The pandemic has triggered a crisis not just an economic and health level, but also in an emotional sessions. The prevailing moods across society of uncertainty, fear and anxiety have increased the importance of the role of professionals such as coaches. With this in mind, the lecturers at EAE Business School, Jordi Vilà and Félix Ortiz, have run a series of group coaching sessions in which both experts and participants have reflected and expressed their concerns with respect to this period of emotional instability.
Held online on the 2nd, 9th and 16th April, the sessions focused on issues such as fear, emotional intelligence, mindfulness, resilience and the importance of life missions. As well as generating interesting discussions about how our minds work, the sessions gave participants a space where they could get tools and useful advice to cope with the current situation.
Emotional care: treating fear and anxiety
One of the most recurring themes that was the focus of several discussions was emotions such as anxiety, uncertainty and fear. As various participants explained, most of whom were students on EAE’s Master in Executive Development, Emotional intelligence and Coaching, over the last few months, fear has become a constant feature: fear of getting ill, of losing your job, of losing a loved one, of death, etc.
“Life carries on. We carry on working, studying, buying, paying, but it is impossible not to think about the situation that surrounds us, which is what generates this very complex set of emotions”, expressed a student, Ana. On this point, Jordi Vilà emphasized the importance del emotional care of emotional care and motivating communication so that people can express, analyse and, therefore, control their emotions.
Félix Ortiz went on to focus on creating mechanisms that help to heal the human part of the issue. “It is important to vent our emotions”, he explained, “as they grow in isolation and, when they are not shared. Fears can become relativized. The ability to verbalize how we feel is extremely important because we can see our emotions from a distance and put them in perspective”.
Tools
The area of influence and the area of concern
As well as analysing and discussing emotions and their influence on our everyday lives, Ortiz and Vila offered a range of tools and recommendations for moving forward.
One of these recommendations was to understand that any reality consists of 2 dimensions:
- The area of influence: where we have to capacity to act and implement what we think or decide.
- The area of concern: : which is beyond the scope of our personal possibilities and capacities.
By taking these two dimensions into account, the two lecturers explained that people can analyse the aspects of life that they can control and those that they cannot. As a result, they can put their emotions in order and place the anxieties on a level that does not prevent them from moving forward.
3 questions for times of transition
Moreover, the EAE coaches presented another very useful mechanism for coping with this period of great changes, which involves answering 3 simple but profound questions:
- What am I going to give up from my old way of life?
- What do I want to maintain?
- What new aspects do I want to incorporate?
These questions help us reflect on the change that is taking place and transform the transition into a process of emotional and personal growth.
Resilience
“This crisis will not be short, so one of our main objectives nowadays is to generate resilience. We have to strengthen people”, explained the lecturers. To achieve this, Félix Ortiz underlined the importance of having a mission./p>
“A mission always guides us in turbulent times. My mission is still the same: helping people to develop their potential. Lots of things have changed, but the trick is to not lose sight of our mission and finding ways to achieve it”.
In the end, after the 3 in-depth sessions, both the participants and the lecturers drew some conclusions. Jordi Vilà, for his part, explained that “this crisis has shown is the importance of the person, of the human aspect, and also how good it is for us to share our intimate thoughts. We have to remember that our inner child is what enables us to be great”.