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How To Be Emotionally Stable
Everyone talks about being emotionally balanced, but in reality most people are out of touch with their emotions. They don’t know how to be emotionally stable.
It’s not something you’re born with. In reality, most people are emotionally unstable. There are a few habits you can develop to become emotionally stable. If you read on I’ll outline these habits so that you, too can become emotionally stable!
Practice Self-care
Self-care is important because it can help you move forward. We all want to be happy and healthy, to feel well-rested, stress-free, and content. Practicing self-care can help you achieve those things.There are many ways to practice self-care. Here are a few examples:
- Protect yourself against negative people and their negativity by setting boundaries or walking away from them entirely if necessary.
- Make time for activities that you enjoy.
- Follow a healthy lifestyle by eating nutritious foods, getting enough sleep and exercising regularly.
- Learn to say “no” without guilt or explanation when you need to.
Meditate
Meditating can help you achieve emotional stability by helping you be more present. It can enhance your ability to be more aware of your emotions and how they affect your mind and body.
Meditation has many benefits, including controlling anxiety, reducing stress, improving cardiovascular health, and enhancing overall quality of life.
To meditate:
Pick a quiet place where you know you won’t be interrupted.
Sit upright in a comfortable position — it should feel good! You may sit on the floor with crossed legs or in a chair with both feet on the floor. You can also lie down, but there is a chance that you will fall asleep.
Focus on an object such as your breath or a mantra (a sound or series of words repeated over and over).
When thoughts arise, gently push them aside so that you can focus on your breathing or mantra.
Incorporate meditation into your daily routine for at least five minutes each day. With continued practice, you may find that meditation becomes an important part of your day.
Believing Everything You Think
In order to be more emotionally stable, you have to be more conscious. The more conscious you become, the less you believe everything you think.
Becoming aware of your thoughts allows you to separate yourself from your thinking. You are not your thoughts. You are the awareness behind them.
Thoughts can be useful and they can also be destructive. As humans, we have an amazing ability to think — but that doesn’t mean we should believe everything we think.
In many ways, it is, but the analogy falls apart when you consider that approximately 90% of our thinking happens outside of our conscious awareness. In other words, most of what we think just kind of flows through our heads without us noticing it.
Most people don’t realize that they can choose not to believe every thought that comes into their heads.
We tend to believe everything we think, without question. We think about something and then immediately conclude that it’s true — and we remain unaware of this process because it happens so quickly and so automatically.
As soon as I realized this, I started to wonder: How much of my suffering was caused by believing all my thoughts?
I decided to stop believing everything I thought. It wasn’t easy at first, but I gradually became adept at noticing my thoughts and recognizing that they’re just thoughts.
Nowadays, when a negative thought pops into my head — This article is terrible! — I first acknowledge that it’s just a thought. Then I ask myself if there’s any evidence to support its truthfulness or usefulness
Find Meaning In Everything
Some people seem to be able to find meaning in everything. There’s always a silver lining — or at least something to learn from a bad experience. For others, it’s much harder to find meaning in the bad stuff that happens.
The good news is that it is possible to become more emotionally stable by learning how to find meaning in everything. Here’s how:
Examine your beliefs about what does and does not have inherent meaning. It is true that some things are inherently meaningless — like a rock, for example.
But other things have a lot of personal meaning attached to them, such as our relationships with other people and even with non-human living beings.
First you have to be willing to see the meaning in things, including seemingly meaningless things.
Expect life to be meaningful. This one is particularly important because your expectations influence your life experiences. If you expect life to be meaningless, then you’ll likely find yourself experiencing a lot of meaningless events and situations in your life.
On the other hand, if you expect life to be meaningful, you’re more likely to interpret events as meaningful — this means you’ll be more likely to find meaning in everything.
And when something truly is meaningless, you’ll interpret it as such but know that it will pass quickly.
Take Positive Action
The first step is to identify the core beliefs that drive your negative emotions. Then, you can take steps to change or eliminate them.
For example, let’s say you’re feeling anxious about an upcoming presentation at work. You might say to yourself: “I’m going to do a terrible job.” “I’ll make a fool of myself.” “Everyone will laugh at me.”
So, if you screw up your presentation, what’s the worst thing that could happen? Would you lose your job? Probably not.
Maybe you’d get some criticism from your boss and colleagues, but they’d probably still respect you. You might even get some constructive feedback on how to improve in the future.
Become Your Own Best Friend
Why become your own best friend? Because you will be with you for life. You need to love yourself and have a high self-esteem. Everyone hates someone who is always down on themselves, has low self-esteem and at the same time thinks she is better than everyone else.
People who like themselves are fun to be around, they are positive and affirming. When you think good thoughts about yourself you automatically think good thoughts about others. You are also more confident and able to handle problems in your life better.
First, really get to know yourself, see the good in yourself. Focus on the positive qualities that you have and accentuate them rather than focusing on the things that you would like to change but can’t.
It’s easy when we don’t like something about ourselves just to focus on it so much that it becomes all that we see in ourselves. Instead focus on your positives.
Second, make sure that you talk to yourself in a kind way rather than a critical way. The words we say affect us emotionally as well as mentally, so if we call ourselves names or tell ourselves that we are stupid or ugly then our feelings get hurt.
Prioritize Your Mental And Emotional Health
Participating in activities that you enjoy and find fulfilling
- Getting enough sleep
- Exercising regularly
- Eating a healthy diet
- Using coping skills regularly to manage stress (e.g., deep breathing, meditation, yoga)
- Connecting with others and cultivating a strong support system
- Taking time for hobbies and other relaxing activities
- Setting boundaries at work and home
Get moving. Exercise has an incredible effect on mood. It affects neurotransmitters in the brain that control mood, like endorphins and serotonin. Getting outdoors also boosts mood by exposing people to sunlight and fresh air. Exercise helps with stress management too, which is always good for mental health.
Eat Healthy
A healthy diet can help you feel better and be more emotionally stable. In the 1930s, psychologist Carl Rogers noticed that his clients seemed to improve faster when they changed their diets. He said: “It has been repeatedly found that any emotional instability is aggravated by a lack of proper nourishment.”
What you eat affects your body, mind and emotions, as well as your energy levels. The right foods help your body function properly and keep you full of energy. Eating well can help you think more clearly, manage your moods and even sleep better.
