entrenched in history - from Benjamin Franklin to Abraham Lincoln. Of course, each of them had their own rituals, but if you analyze them, you can find many intersections.

It turns out that approximately 50% of the “principles” of rituals are the same for everyone. Choose something for yourself from the following list and stick to this healthy habit for the rest of your life:

• Reading
• Meditation
• Logging
• Gratitude journal
• Setting goals
• Visualization
• Self-reflection
• Morning work-out
• Reading affirmations
• Mantra reading
• Yoga
• Prayer
• Silence

These techniques will help you boost your energy levels, clear your thoughts, and gain motivation and enthusiasm that will last you throughout the day.

We advise you to choose about 4-5 points and try them, starting after waking up.

Recommendation Nine: Develop Self-Control and Self-Discipline

If you think that, for example, eating junk food is not evidence of low levels of emotional health, then you are very mistaken. The same applies to any behavior that requires self-control and discipline.

If we do not cultivate these qualities in ourselves, then we begin to behave like capricious children with all the ensuing consequences: the desire to get everything at once, to make impulsive purchases and much more.

Simply put, you cannot be emotionally healthy unless you have developed self-control and discipline. The ability to resist temptation indicates that you do not allow unnecessary passions and emotions to get the better of you. They do not control you, but vice versa.

We advise you to avoid temptations. This time we will give another piece of advice: buy something that you really like to eat and put it in front of you. You must wait a day, but do not touch this product. Look at it, take your thoughts away, drool, but don’t eat. Support yourself with the thought that you are developing one of the rarest qualities in our modern age.

Final Thoughts

Improving your emotional health is not “one more thing to pay attention to.” Perhaps this is the first thing to do. The overwhelming number of problems arise precisely because people simply ignore their emotional health.

They work hard, spend a lot, vacation in warm countries, get married and have children, but in the end they often feel unhappy. No matter what external factors you surround yourself with, without order within yourself, you will not experience true happiness.

In our Library you can read a review of Ilse Sand’s book “Close to the Heart. How to live if you are an overly sensitive person” from which you will learn about simple ways that will restore your lost emotional balance - you will become less vulnerable, get rid of the worries and stress of everyday life. And most importantly, you will learn to live in harmony with others, while remaining yourself.

Source
Share

Keep fit

Time and time again, Southwick and Charney found that the most emotionally stable people had a habit of keeping their bodies and minds in good shape.

Many of the people we spoke to exercised regularly and felt that being fit had helped them through tough times and while recovering from injury. It even saved the lives of some.

"Unbreakable: The Science of Confronting Life's Challenges"

Interestingly, maintaining physical fitness is more important for emotionally fragile people. Why? Because the stress of exercise helps us adapt to the stress we will experience when life challenges us.

Researchers believe that during active aerobic training, a person is forced to experience the same symptoms that appear in moments of fear or excitement: rapid heart rate and breathing, sweating. After some time, a person who continues to exercise intensively can get used to the fact that these symptoms are not dangerous, and the intensity of the fear caused by them will gradually decrease.

"Unbreakable: The Science of Confronting Life's Challenges"

Train your mind

No, we do not encourage you to play a couple of logic games on your phone. Diehard people learn throughout their lives, constantly enrich their minds, and strive to adapt to new information about the world around them.

In our experience, resilient people constantly seek opportunities to maintain and develop their mental abilities.

"Unbreakable: The Science of Confronting Life's Challenges"

By the way, in addition to perseverance, developing the mind has many more advantages.

Cathie Hammond, in her 2004 study at the University of London, concluded that lifelong learning has multiple positive effects on mental health: well-being, the ability to recover from psychological trauma, the ability to cope with stress, and a developed sense of self-esteem. and self-sufficiency and much more. Continuous learning developed these qualities through the expansion of boundaries, a process that is central to learning.

"Unbreakable: The Science of Confronting Life's Challenges"

Develop Cognitive Flexibility

Each of us has a way that we usually cope with difficult situations. But what sets the most emotionally resilient people apart is that they use multiple coping mechanisms.

Resilient people tend to be flexible—they look at problems from different perspectives and respond to stress differently. They do not stick to just one method of dealing with difficulties. Instead, they switch from one survival strategy to another depending on the circumstances.

"Unbreakable: The Science of Confronting Life's Challenges"

What is the surest way to overcome difficulties that definitely works? Be tough? No. Ignore what's happening? No. Everyone mentioned humor.

There is evidence that humor helps overcome difficulties. Studies involving combat veterans, cancer patients, and surgical patients have shown that humor can reduce the intensity of a tense situation and is associated with resilience and the ability to tolerate stress.

"Unbreakable: The Science of Confronting Life's Challenges"

Touch nature

Nature has incredible energy, which should be recharged from time to time. It has long been proven that people living in areas where there are mountains, forests, large undeveloped spaces (fields, meadows, canyons) have a much more stable psyche and a better emotional background. It’s not for nothing that many people go to such places to rethink life and meditate.

Experience the power of nature for yourself. Go to the forest, organize a mountain climb, spend a weekend on the river bank, or just visit relatives in a village where there is nature all around, no fuss or unnecessary noise.

Walk barefoot on the grass, swim in the lake, walk in the field and pick flowers. A few days of such relaxation will return you to a great mood and inspire you to work.

Find the meaning of life

Resilient people don't have a job - they have a calling. They have a mission and purpose that gives meaning to everything they do. And in difficult times, this goal pushes them forward.

According to Austrian psychiatrist Viktor Frankl's theory that work is one of the pillars of the meaning of life, the ability to see one's calling in one's work increases emotional stability. This is true even for people in low-skilled jobs (such as hospital cleaners) and for people who are unsuccessful in their chosen occupation.

"Unbreakable: The Science of Confronting Life's Challenges"

Go shopping

You are wrong to think that shopping only helps women improve their mood. Men get no less pleasure from successful purchases. Yes, they may spend little time choosing clothes and shoes, but try to take them to a hardware store or, for example, a fishing tackle store (weapons, sports accessories), and the situation will immediately change.

The desire to possess something awakens determination and an active life position. In this state, the body begins to work more harmoniously, the brain switches to analysis and comparison mode, and cognitive functions improve.

The realization that the mission has been completed and the purchase has been made stimulates the production of endorphins from the achieved goal. And endorphins will take care of raising your mood and emotional stability.