BUILDING EMOTIONAL FITNESS

Being able to choose how you think and feel every day and coping with whatever life throws at you, free from stress, anxiety and worry is probably one of the most critical factors essential in today’s world. And this applies in all spheres of life, be it our personal life or work life. To choose how we think and feel, we must first understand the nature and purpose of emotions and thoughts.Our instincts stimulate the emotional part of our brain so that we can feel our most basic needs. This creates emotions which drive us towards or way from things in order to satisfy our needs which in turn stimulates our thinking so that we make decisions regarding how to best satisfy our needs. This relationship between our instincts and the emotional and rational parts of our brain represent a virtuous circle which helps us to identify and satisfy our needs. But it can turn into a vicious circle when our needs are not met. Our needs are both physical and psychological but when they are not met our emotional brain demands satisfaction. This can overwhelm our ability to think rationally by triggering our fight and flight response which creates physical tension in our body and drives our thinking into a defensive and protective pattern which can result in panic, anxiety worry, stress, and depression. Romantic breakdowns, friends changing, marriage break down, losing a job, parent’s pressure, failing an exam and extraordinary events like deaths, serious illnesses and natural disasters etc can occur without a warning.Emotionally resilient people are more effective at managing stress and to cope with issues and problems than their non-resilient peers. There is this book by Paul Bird titled "Emotional Fitness...changing the way we think and feel". According to the book, six core instincts that drive human behavior are Survival - Engagement - Achievement - Reward - Control - Harmony. It says that 6 P's we need to manage for changing the way we think and feel are Perspective - People - Purpose - Pleasure - Power - Peace. This will help us achieve happier, more emotionally fit lives. We have to protect ourselves with skills that help us bounce back every time, all the time. And of course, to be emotionally fit, one has to be physically fit as well so that healthy body leads to a healthy and wealthy mind. Even little exercise releases chemicals in our brain that lift our mood. It can help us to sleep better, have more energy and keep our heart healthy. And of course, one needs to sleep well. I believe we need to sleep seven to eight hours on an average to make our body and mind to rest fully.