How to Strength Train Your Emotional Resilience Before Disaster Strikes

by Media Feature | Jan 28, 2022 | Emotional Awareness

BY MARY GRACE GARIS IN WELL + GOOD

Not to brag, but I think I’m on my way to winning the gold medal in emotional resilience.

Emotional resilience, ICYMI, is the ability to adapt to a stressful change or recover from a painful experience efficiently, and my year has had plenty of that. But, uh, is there a way to toughen up yourself up emotional without going through traumatic events?

Well, like a paralyzing fear of change, research long suggested the emotional resilience was something relatively genetic or inherited. My suspicion: if you’re highly neurotic like me, the predisposition to be resilient is not really there. Like, you fear change, and then you cry about it. The good news, though, is that you can build up emotional resilience like you can build up washboard abs (I mean I can’t, but someone can). In fact, there are courses in the United Kingdom and New Zealand that teach emotional resilience. If you don’t have the cash for a plane ticket, though, we do have some advice on hand.

To psychologist Helene Brenner, PhD, author of I Know I’m In There Somewhere, emotional resilience isn’t about effortlessly bouncing back from disaster with a big grin on your face. It’s about exerting emotional control in a healthy way.

“You’re human, you have emotions for a purpose,” says Dr. Brenner. “Often, resilience is more like quick recovery. You’re thrown off balance, but you feel it, you go through it, but you bounce back pretty quickly. You get knocked over, you hurt, you spin, maybe you feel like you’ve lost it for a short time—but then you find your balance and move forward.”

Essentially, it’s not simply about being so tough nothing phases you, but rather it’s about learning how to be vulnerable when appropriate—which in turn makes you stronger.

Learn how to share your emotions and keep yourself grounded

I’m learning to do this a lot in therapy: share what my feelings are, realize they’re valid, but acknowledge they’re also not indicative of any reality but my own. You don’t need to be in therapy to realize this, though it always helps; having at least one trusted friend you can healthily vent to is what matters.

“If you can, share your feelings with someone who is safe, who can accept them nonjudgmentally,” say Dr. Brenner. “Share them as feelings, not as facts. If you’re thinking or feeling something awful, you can tell people that you know it’s ‘irrational,’ but it’s how you’re feeling right now. Accept your feeling and let it be, let it flow, but don’t mistake it for something permanent and altogether factual and objective.”

Train at being smart and “mindful” about your feelings

While you’re navigating the emotional waters of All The Feels, it’s important to recognize where the negative emotion comes from. Break it down into little parts. Sadness, for example, is typically about loss and grief; if you find yourself all blue about something, try to unravel what you’re afraid you lost. You can apply the same unraveling technique to anger.

 

TO READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE  BY MARY GRACE GARIS IN WELL+GOOD, CLICK HERE 

 

About Larry Letich, LCSW-C & Dr. Helene Brenner

We’re Helene Brenner and Larry Letich. Helene is a licensed psychologist in private practice for more than 30 years. Larry is an individual and couples therapist. Besides being therapists, we’re co-authors and partners in life and love for more than four decades.

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About Us

We’re Helene Brenner and Larry Letich. Helene is a licensed psychologist in private practice for more than 30 years. Larry is an individual and couples therapist. Besides being therapists, we’re co-authors and partners in life and love for more than four decades.

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