Emotional Support: A Wonderful Pain Reliever
Sometimes you need to feel surrounded, protected, with that feeling that nothing bad can happen to you. Perhaps a hug, a smile, a thought, or a few words would suffice.
Because what you need deep down is something that can act as emotional support. In other words, you need a security mechanism that will protect you when circumstances are bad or not the way you’d wish.
Of course, this support may come from within you. But, it could also come from someone you hold dear. Sometimes, simply having someones is already enough to alleviate your anguish. Or in some cases, they’re enough to lay down the burden you carry with you all day.
Below, we’ll take a look at what type of emotional support exists and how they can benefit you. Let’s dive in.
“In life, you need someone who will support you. Feeling like you have someone you can count on will help you to contiune on you path, with greater tranquility and harmony.”
Emotional support: what is it?
Emotional support will help you feel better, either when you’re afraid or when you feel overwhelmed. It’s like scaffolding what will help you when you need to get out of difficult situations. In particular, it consists of people who motivate, accompany and love you. Furthermore, they’re the people who don’t hesitate to give you a hand when bad things threaten your life.
Now, it’s not an escape method or a way to delegate responsibility. Instead, it’s a way to face your problems with love. In other words, through this emotional support, you can take a step back, learn from the situation, and find yourself.
When you’re a kid, your parents, relatives, or caregivers are the ones who provide you with emotional support. And, as you grow older, you learn to find it in other people. Or even through some activities or nature.
Why is it so important?
Emotional support is essential because of what it provides. If you lack it, you could lose your meaning of life, establish toxic relationships, or feel empty.
For example, if a child doesn’t have the adequate care they need, they’ll develop problems in various areas. Namely, problems that are both short and long term as well as at a physical and emotional level. So, emotional support helps you develop and grow adequately, especially on an emotional level.
In fact, according to the article, “Attachment as a principle protecting factor during early infancy”, both the care of children and the emotional support provided to them contributes to the development of a safer, more responsible, and more committed personality.
Social support can even be crucial for physical development. Pacora, Capcha, Esquival, Ayala, Ingar, and Huiza demonstrate this in their article “The social and affective deprivation of mothers is linked with anatomical and functional attributions in the fetus and newborn”.
According to this study, the lack of affectionate or social support has a negative impact on both maternal and perinatal health. Therefore, the emotional support your mother gave you could affect your quality of life.
Where to find emotional support?
At first your parents or those who raise you provide you with emotional support. However, this doesn’t mean that they’re the only source. In fact, there are other ways to get emotional support. Some example of them are:
- Connecting with others: If you have healthy relationships, you can count on other people when you need them. Therefore, you’ll create bonds of emotional support.
- Connecting with yourself: Getting to know yourself is the key to good emotional management.
- Physical exercise: When you do physical exercise, you release endorphins, a group of hormones that can make you feel happier.
- Seek professional help: Psychologists and psychiatrists are very useful when it comes to relieving pain. Thus, experts in the emotional, behavioral, and cognitive world can guide you in emotional management.
Other types of activities can also serve as emotional support. For example, reading a book. Or even art can be a vehicle to help you transform your anxieties.
Benefits of this wonderful pain reliever
When you feel tired, your strength falters. Therefore, you’re not able to see almost any glimmer of hope around you. That’s when you need your emotional support. Through it, you can:
- Increase your self-confidence
- Decrease the risks of pain
- Improve your relationship with yourself, others and nature
- Promote the processes of organizing experiences
- Relieve tension
- Have greater motivation
- Enjoy a greater sense of security
Although at first, you’re not responsible for your emotional support, as you grow older, you can begin looking for it in different ways. It’s great to have many ways you can get it as well as knowing about each of their advantages.
When you’ve got emotional support in your life, you can count on a person, place, or thing to find relief in. It will help you unload the burden that you carry. Thus, they’re an opportunity to accept what happens to you, change your perspective and begin to transform your life.
All cited sources were thoroughly reviewed by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, currency, and validity. The bibliography of this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.
Álvarez, M.A.C (2011). El apego como principal factor protector de la primera infancia. Margen: revista de trabajo social y ciencias sociales, 61, 9-5.
Pacora, P., Capcha, E., Esquivel, L., Ayala, M., Ingar, W. & Huiza, L. (2005). La privación social y afectiva de la madre se asocia a alteraciones anatómicas y funcionales en el feto y recién nacido. Anales de la Facultad de Medicina, 66 (4) , 282-289.
