In times of uncertainty, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and unsettled. More and more in therapy I'm hearing clients ask the questions... "What’s next?" or "How am I going to cope with this?". It seems like these days, uncertainty is a constant presence in our lives, whether it's related to global events, unexpected challenges, or the unpredictability of the future.
In this blog post, we’ll explore what it looks like to build emotional resilience that can help you navigate times of increased stress and uncertainty.
What is Emotional Resilience?
Emotional resilience is the ability to adapt to stressful situations, overcome adversity, and bounce back from difficult experiences. It’s not about avoiding stress, but about learning how to navigate it, grow from it, and ultimately emerge stronger. Resilience helps us stay present, calm, and connected, even in the midst of chaos or confusion.
Resilience is about trusting yourself to face the tough moments, knowing you are capable of feeling discomfort without shutting down.
Here's an important thing to remember... resilience doesn’t mean not affected by what’s happening around you! The goal of developing emotional resilience is not to make you immune to life’s challenges or blind to injustice, but rather but rather to understand your feelings and respond to them with intention and awareness.
How to Develop Emotional Resilience
Resilience can be developed with time, intention, and consistency. Let’s explore some of the ways you can begin to build resiliency in your day to day life.
Acknowledge and Accept What You’re Feeling
In order to regulate our emotions, we need to be able to identify and name what we’re feeling. In times of high stress and uncertainty, it can be easy to get overwhelmed by strong emotions or shut ourselves off from our emotions all together.
Check In: We often try to avoid strong emotions by taking on too many responsibilities, disconnecting on social media, isolating from friends and loved ones, or distracting ourselves with work. How do you disconnect from your emotions?
Emotions play a crucial role in our lives. Not only are they a fundamental aspect of our human experience, and they provide us with valuable information about ourselves and the world around us. By acknowledging and accepting our emotions, we can use them to help guide our responses to times of stress and uncertainty.
Notice: when you acknowledge what you are feeling, what do those feelings tell you? Why is the particular emotion present? Does it need something from you? Is it trying to bring your attention to something important?
Reflect On Your Priorities
When we aren’t aware of our own priorities in times of chaos and uncertainty, we often try to address stressors by attempting to engage with anything and everything. In this space you may find that it’s easy to take on too much, neglect your own needs, and fail to set boundaries or acknowledge your own limitations.
Check-In: What comes up for you when you consider your own priorities? Pay attention to feelings of guilt that come along with feeling like you must “do it all” or with setting limits on your time and energy.
Reflecting on the causes, issues, and boundaries that mean the most to you allows you to approach times of stress with an understanding of how you want to manage your limited time and energy.
Notice: This can be difficult to practice if you’re someone who has a hard time setting your own limits or taking care of your own needs! If this is hard, try allowing yourself to set small limits, whether it’s with how much media you consume or what conversations you allow yourself to engage in with others.
Take Care of Mind and Body
Prioritizing your physical and emotional health allows you to have the energy to focus on what matters most to you. During times of stress it can be easy to neglect your physical and emotional needs- things like rest, exercise, nutrition, relaxation, and connection.
Check-In: If this feels hard for you, remember that being stuck in a cycle of worry, over-thinking, and imagining worst case scenarios is genuinely exhausting! It’s important that you rest and take care of your needs so that you can maintain the focus and energy you need in the upcoming weeks or months.
Taking time to nurture both your body and mind helps you maintain balance, preventing burnout and enhancing your resilience in the face of challenges. By consistently investing in self-care, you allow yourself to create a foundation that can help you more adaptively handle stressors as they come. Instead of facing the next stressor from a place of exhaustion, you can handle it from a place of grounded awareness.
Put It In to Practice:
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- How am I feeling physically and emotionally right now?
- Have I had enough rest and sleep lately? How can I improve my sleep routine?
- What’s my energy level like today, and what can I do to recharge?
- Am I nourishing my body with foods that make me feel good and energized?
- Have I made time for movement today? What activity helps me feel grounded?
- How am I managing stress? What are some tools I can use to relax or release tension?
- Have I connected with someone today who supports me, or taken time for quiet reflection?
How Therapy Can Help
These are some quick tools to get you started, but if you’d like more support or want to explore this further, therapy is a great space to start processing all of the complex feelings, fears, and anxieties that may be coming up right now.
At Embodied Empowerment, we provide a compassionate and collaborative space where you can heal, grow, and thrive. Whether you’re seeking to build emotional resilience, create strategies to cultivate inner peace, or feel more confident in navigating life’s challenges, we’re here to help. Together, we’ll work towards building a future where you feel confident, capable, and in control.
Contact us for a free, 15-minute consultation and free yourself from the uncertainty that's been keeping you stuck. We look forward to hearing from you!
MEET THE AUTHOR!
Jessica Byrd, LCSW is a therapist who helps people create lives that are balanced and fulfilling.
Her therapeutic approach promotes connection, curiosity, and self-compassion as a pathway towards healing and clarity. By creating a space for her clients to reconnect with their bodies, she helps them break free from the patterns, beliefs, and experiences that have prevented them from living their lives authentically.
Jessica is currently accepting new clients and provides virtual therapy to adults throughout Arizona.