How to Be Emotionally Strong & Mentally Tougher When Feeling Discouraged

In life, we face various challenges that can test our emotional strength and mental toughness. Building resilience and developing the ability to navigate difficult situations with grace and determination are essential for personal growth and well-being.

In this article, we will explore strategies and techniques to help you become emotionally strong and mentally tougher. We will address five commonly asked questions in detail, providing valuable insights and practical advice to empower you on your journey toward emotional and mental resilience.

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What does it mean to be emotionally strong and mentally tough?

Being emotionally strong and mentally tough means having the ability to manage and overcome adversity, setbacks, and emotional challenges effectively.

It involves cultivating resilience, developing a positive mindset, and honing coping skills to navigate life’s ups and downs with confidence and determination.

Emotional strength allows us to acknowledge and embrace our emotions while maintaining control over our actions and reactions.

Mental toughness involves having a strong and resilient mindset that enables us to stay focused, motivated, and committed to our goals even in the face of obstacles and setbacks.

How can I build emotional strength?

Building emotional strength requires self-awareness, self-care, and intentional practices. Firstly, developing emotional intelligence is key to understanding and managing our emotions effectively.

This involves recognizing and labeling emotions, practicing self-reflection, and developing empathy for others. Secondly, cultivating a support system of trusted individuals who provide encouragement, guidance, and a safe space to express emotions can be invaluable.

Additionally, engaging in self-care activities such as exercise, healthy eating, and sufficient rest can contribute to emotional well-being.

Finally, adopting positive coping mechanisms like mindfulness, journaling, and seeking professional help when needed can enhance emotional strength.

How can I develop mental toughness?

Developing mental toughness involves training our minds to be resilient, adaptable, and focused. One crucial aspect is maintaining a positive and growth-oriented mindset.

This means reframing challenges as opportunities for growth, embracing failure as a learning experience, and fostering optimism even in challenging situations.

Developing a clear sense of purpose and setting realistic goals can also enhance mental toughness by providing a sense of direction and motivation.

Additionally, practicing self-discipline, perseverance, and self-motivation are essential in building mental toughness. Techniques such as visualization, positive self-talk, and maintaining a strong support system can further strengthen mental resilience.

How can I manage stress and emotional setbacks effectively?

Managing stress and emotional setbacks effectively is a vital aspect of emotional strength and mental toughness. Firstly, developing self-care routines that include stress-reducing activities like exercise, relaxation techniques, and hobbies can help manage stress.

It is also essential to cultivate healthy coping mechanisms such as deep breathing, meditation, and engaging in activities that bring joy and relaxation.

Seeking support from loved ones or professionals, practicing self-compassion, and maintaining a balanced lifestyle can all contribute to effective stress management.

Developing emotional agility, which involves acknowledging and accepting emotions rather than suppressing or avoiding them, is also crucial in dealing with emotional setbacks.

Breaking larger goals into smaller, manageable tasks can make them more achievable and less overwhelming. It is crucial to celebrate small wins along the way to maintain motivation. Self-care practices, including adequate rest, healthy eating, and engaging in activities that bring joy, are vital for maintaining resilience.

Building a support system of friends, family, or mentors who can provide encouragement, guidance, and a listening ear can also bolster motivation and resilience. Cultivating gratitude and maintaining a positive outlook can help shift focus from difficulties to opportunities.

Becoming emotionally strong and mentally tougher is a transformative journey that requires commitment, self-awareness, and intentional practice.

By understanding the meaning and importance of emotional strength and mental toughness, implementing strategies to build resilience, effectively managing stress and setbacks, and fostering motivation and resilience, you can empower yourself to navigate life’s challenges with confidence and grace.

Remember, developing emotional strength and mental toughness is a continuous process, and with perseverance and self-compassion, you can cultivate these qualities and unlock your true potential.

My Formula for Becoming Mentally & Emotionally Tougher

Step 1:

Cultivate Self-Awareness

I begin by cultivating self-awareness. I take the time to reflect on my thoughts, emotions, and reactions to different situations. I notice patterns, triggers, and areas where I tend to struggle. This awareness allows me to better understand myself and identify areas for growth.

Step 2:

Challenge Limiting Beliefs

I identify any limiting beliefs or negative self-talk that may be holding me back. I question their validity and replace them with empowering beliefs. I cultivate a growth mindset, believing that I have the ability to learn, grow, and overcome challenges. This shift in perspective helps me build mental resilience and fosters a positive outlook.

Step 3:

Practice Mindfulness

I incorporate mindfulness into my daily life. I engage in activities that promote present-moment awareness, such as meditation, deep breathing exercises, or mindful walking. Mindfulness helps me detach from negative thoughts, reduces stress, and enhances my ability to respond rather than react to challenging situations.

Step 4:

Build Emotional Intelligence

I work on developing emotional intelligence. I learn to recognize and understand my own emotions and those of others. I practice empathy, active listening, and effective communication. Strengthening my emotional intelligence allows me to navigate difficult emotions, build stronger relationships, and make sound decisions.

Step 5:

Embrace Challenges and Seek Growth

I embrace challenges as opportunities for growth and learning. I step out of my comfort zone and take on tasks that push my limits. I set goals that are challenging but achievable, and I celebrate my progress along the way. Embracing challenges builds my mental toughness by developing resilience, adaptability, and perseverance.

Remember, building mental and emotional toughness is a personal journey that requires patience, commitment, and practice.

Be kind to yourself during setbacks and celebrate your achievements along the way. With consistent effort and a willingness to grow, I can become mentally and emotionally stronger, and better equipped to navigate life’s challenges with resilience and grace.

How to Build Emotional Strength – Part 1

Be in Complete & Total Awareness

Ask yourself, how can I be more attentive to my now? How can I practice being more mindful and be at peace with my life today? How can I be emotionally strong to stay away from the bullsh%$? Here’s my number 1 tip. Turn off your phone.

That’s right. Here’s how you do it. Pick a time after you have completed a day’s worth of work and decide to remove your phone from your possession.

Or turn your phone off for the entire day. If you want more dedicated time in general, be in the moment. No matter what you want to be in the moment, whether that’s with reading, writing, family, or studying, turn off your phone.

This creates inner peace, and peace of mind, and also builds emotional strength because you are no longer tied to things that play with your emotions such as social media, phone calls, messages, pictures, photos, tasks, to-do lists, schedules, and whatever else you like to look at on your phone.

Eliminate those distractions completely. You want it to be just you and that thing that you wish to spend more time with. That is how you build emotional strength and it also allows you to create more time and be in full attention with anyone or anything.

The idea here is to train your brain to remember that you are off-limits to any distractions instead of remembering to check your phone for the time, messages, phone calls, or notifications.

I like to turn my phone off on Sundays all day, and after my business hours Monday through Friday. This allows me to wind down and spend more time on the things that I enjoy being with!

Try this challenge for 21 days starting tomorrow, and watch how much better you will feel. If you need another way to practice the strength of mindfulness, here’s another technique. Once you read the technique, you then need to master one habit when you are at home.

Forget About Work When You’re At Home 

If you are wondering how the heck can you forget about work, here’s how. Say to yourself, “My job will survive without me”, ten times.

GO! Did you do it? Alright, now here’s the next piece of info you need to know. The more you brainwash yourself to understand that your job is not your entire world, the faster you will be able to increase your mental and become emotionally strong.

Why? Most people think about work almost all day and night. They become highly stressed because of all the massive amounts of things they have to do or get done. “They”, includes you also.

Don’t you also feel that way? Stress interacts with feelings and emotions in extremely negative ways which in turn, makes you feel terrible about yourself and your life. It is extremely hard to move forward when you are always stressed out, especially at work.

Those who run businesses know exactly what I am talking about. Most entrepreneurs who run businesses usually work from home, so they have it even harder to remove “work” from “home”.

The trick here is to separate business from pleasure. Use the idea of “home” a place where you are able to feel loved, welcomed, relaxed, safe, and accepted.

If you can separate yourself from work, you will have a chance to unwind and feel energized faster to continue your mission when the time is right. You will have a laser focus on what you are created to do, which is what you wake up every morning for.

Try to move some things around at home to create a safe space and separation from work such as putting the office on another floor, across the house, basement, or attic.

If you go to an actual place of duty, a.k.a “work, then on the way home, remember to land the plane.

Start finishing your last thoughts about work, and the moment you step foot in the house, forget about everything that is at work and focus on what matters to you most by saying those last words, “My job will survive without me”.

This will create peace and emotional stability when you are home and it will increase effectiveness and energy for the next day or project. If you learn how to create a work-life balance, this will become easier to do. Perhaps remove all ties to work and lose your phone intentionally?

Delete Everything On Your Phone

Yes, you heard that right, delete everything on your phone that does not serve you well or make you happy. That means deleting (contacts for people you no longer talk to or wish to talk to.

Remove all old pictures that may make you sad, stressed, or unhappy. Any duplicates of failed photos are amazing to delete.

Also, take away any videos that also hold negative memories. Un-download or delete apps that you are not using on a daily basis or that are just taking up space.

Only have apps on your devices that you use as much as the internet or youtube.

Such a great idea right!? By doing this amazing destressing technique, you will immediately start to feel better. Go ahead and try it right now, delete one photo, one number, and one app that you do not use then read the next part.

All these negative things that are just taking up space in our life, add weight to our list of nuisances that make us emotionally imbalanced, stressed, depressed, or just plain unhappy.

If you start to implement this immediately you will 100% see a drastic change in mood. Remember, emotionally strong.

You may be asking me, “Ok but How? Where do I start?

How to delete everything negative in your life

Every day, possibly a few times a day if it is bad, set some time aside for 10 minutes and go on a deleting frenzy. All you need is 10 minutes a day really and within 1 week you will have deleted almost everything out of your life that serves as bad energy.

You will have only positive things that hold value in your life and everything else that does not matter will no longer affect you. It will all be in the past. Isn’t that amazing? Try this every day for 33 days to make it a healthy habit and take notice of how your emotions and feelings improve. After that, you should high-five yourself!

The Power of High Five

Weird, but works. High-five yourself in the mirror every day before you leave to work or take on a challenging task or project. Why does this work so well? No idea, ask Mel Robbins, a well-known personal development coach who created the 5 Second Rule and the Power of a High 5.

Science can prove the power of giving yourself the attention and encouragement that you need before you take on the outside world such as the high five.

It gives you incredible strength and support that you have your own back. That you are not alone, and you have a team.

Just knowing this cute little trick before you take on any project can be life-changing for someone who deals with high stress from the world, work, or business.

I do it every morning and it gasses me up, it boosts my energy and I feel super excited! I am a big believer.

How to Give Yourself a High Five

Every day just before you start your tough day, in the bathroom preferably, after you brush your teeth and have gotten ready to take on your next challenging task, look yourself dead in the mirror and smile. It will feel inauthentic of course, I mean come on, you know yourself better than anyone. But that is okay.

Here’s what I do, after I give myself a little pep talk and smile, I just look myself in the eyes, smile, and say “self, I am ready to take on the day, it is time to win” then high five the crap out of myself and walk away standing upright, confident in my walk, with my head held high. And that is it!

The point is to be dramatic until it feels natural. This is how I maintain myself to be emotionally strong.

Super simple to do but also easy not to do. It will feel uncomfortable, it will feel awkward, and maybe even weird but if you can just trust yourself, and trust what we are saying here, you will 93% of the time have a better morning, a better day, and a better result from your daily challenges.

It is far greater than having a less than 49% chance, which most people have due to not having a game plan, routine, or calculated action strategy. Take a moment here to breathe and count backward from 5 and say you will do what is uncomfortable. It works!

Counting Backwards

Anytime you want to emotionally build yourself up, and build mental confidence as well as cemented toughness, count down from 5 seconds every time you don’t want to do something that you know you should be doing.

This little mindset trick increases self-confidence, self-reliability, and reassurance that you will indeed succeed in anything that you wish to do.

Often times we get stuck making extremely hard decisions. That is because our brains are just far smarter than our actual selves. We overthink so many things.

We are rational beings and have a reason, answer, and excuse for everything. Therefore in order to win, you have to force yourself and push yourself off the edge, by jumping or beating yourself to the punch.

This means, shooting from the hip and making a decision without fully thinking it through.

Do not worry about this exercise too much. 91% of the time, our gut is always right. Have you ever taken a test, where you thought the answer was A but you chose B instead?

After the test, you reviewed your results and the answer was actually A?

Yes, it happens to me every day lol. So get used to trusting your gut more often. Instead of overthinking, just help yourself make the right decision by sticking to your gut reaction within 5 seconds.

Try it for the next thing that you don’t want to do but you should do. You’ll be surprised how well it works.

How To Count Down From 5

Simple, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Don’t think about doing anything anymore.

When you begin a thought that leads to an action or inaction, in that very moment, that small window of delay, just before you think; don’t think, just count down fast & act. Whenever you get stuck or fail, just try it again for the next task, the next one, and the one after that.

At first, you may fail a few times, but that is because your brain is a muscle.

You just keep doing it over and over again to develop the strength and within a short period of time, it will work.

Keep reminding yourself, of this one trick and you will for sure be emotionally strong and mentally tougher.

Final Thoughts on Emotional Toughness

There are millions of little mindset hacks, emotional tips, and mental health techniques that we can go over that help you become a stronger and wiser person emotionally and mentally.

Of course! Our blog is filled with them! After all, we are a mental health and wellness website, but in all honesty, these are the 5 quickest no bs ideas that were on the top of our lists that literally will immediately help you feel better about your day every, single, day.

Here’s your challenge, starting today, I want you to try each technique for the day, the magic number is 5. Try them 5 times today and see how you feel at the end of the day.

If you felt funny after doing these, then that is a sign to continue doing that which gets you out of your comfort zone, because it is working.

I also want you to repeat to yourself, ” I am emotionally strong, I am emotionally strong, I am emotionally strong, three times right before you get out of bed for 7 days.

This will set the tone and what you will be learning for the week.

Overall, practice these 5 💥 MENTAL HABITS all day for 21 days and you’ll live and feel free from added stress, and anxiousness. That is the challenge are you up for it?