To navigate the challenges and struggles of life without giving in or breaking down, we need to be emotionally stable. This is where we maintain emotional balance and control in stressful situations. Emotional stability is the opposite of neuroticism. Life can throw us into situations where we can feel overwhelmed by sadness, despair, anger or frustration. We may feel like shouting, screaming, fighting or simply going crazy. In such situations, the best thing to do is to try your best to remain calm. This is essentially maintaining emotional balance. You can do this by grounding yourself. This is where you rely upon special skills and techniques to gain control over your emotions so that you do not do something that you will regret. Secondly, grounding yourself gives you a new perspective of the current situation. Here are 12 ways to ground yourself and become emotionally stable.
Mental visualization
This is a method of grounding yourself in which you visualize a scene that is totally different from the one playing out in your life. If you find yourself caught in an argument, you can begin to visualize a scene that is calm, serene and where you feel in full control. If you find yourself at the receiving end of some condemnation, you can mentally visualize the words to your favorite song to fully distract you from your reality. In this way, you stay emotionally stable and grounded throughout.
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Physical grounding
Physical grounding is the process where you focus your senses and become aware of your surroundings. You can shift focus from the stressful people or circumstance which you are in and transfer it to the furniture, decorations or lighting in the area. Physical grounding also involves focusing on sound. If you hear a soothing sound around you during the stressful circumstance, then you can focus on it and leave out all the noise. Engaging in physical activity such as weights training, jogging, running or relaxed walking can also take your mind off the stressful situation and help you to gain emotional calm and control.
Perform some self-soothing
We all have voices in our heads. They tell us things which can be constructive or destructive in nature. If you find yourself in a challenging, stressful situation, you can perform some self-soothing. This is where you mentally tell yourself some positive, uplifting things. Encourage yourself by thinking that despite the current difficulty, you have encountered bigger challenges and survived. Hence, you will survive this too. Positive self-soothing is a very powerful way to ground yourself and develop emotional stability.
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Hug someone else
During an emotionally stressful situation, we often have a lot of pent up energy. It manifests itself as anger, grief or frustration. If left unchecked, it can lead us to perform acts of violence. Thankfully, we can release this anger by simply hugging someone else. When our bodies interact with each other, energy is transferred from one to the other. Hugging can do this and help to reduce your pent up emotion resulting in a more calm, stable disposition.
Meditation
Practiced by people all around the world for centuries, meditation is a highly effective way to ground yourself and become emotionally stable. You can meditate while sitting in the yogic lotus position or simply sitting in a chair with you back upright and your hands on your lap. Take the time to rid your mind of all thought and become aware of your heartbeat. Stay in this mental state for ten to fifteen minutes at a time. This will help to clear your mind and heart of conflict resulting in emotional stability.
Learn More : Meditate Your Way to a Better Life: 5 Benefits of Daily Meditation
Perform breathing exercises
Controlling your breath is one of the effective methods of grounding yourself. Simply breathe in deeply and count one. Hold your breath and count two. Proceed to exhale and count three. Repeat the practice again with all your focus held on your breathing activity. If any thoughts of peril come to mind, dismiss them immediately and continue to breath. Practice this every day and you will get so good at it that you can stabilize your emotions in real time whenever required.
Sit in stillness
For most of us, losing control of our emotions is a direct result of having too much on our plate. We can find ourselves handling too many responsibilities and obligations all at the same time. This can drive us crazy and result in outbursts. How can you relieve this? Simply take the time to sit in a position or place where you are completely still. Switch off your phone and sit in a spot where there is no noise or bothersome company. Take the time to be alone and focus on yourself with no thought in mind. Spending some time in this position can help you to calm down and figure out what can be eliminated in your life to make it easier. This realization assists you in becoming emotionally stable.
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Walk directly upon the earth
This is an interesting way to get grounded. Whenever you feel emotionally overwhelmed, you can regain stability by getting in touch with mother Earth. Take off your shoes and have a stroll on the grass and dirt. Relish in feeling the dust between your toes and the blades of grass under your feet. In doing this, you are able to relax and your energy is balanced out naturally.
Enter a state of flow
The state of flow is where you are so focused on an activity that it engulfs you, takes all your attention and you enjoy it so much that you even lose track of time. We all have an activity which we love to do. It is possible to use it so as to become more emotionally stable. To get rid of unwanted, negative emotion, simply busy yourself with the activity which you are passionate about. Release all your tension in the activity and focus on it fully. Let go of other responsibilities or even the concept of time. After a session of entering a state of flow, you will feel much better and possibly even have the solution to get out of a stressful situation.
Learn More : Get Into a Flow State at Will : 6 Tips to Unlock Your Power
Take a hot bath in a tub
Immersing yourself in hot water is an effective way to ground yourself and release tension. If you can, find some Epsom salts and mix them into the water. Not only will it relax you and ease emotional tension, it will cleanse your skin. Taking a bath cleans off the day's sweat and rids you of negative energy too. This leaves you refreshed and ready to face the challenge or situation head on.
Engage in a hobby
Each of us has an activity which we enjoy to do. It can be a high-skill or simple task. Examples of hobbies are knitting, painting, singing, playing musical instruments, writing poetry, composing music or playing board games. Hobbies are a perfect way to restore emotional balance. Not only are they relaxing, they also offer some time away from challenging emotional situations.
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Listen to music
Music is a universal language. The words, tune, melody and singer's voice all carry some energy which can help to balance out our emotions. If you find yourself in an emotionally taxing situation, listen to some music that relaxes you. Let it play and focus on every note with no other thought in your mind. Gradually, you will relax and find emotional stability.
The Important Take Away
For us to function normally and productively, we need to be emotionally stable. The tips that are indicated above are tried and tested ways to accomplish this. You can use them to handle the storms that can brew in your life. They are guidelines on how to keep a cool head and emerge as a problem-solver all the time.
