Why Emotional Fitness?
Life comprises many emotions, yet the head will judge them as good or bad. Without fully understanding, all emotions can be valuable if we know how to use the full spectrum of emotions. Having a toolkit of methods to handle all emotions rather than suppress negative emotions is fundamental to using them as feedback and opportunities for growth.
True freedom is feeling and expressing all emotions, so we don’t need to hide and suppress negative emotions. This level of Emotional Fitness significantly influences the events that occur in life, as our emotions and emotional programming significantly influence our thoughts.
Emotional Fitness Definition
Emotional Fitness refers to our awareness and ability to respond rather than suppress our emotions. To be able to feel, sense and trust the full spectrum of emotions rather than blocking or suppressing certain emotions. Good Emotional Fitness is not judging our emotions as good or bad, which becomes more accessible as we drop deeper into the many levels of heart awareness by using tools to release and benefit from negative emotions.
Our emotions and emotional programming, hence Emotional Fitness, heavily influence the thoughts we create. Hence good Emotional Fitness helps us more efficiently create the circumstances, success and ‘flow’ we desire. So rather than forcing things, we naturally attract the circumstances in life and business we desire.
Like a muscle, our emotions only support us if we use them. Hence good Emotional Fitness refers to our ability to be in tune emotionally, understand and feel the full array of emotions. Not just being optimistic, able to handle and beneficially from the full emotional spectrum, to release negative emotions rather than suppress them.
A key outcome of good Emotional Fitness is that it forms the foundation of healthy self-esteem. Self-esteem can be defined as being made up of head esteem and emotional esteem. If we look at emotional esteem, which starts as a child, many people are taught to be good, don’t cry, hence not to validate feelings, so we suppress emotions, causing a void of hidden blocked emotions that are our unconscious triggers. These mostly are hidden but can show up as anger, sadness, anxiety, depression, PTSD and many negative emotions that reduce self-esteem.
The heart is a vital organ keeping us alive. It’s the source of our blood and life flow, directing our nervous system and many bodily functions, as shown by all the Neurocardiology research.
Our Heart and Emotional Fitness
The heart is a vital organ keeping us alive. It’s the source of blood flow and life flow. Good Emotional Fitness is the natural flow of desires, spontaneously becoming a reality, which is also known as “flow.” Often our emotions move between being blocked in fear and the much more desired peak-performance state of “flow.”
Good Emotional Fitness is demonstrated by how easily a person can attract the reality of their true desires to be in “flow.” The following chart lists some of the characteristics of fear compared to “flow.”
By comparison, an average person is more likely to be in a state of fear rather than “flow.” Fear is when our “stuff” gets in the way. Often, unconscious self-sabotage blocks us from achieving our true desires. This could be a high percentage of the population, which we could say is emotionally unfit. This is often shown as repeat non-desired patterns occurring in life and business, shown in relationships, financial situations, or in sports under pressure.
Our level of Emotional Fitness determines our mental state and our mindset due to our emotional “stuff”, which for most people is unconscious, significantly influencing our feelings which in turn create our thoughts and mental activity.
What drives Emotional Fitness?
Emotions are a universal force influencing everything that is happening in the world. Emotions drive behaviour, hence either creating or stalling action. The two ends of the emotional spectrum driving behaviour are fear and passion. Passion is the more connected, inspired motivation of “flow.”
Like a muscle, our emotional capacity is dependent on use. If we don’t use a muscle, it provides limited support. Emotions are the same. If we don’t understand and use emotions, we lack support and resilience in the critical emotional aspect of life. For example, society often teaches us to always be positive and happy. Yet, if we are only comfortable with positive emotions, we have poor Emotional Fitness and a limited range of expression. We are more likely to disown our shadow, the suppressed aspects that help determine our future reality.
Why improve our Emotional Fitness?
One reason to improve our Emotional Fitness is to ensure we get everything we desire more easily. By developing greater Emotional Fitness, we also become more fulfilled, passionate, healthy, connected and able to consistently perform at our peak in all aspects of business, sport and life.
Increased satisfaction and enhanced peak performance are the more obvious indicators of good Emotional Fitness. Yet, collectively within a group or team, individual Emotional Fitness can be magnified, providing an exponential influence or coherence to enhance or sabotage the team culture.
Learn more about doing an Emotional Fitness Workout by visiting this page, Emotion Fitness Workout.
For more details on how to apply Emotional Fitness for teams in sport and leadership, please visit Robert C Robertson’s site at www.robertcrobertson.com.
