Mental Beta: How to Work With Your Emotions
The RULER approach is a helpful way to understand your emotions — but knowing what you're feeling doesn’t always make it easier to handle them. In this section, we’ll explore how to relate to your emotions in a more flexible way, so that they don’t drive your decisions in directions that go against what matters most to you.
Emotions can be intense, surprising, or just plain heavy during injury recovery. And while you can’t always change how you feel, you can choose how you respond. You might already be doing this more than you realize — like when you laugh after a frustrating fall or show up to cheer on a friend even when you're feeling low. These are examples of letting emotions be there without letting them run the show.
Here are some practical ways to work with emotions during injury recovery — not to eliminate them, but to help you keep choosing actions that align with your goals and values.
Try This: Notice the Story You're Telling Yourself
Our minds love to tell stories, especially during tough times like injury. You might find yourself thinking things like,
"This rehab is pointless", or
"I’ll never climb like I used to." These stories aren’t “wrong” — they’re normal responses. But they don’t always help us move in the direction we want.
How about if you aim to notice these thoughts as thoughts, not facts. Once you recognize the story, you can ask:
- Is this story helping me show up the way I want to right now?
- What would I do if I didn’t have to fight or fix this thought?
You don’t need to silence the story. You just need to decide whether it deserves the steering wheel.
Try This: Shift Your Perspective
When you're deep in frustration or stuck in self-doubt, it can feel like those emotions are the whole story. But they’re just one part of the picture.
One simple way to shift your perspective is to take a mental step back and look at the situation from the outside. Imagine watching a friend go through the same thing you are — would you say to them what you’re saying to yourself?
If your friend would say "I'm going backward, this is hopeless", maybe you answer something like, "This is a normal part of recovery, it's frustrating, but setbacks happen. It still makes sense to follow the rehab plan".
You’re not trying to stop the emotion or argue with it. You’re just loosening its grip, so you can choose how you want to respond — not just react.
Try This: Make Room for the Emotion — and Then Choose What Matters
Sometimes the emotional weight of injury feels like too much. In those moments, it's okay to pause. But rather than using distraction to escape the feeling, try a small
act of acceptance and commitment:
- Acknowledge the feeling (e.g. “this is hard, and I feel stuck”),
- Let it be there without judgment,
- And then gently shift your focus toward something meaningful.
That might be texting a friend, planning a hike, sketching a new route — not to “get rid of the emotion,” but to remind yourself that pain and purpose can exist side by side. That’s real resilience.
Think of it like being on the wall, in a non-optimal position. Your feet are smeared, your hands aren't perfect — but the next hold is just within reach. You commit anyway, even though it’s not comfortable or certain.
Working with your emotions is a skill — just like climbing. You don’t always stick the move on the first try. It takes repetition, small adjustments, and patience. The more you practice, the more natural it becomes to notice what you're feeling and still move in the direction that matters to you.
