An article from “Prevail Wellness Academy”

Confidence is the deep sense that you can handle the emotional outcome of whatever you face or whatever you pursue. Prevail Wellness Academy collaborator, Joan Rosenberg, calls it an embodied sense of “can-do-itiveness”.

The foundation of confidence, this deep sense that we can handle the emotional outcome of anything, is the ability to lean into our emotions. Or in other words, to give ourselves permission to feel the full range of human emotions, including the difficult ones like sadness, shame, helplessness, anger, vulnerability, embarrassment, disappointment, and frustration.

These emotions do not represent anything being wrong with us. They are a normal and important part of the human experience. Leaning into awareness with our tough emotions is what my mentor, Tal Ben-Sharar refers to as giving ourselves permission to be human.

When we avoid difficult emotions or bury them, they manifest themselves in our lives in other detrimental ways. We are also burying part of the human experience. Which is why Joan says that when we allow ourselves to experience difficult emotions and move through them instead of away from them, it creates a feeling of truly being alive and it is the essence of emotional strength. Ultimately, learning to embrace and lean into our difficult emotions is what gives us the confidence to pursue the things that we most desire in our life.

So the next time you experience one of these difficult emotions, don't shy away from it, avoid it, or distract yourself with numbing agents, such as social media, food, or substances. Instead take a few moments to be still and bring your attention to that emotion. Notice the thought that may be associated with that emotion, or observe the physical manifestation of it. For example, be present with and observe the knot you feel in your chest. Or the anxiousness you feel in your throat. Or the sadness you feel in your stomach. Or the tightness in your shoulders, etc.

It will be different for everyone but one of the keys of observing our emotions is that we do not judge or criticize those uncomfortable emotions, but rather as we bring our attention to them we remind ourselves that they are a normal and acceptable part of being human. Observing our emotions in this way is what researcher and mindfulness expert Mark Williams calls “friendly curiosity.”

He teaches that following this process allows you to "catch negative thought patterns before they tip you into a downward spiral. It begins the process of putting you back in control of your life.”

Let us together take control of our life by embracing all emotions, leaning into them to foster emotional resilience, and then using our newfound emotional strength to serve and strengthen others.