5 November 2021

Building Emotional Agility

Being emotionally agile or resilient doesn’t mean that we don’t experience emotion or have difficult days. Being emotionally “healthy” involves experiencing all our emotions, difficult and pleasant.

Emotionally agile individuals are open to experiencing their thoughts, emotions and experiences in a healthy, compassionate and clear-sighted way providing opportunity for growth and progress rather than debilitation and being “stuck”.

According to the International leader on emotional agility, Dr Susan David, there are 4 key concepts to emotional agility

1. Show up: the willingness and courage to face your thoughts and feelings with curiosity and kindness is key to becoming emotionally agile. Rather than using avoidance, distraction or irrational positivity, showing up demonstrates the willingness to work through what is going on.
2. Step Out: Labelling thoughts and feelings provides opportunities for defusion and being more detached. All thoughts and feelings pass over time and it is helpful to be aware of these thoughts and to allow them to come and go freely without having to make them go away. This concept is also supported by ACT therapy that provides specific strategies for mindfulness and cognitive defusion.
3. Walk your Why: be guided by your core values. If you walk the path that is value oriented it will provide opportunities for growth, willpower, resilience and effectiveness.
4. Move Forward: make small and meaningful changes to your habits and mindset. Create opportunities to challenge yourself to work towards these goals without setting expectations that will lead to overwhelm.

Helpful Books to Consider

Emotional Agility by Susan David

The Happiness Trap by Russ Harris

The Resilience Project by Hugh Van Cuylenburg