What Is Emotional Stability & 6 Habits of Emotionally Stable People

What Is Emotional Stability?

Emotional stability refers to a person’s ability to manage and express their emotions healthily and appropriately, even when presented with stressful situations. Emotional stability, emotional intelligence, and emotion regulation are often used interchangeably. However, emotional stability is generally defined in the context of one of the big five personality traits – neuroticism.

Neuroticism refers to an individual’s temperamental tendency to experience intense and frequent negative emotions when exposed to stress.² The relationship between emotional stability and personality, extends beyond the association with neuroticism. Meta-analytic research suggested that higher levels of openness, conscientiousness, and extraversion, as well as lower levels of neuroticism, were associated with reduced use of maladaptive emotion regulation strategies and increased use of adaptive emotion regulation strategies.³

Signs of Emotional Instability

Emotional instability refers to when an individual experiences frequent, intense, and easily aroused changes in emotions, that may be considered disproportionate to events and circumstances. One review defined affective instability as “rapid oscillations of intense affect, with difficulty in regulating these oscillations or their behavioral consequences.”⁴

Common signs someone is experiencing emotional instability include:

• Unexpected reactions: reacting to events in ways that seem incongruent or disproportionate to the event.
• Rapid change in affect (mood): you may appear happy one moment, sad the next, and it may feel like your mood -or what health professionals call your affect – is rapidly shifting.
• Difficulty calming down after a stressful event: you may struggle to regulate your emotions after upsetting events.
• Acting impulsively during periods of intense emotion.

The Importance of Emotional Stability

Emotional stability is important in various aspects of life, including relationships, work, and personal growth. Emotion regulation skills support us in navigating the ups and downs of life. Emotion dysregulation is known to be associated with poorer mental health outcomes.⁵

Some benefits of being emotionally stable include:

• Feeling confident: Emotional stability enables you to maintain composure in the face of challenges, ensuring you feel confident in a range of situations.
• Having a consistent mood: Emotional stability has positive impacts of mood and overall wellbeing.
• Increased ability to communicate with others: When you are able to regulate your emotions, it has a positive impact on your ability to effectively communicate with others, and hear and respond to their needs.
• Effective decision making: When you are able to regulate your emotions, you are better able to make effective decisions, rather than responding from a place of reactivity.

6 Habits of Emotionally Stable People

When we think about emotionally stable people, what we are really talking about is a person who has good emotion regulation skills. Our goal is not to get rid of or minimize emotions. Rather, it is to be able to regulate emotions so they are tolerable. When we are able to regulate our emotions, we are more able to make effective decisions and take appropriate actions.

The 6 habits of people who are emotionally stable or have good emotion regulation skills include:

1. Regular Self-Reflection

People who are emotionally stable or have high emotional intelligence tend to engage in self-reflection regularly. Self-reflection involves intentionally examining your own thoughts, feelings, actions, and motivations. Taking the opportunity to reflect increases self-awareness and may not only shift your own thinking and behaviors, but also change the way you interact with others.

2. Practicing Mindfulness

Mindfulness is the practice of being present in the moment, and it’s one of the core skills in DBT. Practicing mindfulness helps you stay connected with present-moment experiences and emotions. You can use a range of mindfulness techniques, such as observe or describing to help increase mood and regulate emotions.

3. Effective Stress Management

One of the key aspects of emotional stability is how a person manages stress. A key component of emotional stability includes our ability to regulate emotions in the context of stressful or anxiety-provoking situations.

4. Maintaining Physical Health

Physical health, including exercise and sleep, contributes to emotional stability. There is a connection between exercise and mental health. Regular exercise can have both a direct and indirect impact by positively affecting related factors such as sleep.

5. Setting Healthy Boundaries

Establishing healthy boundaries is fundamental to maintaining well-being. Setting healthy boundaries in your personal and professional life helps preserve emotional well-being in a range of ways, including limiting stress.

6. Regular Sleep

Sleep is fundamental to your physical well-being and can have a significant impact on your ability to regulate your emotions. Getting a good night’s sleep can positively impact your ability to cope with stressors and better manage your emotions

How to Develop Emotional Stability

If you want to increase emotional stability and improve your emotion regulation skills, try incorporating the aforementioned habits into daily life.

Additional Tips to develop emotional stability include:

• Allow yourself to feel: It is important not to avoid emotion. Emotion doesn’t suddenly disappear if you ignore it. Allowing yourself to feel emotions and process feelings as they occur, ensures that emotions aren’t bottled up and building over time.
• Communicate your feelings: When we communicate our feelings and experiences with important people in our lives, not only does it allow us to access support, but it also ensures that we don’t build resentment in our relationships
• Identify a range of emotion regulation strategies you can use: It is inevitable that you will experience difficult events in your life. Learning emotion regulation skills such as breathing and observing helps you to regulate big emotions as they arise.

Treatment Options for Improving Emotional Stability

Therapy can be beneficial in developing emotional stability, especially for those individuals struggling with emotional regulation.

Treatment options for improving emotional stability include:

• Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT): DBT was originally developed to treat borderline personality disorder (BPD), but it has been adapted to treat a range of mental health conditions. DBT usually incorporates individual therapy, group therapy, and phone training.
• Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT): MBCT was created to prevent relapse in individuals with mood disorders, and support better understanding and management of emotions and thoughts.
• Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT): CBT is an effective treatment approach for a range of mental and emotional health issues, including depression and anxiety. CBT focuses on improving emotion regulation by challenging and changing cognitive distortions (such as unhelpful thoughts and beliefs) and their associated behaviors.

Where to Find Professional Help for Improving Emotional Stability

If you want to learn emotion regulation skills and increase emotional stability, you may want to book an appointment with an individual therapist. You can find a therapist by talking to your primary health physician or using an online therapist directory.

In selecting a registered professional, once you’ve determined they are qualified in the type of therapy you require, read through their bio and see if their approach feels like a good fit. If you’re uncertain where to start, talk to a trusted health professional and see if they can make some suggestions.