February 21, 2017
Interview with Guy Winch, author of the book Emotional First Aid
Mike Carruthers:
When you get an emotional injury in the form of rejection or failure or guilt – the tendency is to just shake it off and get over it.
Guy Winch:
Which is interesting because we don’t have that attitude when it comes to physical injuries, we know we have to put antibacterial ointment on a cut and we know we have to treat a cold and the same is true of emotional and psychological injuries.
Guy Winch, author of the book Emotional First Aid, says we’re all pretty good at shaking off some small emotional upsets.
But a lot of the time these things nag at us and we’re still thinking about them and we’re still stewing about them – hours, days and weeks later. And that’s a sign that we really need to treat what’s going on, because we’re not just shrugging it off, we’re not getting over it.
When people brood or ruminate over a romantic breakup or some other emotional upset it can take a real toll on both mental and physical health.
We’re just replaying the same painful thing over and over again and it’s almost addictive in the sense that we’ll feel even more compelled to think about it. It’ll pop into our minds even more and it’s a cycle you have to stop. What we can do then is understand that the cycle is not helpful and really try and distract ourselves by thinking about something else each time the idea occurs to us or it pops into our head. And to do that we have to think about something that’s compelling that makes us need to concentrate because if it’s just a light thought it won’t be sufficient.
