Being More Emotionally Resilient to Reclaim My Life

Emotional resilience is very important to a person's wellbeing. It is a way to describe how well you mentally bounce back from upsetting situations and events. Emotional resilience can be crucial in mental illness recovery where stress can aggravate symptoms. Being able to better handle stress improves stability.

I am often plagued with thoughts of the recent -- and sometimes distant -- past, which can lead to sleepless nights. These thoughts steal me away from my life and occupy too much of my time. Sometimes I'm even angry at how much time is wasted. I'm a busy person and there are so many better things I could be doing. They can distract me from doing the things I enjoy, and sometimes I'm not even mentally present when I spend time with my family. These are red flags to me. I'm not bouncing back as well as I should.

How I'm Improving My Emotional Resilience

I know I have a lot of work to do yet but I want to share some of the ways I am trying to improve my emotional resilience.

Meditation

Not too long ago I wrote an article about how meditating with mala beads helped me cope with a negative situation in my life. Taking a quiet moment to reflect and say a mantra with each bead really helps me redirect my thoughts. It also gives me a minute to think about a problem and calmly decide my next move. The improvement in my emotional resilience has been noticeable. I carry my mala beads in my purse or as a bracelet in case I'm feeling anxious or angry during the day and need a break to calm my mind.

Creativity

Lots of good artists and writers can be dark. It makes them more human and relatable and their work seem more honest. Drawing ideas from your personal life can be an asset, plus using them in your work as a coping skill could improve your emotional resilience.

I write all the time. My journal is always with me. It's usually in my purse. Ideas come from anywhere at any time, and I want to be able to jot them down quickly before forgetting them. For me, putting my negative thoughts and experiences on paper makes them somehow easier to work through -- like seeing the words makes them more real. This outlet has also given my emotional resilience a boost.

Early in my recovery, I used art to cope with symptoms and unpleasant feelings. I tend to create surrealist designs to represent what I'm going through. I felt showing my thoughts visually to others validated my experiences. When I was hanging on by just a thread, art got me through some tough times.

Emotional Resilience Requires Detachment, Limits, and Boundaries

In the past several months, I have struggled with practicing detachment at work and it's hurting my emotional resilience. Detachment is necessary for anyone working in mental health or any other helping field. I take things personally and harbor hurt and angry feelings for a long time. Because I have trouble with detachment, I take my work home with me -- whether I want to or not.

Emotional resilience requires limits and boundaries. Even though I struggle with detachment, I've learned to ask for help and how to know when enough is enough. Some people will never change no matter how much you want them to. I am working on becoming a more patient person, but you can only give a person so many chances. It's okay to cut toxic people out of your life it that's something you need to do to stay healthy and stable.

It's Important to Me to Demonstrate Strong Emotional Resilience as a Mom

It's very important to me to model strong emotional resilience to my daughter, especially since one day she could potentially struggle with mental health issues like I do. I want to learn what's healthy and pass that knowledge on to her. I suffered from emotional instability as a young adult, and I want to give my daughter the tools to prevent that in her life -- or at least to know when to ask for help.

We all know how our mood can affect our day, work, and time with our family. When it comes to living a happy and fulfilling life, emotional resilience is just as necessary as getting enough sleep or drinking enough water.

How do you stand when it comes to emotional resilience? What methods do you use to improve it? Let me know in the comments.