If there are two heart attributes to consider rebooting right now they would be compassion and tolerance – for our self as much as others. Many people are feeling their emotions running high making the topic of resilience even more important. Staying tuned to what emotions drain us and which ones help sustain our resilience is essential.
Increasing Resilience by Managing Emotions
We know it’s impractical to try to tune out all that is occurring in the world around us or avoid everyday encounters that may not always be pleasant to us. We can, however, learn to increase our resilience so we flow more smoothly through challenges and sustain our positive creative intentions.
Resilience is often defined as the capacity to prepare for, recover from and adapt in the face of stress, adversity, trauma or challenge. Increasing our resilience also plays a highly effective role in strengthening our mental capacity, emotional stability and our health. It especially increases the personal energy needed for adjusting to change and uncertainty in the fast-moving scenes of life today.
Having a high level of resilience is important; not only for bouncing back, but for preventing unnecessary stress accumulation from frustration, impatience, anxiety, decision pressure and such.
HeartMath has verified through its research, involving thousands of participants, that increasing and maintaining our resilience is highly dependent on our ability to manage emotions. Emotions are the principal drivers of a number of key physiological processes involved in energy regulation.
Moreover, while not dwelling on negative emotions is important, also learning techniques for replacing stress-producing emotions with positive, supportive ones can be a critical component to improving overall well-being. Practicing the following suggestion often produces immediate results, even the first time and within a few minutes.
A Suggestion for Replacing Stressful Emotions and Feelings
Take a few minutes several times a day to do this simple process.
- Identify the emotion or attitude you want to replace.
- Think of a positive feeling or emotion to replace the unwanted feeling.
- As you breathe, imagine you are breathing in the positive replacement emotion. Imagine you are breathing in through your heart area. Do this for a while to lock in the new feeling or attitude and repeat this later if needed. Being genuine is key for effective results.
With a little practice, you will surprise yourself with your heart’s power to change many unwanted feelings, emotions and attitudes.
If you would like a deeper understanding of resilience, you might find HeartMath’s new book, Heart Intelligence helpful.
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