The Emotional Athlete
“I knew it then, that all the adversity I was experiencing was teaching me something deeply.”
What is an Emotional Athlete?
An emotional athlete is someone who is skilled in managing their emotions and mental well-being. Much like how athletes train physically for peak performance, emotional athletes practice and prioritise self-care, integrating a personal resilience practice into their daily life. They understand the importance of emotional regulation in achieving success, forming healthy relationships, and maintaining overall well-being.
Just as athletes hone their skills through practice and dedication, emotional athletes continually work on understanding and improving their emotional responses to various situations. By connecting in with their body, emotional athletes are better equipped to handle stress, setbacks, and conflicts, ultimately leading to a more fulfilling and balanced life.
They can be fully in touch with their emotions without being sucked into the overwhelming vortex of those feelings. Nor do they fight or supress them but have learnt how to experience them without impulsively reacting to them.
They are committed to expanding their capacity to contain their emotions without suppression whilst cultivating a sense of safety within. This isn’t something we are taught, and society has taught us not to feel, with common phrases such as ‘you’re so emotional’, ‘you’re too sensitive’, or ‘man up’ being thrown at us from a young age. We learn that there are ‘positive and ‘negative’ emotions and learn to push away our ‘negative’ emotions in a world where toxic positivity has taken over, creating a world where we feel, at some level, that we must push away and get rid of our uncomfortable emotions, otherwise we would not be acceptable.
An Emotional Athlete understands that all emotions are important
The reality is that we can’t pick and choose which emotions we experience, we can’t shut off sadness in order to experience more joy, we can’t suppress anger in order to feel more peace. An emotional athlete understands that all emotions are important with valuable messages within when we learn how to connect with them in a grounded, safe way.
Like all athletes, Emotional Athletes benefit from working with a coach, so if you’re ready to find out more, book a free discovery call.
Traits of an Emotional Athlete
Where did ‘The Emotional Athlete’ come from?
I first blurted out this phrase when a friend asked me how I was doing after a relentless period of loss. They say the 3 most stressful things in life are death, divorce and moving house … I had experienced the crescendo of all 3 coming together in the space of 2 weeks and was emotionally pummelled.
‘How are you doing? they asked. “Well if they gave out medals for experiencing the full range of emotions, I’d have a gold medal … I’m a god damn emotional athlete.’’ I knew it then, that all the adversity I was experiencing was teaching me something deeply. In that moment, I knew I had to change the name and direction of my business … The Emotional Athlete was born.
I didn’t have a plan, but I knew I wanted to discover how to become an emotional athlete, able to experience all of my emotions even the uncomfortable ones and still be OK. Little did I realise then, what powerful guidance our emotions give us. I’ve come to think of them as e-mails from our soul, sending us messages of when we have disconnected from our true self*, showing us the path for our own personal healing.
Clever little things emotions!
* True self/authentic self
You know, the one that we were before society and life got its hands on us, our true self who is behind all our protective tactics of defence, the one who’s right in there, behind all our armoury.
