We all encounter stressful situations and stressful people, unpleasant situations, and sometimes, some kind of emotional manipulation.
This happens at work, in stores, at school, and even in relationships.
These encounters create stress and anxiety, unhappiness, and sometimes resentment and anger.
Is there a way to avoid all this? Yes, through emotional detachment. This ability helps you stay poised, not get agitated, and handle things calmly and with inner peace and poise.
Let’s delve into this matter a little more.
How Can Emotional Detachment Help You?
Imagine how free, relieved, and happy you would be if you could stay calm and poised in stressful situations.
Think how much physical, emotional, and mental energy you could spare if you could avoid becoming upset or angry.
This is possible when you are able to display a certain degree of positive emotional detachment. This skill is very useful in many situations, and there are ways to develop it, like any other skill.
What Does Emotional Detachment Mean?
What is the meaning and definition of positive emotional detachment? It is the skill of avoiding emotional involvement with stressful people, emotions, and thoughts.
It’s a way of creating a barrier against upsetting emotions and thoughts, yours and other people’s. This action helps you stay focused, calm, and able to use your common sense. It also protects your mental and emotional health.
This attitude requires that you become aware of your thoughts and emotions and be able to reject the negative ones.
This is possible and within reach, but this requires some effort and training on your part. However, the rewards and benefits are great. Life becomes happier and more peaceful.
It’s like turning the choppy waves of your mind into a tranquil lake.
Here Are a Few More Definitions
- It is the ability to stay calm and poised in difficult and stressful situations.
- The skill to prevent negative emotions and negative thoughts from disturbing and affecting you adversely.
- The ability to set boundaries so that agitating words and emotions do not disturb your state of mind.
- It is the ability to let go of the past.
- It is the act of zooming out of disturbing and agitating thoughts and feelings.
Examples of Displaying of Emotional Detachment
Here are a few examples of how displaying emotional detachment can help you in your everyday life.
These are examples of just a few instances. You will be able to use this skill in many other situations, at work, at home, in relationships, and everywhere else.
Example One – Driving
You are driving your car, and suddenly, a car comes from behind, overtakes you and enters your lane in a dangerous way.
This usually creates anger, which can linger all day, affecting your mood and relationships with the people around you.
Emotional detachment can help you view this incident in a detached way, reduce its effect on you, and makes you forget it and take it out of your mind quickly.
Example Two – Criticism
Your boss calls you to his office and criticizes your work. This of course, affects how you feel. The bad feeling, anger and resentment linger in your mind for a long time, creating more anger and stress.
If you possess emotional detachment, you will be able to review your boss’s words more calmly and objectively, find out where you can improve, and go on with your life feeling calm and confident.
Example Three – Facing Problems and Unpleasant Tasks
You face problems, your plans get thwarted, or you have some unpleasant tasks to carry out. This makes you feel stressed, anxious and unhappy.
The more you think about the problems or tasks you are facing, the more difficult they seem to be, since whatever you think about grows.
Imagine how you would feel if you could clear your mind and view what is happening from a more dispassionate point of view, as if these problems or obstacles do not belong to you.
This might not solve your problems, but it will free you from stress and anxiety. You will not feel the heavy load on your back.
With this attitude, you will feel calmer and happier, and be able to handle any issue more efficiently and with more confidence.
You might like reading emotional detachment quotes.
Example Four- Letting Go of the Past
Do you relive in your mind past unpleasant events? Do unpleasant events, mistakes and guilty feelings from the past affect how you think feel or act?
You realize this is all a waste of time and energy, but feel that you cannot do anything about it. These thoughts and emotions from the past tie you to the past, and do not allow you to move forward.
I am sure you are familiar with this kind of situation. However, with the help of emotional detachment you will be able to let go of the past, and free yourself from its shackles.
Emotional Detachment Can Bring Happiness and Tranquility into Your life
With the help of this skill, you can handle whatever you encounter in your life in a calm, objective and efficient way.
This skill will help you be more objective, in control of yourself, more immune to emotional manipulation, and be able to avoid stress and anxiety.
You will be able to stop taking things perorally and allowing other people’s feelings and thoughts to affect your state of mind.
These are just a few of the many benefits positive emotional detachment can grant you.
If you wish to learn more about this skill, and find practical guidance for acquiring it, we highly recommend reading our book Emotional Detachment for Happier Life.
This book contains clear instructions, advice and guidance for developing this skill, for both beginners and more experienced people.