Welcome to the Very Well Mind podcast. We've interviewed over 100 authors, experts, entrepreneurs, athletes, musicians, and others to help you learn strategies to care for your mental health.

This episode is hosted by psychotherapist and bestselling author Amy Morin. Now let's get into the episode.

Okay. You're listening to The Friday Fix.

Today I'm talking about how to stay mentally strong when you're experiencing uncomfortable emotions.

I received a question from someone on Instagram asking me how to know if you're being mentally strong when you're dealing with feelings like sadness or anger. Sometimes people think that

their level of mental strength is directly proportional to how much they feel an emotion.

But that's not true. Just because you feel a lot of sadness or a lot of anxiety doesn't mean that you lack mental

strength. In a minute, we'll discuss what it does mean and how to stay strong when your emotions get

intense. Before we do, though, let's review the three parts to mental strength. Thoughts, feelings, and

behavior. Your thoughts are the narration that constantly runs through your head. Your feelings

are the emotions that you experience, like happiness and sadness. Your behavior involves the

actions that you take in response to those thoughts and feelings. On the surface, it sounds obvious,

right? But those things get a bit jumbled sometimes. You can experience any emotion to various

degrees. You might feel a little anxious when you're in the waiting room at the doctor's office,

just because it's a little uncomfortable to be there. But two days later, when you're waiting for the

lab to call to give you some results, you might feel really anxious. Your thoughts and your behavior affect your feelings.

So when you were in the waiting room as a doctor's office, you might have been thinking things like,

I wonder what the doctor will say about my symptoms.

I hope you don't have anything serious.

If you're mostly confident that your health issue is minor, you'll probably keep your anxiety in check.

Your behavior in the waiting room would likely involve sitting in a chair and maybe scrolling

through your phone. Those actions might help you stay in a relatively calm state. Two days later,

...