Emotions are foundational in our overall well-being. They shape our relationships, affect our careers, and influence countless other areas where our clients seek support. Yet, for many of us and our clients, sometimes emotions can feel vague or ambiguous. Why? We were never taught to clearly identify our emotions and still may not have the language to articulate them.

Understanding and accurately labeling the feelings we experience is crucial for mental health. If most people are unable to do this, that means we’ve got some work to do. But here’s the great news: Emotional capacity and intelligence are measurable and learnable–we can build them just like we build muscles. This is the essential skill we'll focus on in today’s podcast episode.

The truth is, we are all going to face setbacks. But your emotional world–your skills, awareness, and connectedness surrounding your emotions–is one of the most vital components of your stability. To help you understand how significant our emotions are, I’ll share insights from the largest study on emotional intelligence and explore the current "emotional recession" impacting us and our clients. I’ll also take you through a relevant analogy to help you understand how emotions act as stabilizers and how to expand our emotional capacity—practically and powerfully.

When we develop our knowledge around the power and importance of emotions–and understand what it means to truly connect with them–we can expand our capacity to navigate life. Building your emotional intelligence muscles as a coach not only allows you to show up powerfully for your clients and cultivate lasting change in their lives, but it also means you are increasing their awareness of the muscles that they need to strengthen. When we do this work—individually and collectively—we have more meaningful life experiences filled with purpose, gratitude, connection, and empathy. I can’t wait to show you how this is possible in today’s episode.

• Key summary points from the State of the Heart 2024 report on emotional intelligence
• The definition of “emotional recession” and how one is currently affecting all of us
• Why many people lack the awareness to understand and label their emotions accurately
• A personal story that highlights the importance of emotional skills as a stabilization tool
• What it really means to be with our emotions and how skilled coaches guide clients through this process

Read the full show notes here.

Molly's Website: MollyClaire.Com

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Molly’s book: The Happy Mom Mindset:

Some of the most impactful moments in coaching occur when a client bumps up against resistance. Have you noticed this too?!... It can often seem like more of a barrier when our clients experience emotional resistance. However, highly skilled coaches (like my Master Coach client Sondra who you’ll hear from in this week’s podcast) know that resistance is actually a sign that transformation is near. As Master-level coaches, we can use this as a tool to help our clients move forward in the most powerful way. When we recognize it with curiosity and compassion, resistance becomes a powerful ally in the healing process.

Not only is understanding emotional resistance important for our clients, but it’s essential for us as coaches as well. In order to lead with great service and cultivate lasting change in our clients, we need to overcome the barrier of self-judgment and truly be open to a holistic approach to coaching–the importance of which becomes so much more clear when we have experienced it ourselves.

In this blog (and this week’s podcast episode), we’ll explore how emotional resistance offers valuable insight, and how creating a safe, welcoming space allows clients to move through it with confidence and clarity. When we can master the art of navigating deep resistance we create client breakthroughs that make an impact on their lives.

Effective emotional work begins with you as a coach

From creating an effective plan of action to offering tools clients can use in daily life, there is one thing that is crucial for growth: a holistic view that not only uses mindset, but the nervous system and emotions as well. All three are essential, but here we’ll focus on the deep emotional work that so many clients need in order to thrive.

When we support clients in their emotional journey, one of the most powerful things we can do is meet them exactly where they are. As most highly skilled coaches already know, this isn't about changing their emotions–that attitude will most likely be met with more resistance. We must show up for our clients with acceptance so they can recognize they are in a safe place to truly feel their emotions.

Often clients are conflicted and struggling with judgment of themselves when they come to us. When you, as their coach, demonstrate genuine acceptance—free from expectations or opinions about how they “should” be—they begin to trust that it’s okay to show up exactly as they are. They can then let go of some of their self-judgment and start recognizing the deep work that needs to happen.

Creating a safe, non-judgmental space is crucial to helping our clients move through emotional resistance. But in order to do this, we have to build that capacity within ourselves first. In Master Coach training, there are many skills and concepts that we spend time on to help us be better coaches: we learn about the nervous system, we work on tapping, and we're always talking about how we use cognitive coaching language to create safety and remove judgment. Developing these skills through knowledge is an amazing way to help your clients, but so much of the compassion we have for them comes from having done our own emotional work.

How skilled coaches build trust in themselves

One of the skills we cultivate in Master Coach training–and that I think is imperative for every human being, especially coaches–is to build the self-trust required to...

When I first began my own motherhood journey, surviving each day seemed to be the goal. Can you relate? As women, the degree to which we can feel spread thin and overwhelmed by the emotional overload of becoming a mom can seem unbearable. And yet, I’ve come to learn that while “survival” mode can serve us from time to time, ultimately leaning into thriving is not only possible, but an incredible opportunity to expand our ability to impact our kids.

I love supporting women in my work and have a special place in my heart for motherhood. This began early in my career when I wrote, The Happy Mom Mindset, and today I’m excited to share about a conversation I had with one of my very own Master Coach training clients, Heidi Allsop, on her podcast Raising Boys, Building Men. Heidi is a mom of five boys, and her podcast provides incredible insight into the challenges (and joys) of parenting, specifically when it comes to raising boys. I'm thrilled to rebroadcast this podcast episode and share some of the tools we discussed in this blog.

Personally, I'm a mom to three amazing kids–two young adult boys and a teenage girl. Not only have I coached many women through their parenting challenges, but I have experienced my own firsthand. I know what it's like to navigate boys and their teenage years and all the emotions that come with it. Because of my holistic approach to coaching, I also know how vital understanding emotions is–in general for all of us, but especially when it comes to being there for our kids.

So today, we are diving into all things emotions and teenage boys–a subject that touches many moms in a unique way. Every mom experiences her teenage son differently, so when we talk about teenage boys and their emotions, this can mean a few different things. Sometimes, it's big, loud emotions that present themselves in angry outbursts–an easy emotion for teenage boys to express. On the opposite end of the spectrum are boys with a lot of emotions coming up, but they stay silent and we don't know what they're thinking. The variety and unpredictability of emotions can make navigating raising boys–or any child–as a mom so difficult. So what do we do? How do we help them learn and navigate those emotions so they can keep developing through the years and become great people? After reading this blog, you'll take away strategies to help you.

Whether you're a mom or not–and whether you have boys or not– this conversation will give you incredible insights into our emotional world as human beings–something that every coach needs to be aware of.

Why emotional regulation is essential for moms

As moms, we often have the idea that we must gauge the emotions of the people around us: Where are we today? Are we up? Are we down? We believe there's a certain thing that we should do depending on what mood our kids are in. We end up focusing so much on trying to be a detective about something happening outside of us, and it's not a useful way to direct our time and energy–it's anxiety-producing, and it's not the answer or the solution.

A better question to ask ourselves is, where am I today? When you wake up in the morning, take the time to say, what's my temperature? How am I doing? It is essential to pay attention to how we feel and ensure we're attending to our needs. Creating practices for better emotional regulation for ourselves is the foundation we need to be there for our kids no matter what mood they're in.