Emotional Awareness
Introduction
Military training contains an explicit focus on hardiness; ‘when you think you are tired, you are still far from it’ is an often used quote. Military personnel are taught to keep going despite of all sorts of pain or suffering. In your military career you can come across situations in which it is absolutely necessary that you do so (in the interest of the mission, because your life depends on it, or the lives of your colleagues). But this does come with a cost. You are ignoring a signal that your body is giving you to tell you that something is not right, and that contains a risk. Therefore it is important to do this only when it is necessary. And that if it’s not necessary, you are able to deal with pain and suffering in a different manner.
This different way of dealing with pain and suffering is what this project focuses on. Scientific literature uses the terms ‘compassion’ and ‘selfcompassion’. We gave it the name ‘Emotional Awareness’. Where Situational Awareness stands for awareness of your surroundings, Emotional Awareness (EA) stands for awareness of how you and the people around you are doing. When your EA is switched on you are aware of how you and the people around you are doing, in a open and caring way without losing yourself in these emotions.
Project overview
Objective:
Study the relationship between Emotional Awareness and mental health.
Subprojects:
- Survey study: from 2020 to 2021 a large group of military personnel participated in a survey study. During the study they filled out questionnaires with regard to how they deal with difficult emotions and with regard to their mental health. The objective is to study the relationship between Emotional Awareness and mental health of military personnel.
- Pilot study: in 2021 one specific company of the Royal Netherlands Army participated in a newly developed Emotional Awareness training that was offered in the form of a pilot. Questionnaires were filled out before and after the training and interviews were held with the objective of studying both the acceptability and the effects of this training.
Target population:
Military personnel.
Timeframe:
The study started in June 2020.
Results:
Not yet available.