WEBINAR by Dr. Danny McGuigan, broadcast by Anjoman, January 26, 2022
The power and the impact of emotions on almost every aspect of our lives are frequently and vastly underestimated.
In my professional coaching sessions with leaders / managers around the world over almost 40 years it became increasingly obvious that most clients are unaware of the impact of the emotions that they are experiencing. Very often they even struggle to find the words to describe emotions.
This is well evidenced in the world class research by Daniel Goleman.
Some academics at the Harvard Law School (Roger Fisher, Daniel Shapiro) have placed a laser focus on the power of emotions in our lives and especially in the areas of negotiating and conflict management. Their conclusions under the heading “Dealing with Emotions: Three approaches that don’t work”, make for uncomfortable reading:
- Stop having emotions? You can’t.
- Ignore emotions: It won’t work.
- Deal directly with emotions? A complicated task.
Fisher and Shapiro tell us that even for a trained psychologist, dealing directly with emotions as we experience them is a daunting proposition!
Roger Fisher, Daniel Shapiro, Building Agreement, Random House, 2007.
What are the causes and symptoms of emotional distress?
Recent research in the healthcare world highlighted the key causes and symptoms of emotional distress.
Oftentimes, physicians and nurses minimize their distress to remain available to care for others and may show signs of:
- feeling overwhelmed, helpless
- spending a lot of time worrying
- having difficulty thinking or remembering
- sleeping too much or too little
- having changes in appetite
- feeling guilty without a clear cause
- relying more heavily on mood-altering substances, such as alcohol
- isolating from people or activities
- experiencing unusual anger or irritability
- experiencing fatigue
- having difficulty keeping up with daily tasks
- experiencing new, unexplained pain
How do most people respond (or not)?
- Many people try to power through their negative feelings rather than attempting to understand them
- But this is a lost opportunity
- Emotions provide valuable information about the state of your motivational system
- Most people are not clear about what emotions actually are
- Even when we understand emotions conceptually, it can still be hard to deal with our own emotional states
So what can I do?
Get help.
Find professional help that is sympathetic to and skilled in supporting those being negatively affected by emotional distress.
Search for podcasts, webinars, articles and books that focus on understanding and learning to manage emotions.
Find those that you trust and those who care for you and will listen to you (without judging you) as you learn to talk about your emotions.
Get in touch with Danny now, Call on 07850 143 209 or email@dannymcguigan.com
Sources:
You Can’t Manage Emotions Without Knowing What They Really Are
Art Markman, Harvard Business Review, December 23, 2015,
Emotional Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on U.S. Health Care Workers: A Gathering Storm.
Ruiz, M. A., & Gibson, C.-A. M. (2020).
Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 12(S1), S153-S155. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/tra0000851
