The Practice of Emotional First Aid

Growing up I never worried about my emotions or anything relating to my mental state because the closest thing to failure, or rejection was losing a match on Call of Duty. So, when I first put my heart out on something that was really important to me and experienced failure I did not know how to cope with it and I did not look into learning on what to do when this occurs. This alone is bad for the human mind and body and even though the pain was terrible I just forgot about it and like I said before did not take the time to learn more about what to do. Also, there is studies that state men do not like to open up about what they are going through on an emotional level and yes, this is true because I personally will bottle all my emotions up and not bother to tell anyone. I only bring up the type of person I was with my emotions because while looking up what to do my first co-curricular on I stumbled upon a Ted Talk about the practice of emotional first aid.

The Ted Talk, by Guy Winch, dives deep into explaining why everyone should look at and care for their emotional health just as much as they do their physical Health. Guy talking about loneliness, emotional pain but the overall feeling I had after watching the film were things I found stuck to me the most from this Ted Talk. First and Foremost, Guy begins with a personal anecdote about the first time his twin brother and he were going to be separate for their birthdays. It was devastating for him because they could only speak on the phone for about five minutes, but his brother had not called yet and Guy stated that it was one of his saddest nights of his life. With this he goes into explaining loneliness had consumed him in the ten months being away from his brother. With this little story from Guy’s life I felt an obligation to finish this Ted Talk. I do not know why that sensation had occurred, but it did like it was the first time I had someone to relate to. I only say I can relate to him because he states that loneliness is subjective, and it depends whether or not you are emotionally and socially disconnected from the people around you and he mentioned he was. When I stated that the first thing I pour my heart out was a relationship with someone and they removed themselves from my life without any explanation this moment in my life is when I felt lonely, but it was not until now that I noticed I was alone in this world with so many friends next to me. It felt as if I was missing something after the break up and there was so much sadness in my mind it felt horrifying to see how distant I was from my friends and family even though they were with me every day. What was even worse was I lied to my friends about how I was feeling because I did not want them to worry or know what I was going through.

Furthermore, Guy goes on to talk about emotional bleeding for whenever someone is to fall in this state of mind. One thing is to notice how you react to failure and rejection. After failure many people convince themselves they can’t do something Guys states and once you convince yourself you can’t it is very hard to move on from that. Also, after rejection people look at their shortcomings and faults to blame. After hearing this all that came to mind was how I blamed myself for not being able to keep the relationship and thinking how I was as a person was not good enough. Following that I convinced myself I would be alone the rest of my life because of this. So, Guy talked about protecting your self-esteem to beat this emotional bleeding. Some ways to do so is to see what bad habits you have psychologically and changed them.

Lastly, looking back at the video I felt sad watching this but a good because finally I connected with someone on the same level of emotional pain. It felt good to hear someone, like Guy, overcame these little battles in his mind because this only means I can do the same. Till this day I still think about that horrible rejection and failure I had but I don’t see it the same way as before. To see how much I beat myself up because of what happened is surprising and eye opening but after hearing what Guy had to say on overcoming I can see I did some way help myself move on. For example, I now coach a soccer team and I don’t catch myself thinking about what I could have don’t differently in order for the relationship to work. This was one-way Guy said to do to win this battle keeping your mind occupied so it can’t forget the bad.

In conclusion, there are lots of people suffering from emotional pain and have no knowledge of how to overcome it which is scary to think of because they alone are battling loneliness. With a Ted Talk like the one Guy has made can bring good change to the ones in need for it as it did for me today.