Ever feel like you get angry easily or cry too quickly? Perhaps you have an anxious feeling all the time. Whatever kind of feelings you are struggling with, it’s important to remember experiencing strong emotions is perfectly normal. You don’t have to ignore or eliminate these feelings. Learning to become emotionally stronger is similar to getting physically strong. Start slowly, train regularly, build stamina and repeat.

How to Become Emotionally Strong

1. Self-Awareness Is Important

One of the best ways to become emotionally strong is to learn what your strength and weaknesses are. Becoming more self-aware will help you get to know your feelings so you can gain control. It can be more difficult at the beginning, but you will find the benefits outweigh the struggle. Once you understand your feelings, and what impacts them, you can work on controlling your emotions.

2. Stop Taking Things Personally

You are never able to control how someone thinks, but you can control how you react. If you take things too personally, you may start taking responsibility for things you have no control over and adding extra stress to your life. Not taking it personally doesn’t mean you don’t have feelings about what is said, it just helps you add distance by not dwelling.

3. Control Your Emotions

Learning to control emotions is very important but so many people don’t have the skill. Frustration, anger, sadness will build emotional weakness. When you first feel negativity, recognize and deal with it before turning your mind to a positive note. After practice, dealing with the negative troubles and promoting positive ones become effortless.

4. Learn to Live in the Moment

When you are learning how to become emotionally strong, you are going to learn how to let go of your past. This doesn’t mean you have to detach from your past; just keep your mind off of the negative. Focusing on past failures can make you more emotionally vulnerable, so you should instead think about your present and future.

5. Self Confidence Is Necessary

Emotionally strong people share self-confidence as a common trait which helps with every life situation. You must believe and assure yourself through hard times to gain the strength to fight any challenge. When you are confident, you will start to gain control over your emotions. Remind yourself that you are worthy and capable of overcoming obstacles.

6. Be Optimistic

When optimistic, people are able to cope with challenges better. It becomes a matter of focusing on what you have instead of what you don’t have. Learn to push through being upset or hopeless to find creative solutions for the problems at hand. With more positivity, you will be emotionally stronger among many difficult situations.

7. Challenge Yourself

Another way to learn how to become emotionally strong is to challenge yourself, control your fears and push yourself harder than you thought you could. When you try hard things, you gain courage, stamina and emotional strength. Create new and challenging goals. If you stretch yourself over time, you will be amazed at how strong you become and what goals you can achieve with your life.

8. Stay Healthy

When you take care of your health, you will automatically start to feel emotionally stronger. Though it may seem obvious to suggest getting rest, eating healthy and exercising, these are some of the most essential things to do to become emotionally strong. Make it a mantra and you will feel stronger from the inside out.

9. Learn Self-Compassion

There are people who feel emotionally weak because they have fears in their head pushing out good thoughts and memories. These worries about happiness, acceptance and feeling worthy of love can lead to anxiety and depression. With some self-compassion, you can learn to love and accept yourself. This will lead to you learning how to become emotionally strong.

10. Kick Addictions and Bad Habits

You can get setback on your journey to learn to become emotionally strong if you are fighting bad habits. This can be when a person has lost control over any bad habit, ranging from food, alcohol, drugs, sex and other behaviors. People who are addicted have a hard time controlling their behavior and emotion. Overcoming an addiction can be extremely difficult but the reward can be health, happiness and peace.

11. Talk to a Therapist

Even if you only go to therapy for a short time, it can be a great way to work on your inner strength and any emotional issues. You don’t have to feel like going to see a therapist is a bad thing. Talking about what is worrying you is a fantastic way to understand your feelings and encourage emotional strength.