Regardless of your threshold for navigating change, its push and pull, disruption, and uncertainty can span from exciting to exhausting to frustrating, potentially clouding your judgment.
Being able to self-regulate can help you learn how to temper your nerves, impulses, reactions, and behaviors when you’re feeling triggered or out of sorts. Equally important is understanding what affects you negatively so you can adopt strategies to circumvent and bounce back if you fall off track or act in a way that no longer serves you or the situation.
Balance isn’t a permanent state; it requires continual awareness and tweaking.
Your mind and body are interconnected and automatically impacted by each other. Because your system is dynamic and responsive to what is happening in and around you, how you’re feeling is constantly changing.
Remaining calm and grounded during—inner or outer—conflict is complicated. Even unmet physical needs affect your state of mind, like being hungry or tired, and when under pressure, you can quickly go into “survival mode.”
The more you pay attention to what’s happening inside of you, the more you can pause and assess a situation versus falling victim to your instinctual behavioral patterns and defenses. Communicating with yourself can help you work through opposing thoughts to remain level-headed and objective.
Resilience implies that you can adapt and adjust.
Just because something is right for one person doesn’t mean it’s right for you, which is why knowing yourself is vital. Appreciating, accepting, and relating to all aspects of yourself is crucial for your well-being.
The American Psychological Association defines resilience as:
“The process and outcome of successfully adapting to difficult or challenging life experiences, especially through mental, emotional, and behavioral flexibility and adjustment to external and internal demands.”
When you’re resilient, you focus on what you have agency over to foster a brighter attitude while reflecting on challenges. Although you have no control over someone else’s beliefs or behaviors, you do not need to be impacted, swayed, or succumb to their way of being. Instead, you can create distance between you and them and turn your attention and energy on yourself.
To guide you, here are five ways you can ride out your emotional waves and self-regulate amid change and chaos:
Exercise your mind and body.
Release the chatter in your mind through breathing or stepping away from what’s bothering you. Take a few minutes to pause, reflect, and gain a fresh perspective. Listen to music, meditate, walk, or reach out to a trusted loved one or friend. Anything that helps you to align internally and feel like you. Sit, lie, or get up. Change your position and change your outlook.
Choose how you want to show up.
Setting a daily intention empowers you to prioritize what’s most important to you. If you’re feeling unmotivated, exhausted, or overwhelmed, reaching for a better thought can help you center on what is going right (or not so bad). If you’re thinking, “I have to…” out of obligation or commitment, alter your perspective to “I get to…,” and be grateful for what you can do.
Discern between “yours” and “others.”
It’s easy to absorb other people’s energy, behaviors, and language. When you’re unsettled, evaluate what’s coming from you versus what’s coming from those around you, and refrain from picking up their negative vibe or attitude. Instead, embrace your leadership potential and extend kindness by giving them the space or a “friendly ear” they may need.
Let go of the need to be correct.
Some people thrive in debates and arguments, while others prefer avoiding conflict and finding harmony in discussions. Try to use the mantra “I’d rather be happy than right,” and remove yourself from a conversation that has turned into a ping-pong game of who’s more right. Also, you can suggest “Let’s agree to disagree” to move on from the topic.
Set clear boundaries.
In a world full of many demands, you may get sidetracked and delay aspirations in support of others. A critical step in taking care of yourself is blocking out the time to do so. This means prioritizing and setting up the necessary boundaries and giving as much time to yourself as you would to someone else.
A shift in mindset begins with new concepts.
As a lifelong student, certified professional coach, and consultant, self-reflection and activating the best in others through self-leadership, interpersonal relations, and team dynamics are passions of mine. My approach is personalized and customized, tapping into various assessments, disciplines, modalities, and techniques. To learn more, schedule a call with me.