Managing your emotions under pressure while overcoming challenges

How do you manage your emotions while facing challenges in life

Is there anyone who does not face challenges in life? I do not believe so, challenge is the other side of the coin called life. A life without challenges could only mean a placid, uneventful life, maybe even a stagnant one. It is in the face of adversity and resistance that one can know his/her own strength. Challenges are what bring a new perspective to the way you see yourself, the people around you, and your resources. Just as resistance builds up your muscles and makes you stronger, so do the challenges we face in life. How we overcome challenges is mainly dependant on our perception and attitude to life. Challenges are more often mental-battles. Overcoming them could mean getting the mind game right and being able to manage your emotions under pressure.

Managing your emotions under pressure

Challenges often stress people out. Actually, a little stress is good, it is like a gentle pressure that keeps you moving forward. It is important not to let the stress get to you and make you feel like you are losing control. If you are unable to control your emotions and manage them well you could end up messing up everything and losing even what you have. In order to keep your emotions under control, keeping the following points in mind would help.

How to control your emotions

Get your mind-set right. Perception is the most important aspect when you are facing a challenge. How you perceive your problem is crucial to how you overcome the challenge. Looking at a challenge as an opportunity to learn, improve and prove your strength is very important. There is no need to panic and get unduly worried about your situation. The ability to accept the good with the bad as a part of life is what sets you in the right mode for overcoming life’s challenges. It helps you keep your effectively manage your emotions while keeping your focus on challenge you are facing.

Being courageous is a choice you make. Face your fears. It is all too easy to let fear overtake you and take flight instead of facing up to the challenge. The ability to withstand pressure and the courage to face your situation is what stands between you and your challenges. Fear is contagious and increases exponentially if you allow it to pervade your mind. Facing your fears should be your prime line of action before you even jump into the task of facing your challenge.

To face the pressures of life you need to be able to assess your strengths and weaknesses objectively. Emotional detachment/ balance is needed to ensure that you are able to see things as they stand and not how you feel. You need to know your personal and emotional strengths, your skill/ability to face your challenge before you get into taking any action. You also need to take account of your social network and your social support system/s, which becomes crucial to provide you with emotional strength in times of overpowering stress.

The ability to look away from the thing that is causing you stress and focus on the positive goals you can achieve will help you get a hold on yourself. Choose to ignore the negative and focus on strategies that will take you closer to your goals.

The power to make decisions is a great weapon that you carry within yourself. The decisions that you make will decide the outcomes of the challenges you face, and your decisions need to show your faith in yourself and your ability. Your decisions need to banish fear, and to gear yourself towards action or solutions to the problem. Decisions display strength of character and heighten your level of motivation throughout the process of facing the challenge. They also give you the feeling that you are in control over yourself and your emotions.

Positive thinking is the easy route to follow if you want to work through your challenges and come out unscathed. Developing the habit of positive thinking helps you keep your focus on what is possible and keeps you action-oriented. Positive thinking also helps combat stress. Knowing that ‘This too shall pass’ will change the way you deal with your situation in a clam and unperturbed manner.

Challenges are opportunities to learn, and approaching your challenge with a “What is in it for me to learn“ attitude could make an impersonal challenge a personal one, which you have taken upon yourself. This brings the situation wholly under your control. Believe in yourself; no matter what happens or what the outcome is, you are still worthy of love and admiration, a person in your own right. There is power deep inside of you, don’t ever underestimate it. This power is like a muscle that gets stronger as you use it.

Plan the right strategies for action; make sure that you have a good understanding of your problem. Be objective or get an objective view of it. Bring all your resources into play while chalking out your plan of action. Have a secondary and tertiary line of action. Take help if you need to. Fight with all your might; give it the best you have. Even if nothing happens, you will come out a changed, emotionally stronger person, willing to take on the world.

Enjoy what you do. It is true that you are under pressure, but that does not mean that you lose your joie de vivre over a passing phase of difficulty. Remember: “Impossible is Nothing”. You have the power deep within to achieve what you want if you apply your mind to it. Being Happy is the key to facing the pressures of life.

If you feel highly stressed, re-organize your routines in such a way that you have more time to relax and de-stress. Make sure to add some fun into your mundane routine. For example – plan to meet up with a friend while on your errands so you can have fun and still get your work done. Judiciously mix pleasure with work and you will not feel the strain at all.

Find something or someone to love. Positive emotions like affection and love release a lot of positive energy into your life and work. They also bring freshness into your every day life. Adopting a pet or maybe even baby-sitting (if you like babies) could bring some refreshing energy into your life.

Turn inwards. Most of the time when we are facing challenges, we focus on the world outside, forgetting that you need some attention yourself. Take time to encourage yourself, spend time in positive self-talk, use positive affirmations and create a vision of what you’d like to achieve. This will help you keep your emotions in check, level of motivation high and overcome your challenges. If you are spiritually inclined, it is time to take your faith wand into your hands to make the impossible possible. There is nothing like it, I can assure you of that from personal experience.

No matter what the outcome, you need to congratulate yourself for having faced the challenge. The very fact that you chose to face the challenge instead of fleeing from it is something worth celebrating, even if you were unable to overcome your challenge. Appreciate yourself for every little milestone that you have achieved while facing your challenge. Remember that your experience has made you stronger and bolder to face bigger challenges in the future. At the end of the day, the self-control, emotional-control and other lessons that you have learnt from the pressures of life are what makes your life richer. So go on and face your giants and keep your cool!