Why is Emotional Wellness Important? Emotional Health. Why it’s important and how to encourage and maintain it.
Emotional health. Why it’s important and how to encourage and maintain it. Emotional health is an important part of overall health. People who are emotionally healthy are in control of their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. They’re able to cope with life’s challenges. They can keep problems in perspective and bounce back from setbacks. They feel good about themselves and have good relationships.
Emotional health. Why it’s important and how to encourage and maintain it. Being emotionally healthy doesn’t mean you’re happy all the time. It means you’re aware of your emotions. You can deal with them, whether they’re positive or negative. Emotionally healthy people still feel stress, anger, and sadness. But they know how to manage their negative feelings. They can tell when a problem is more than they can handle on their own. They also know when to seek help.
Emotional wellness inspires self-care, relaxation, stress reduction and the development of inner strength. It is important to be attentive to both positive and negative feelings and be able to understand how to handle these emotions. Emotional wellness also includes the ability to learn and grow from experiences. Emotional well-being encourages autonomy and proper decision making skills. It is an important part of overall wellness.
Emotional Health
Emotional health. Why it’s important and how to encourage and maintain it. Emotional wellness allows you to accept how you are feeling. Once you accept your feelings, you can begin to understand why you are feeling that way, and decide how you would like to act in response to those feelings. Being emotionally well grants you the power to express feelings without any constraints. In turn, you will be able to enjoy emotional expression and be capable of forming supportive and interdependent relationships with others.
How to improve or maintain good emotional health.
- Be aware of your emotions and reactions. Notice what in your life makes you sad, frustrated, or angry. Try to address or change those things.
- Express your feelings in appropriate ways. Let people close to you know when something is bothering you. Keeping feelings of sadness or anger inside adds to stress. It can cause problems in your relationships and at work or school.
- Think before you act. Give yourself time to think and be calm before you say or do something you might regret.
- Manage stress. Learn relaxation methods to cope with stress. These could include deep breathing, meditation, and exercise.
- Strive for balance. Find a healthy balance between work and play, and between activity and rest. Make time for things you enjoy. Focus on positive things in your life.
- Take care of your physical health. Exercise regularly, eat healthy meals, and get enough sleep. Don’t abuse drugs or alcohol. Keep your physical health from affecting your emotional health.
- Connect with others. Make a lunch date, join a group, and say hi to strangers. We need positive connections with other people.
- Find purpose and meaning. Figure out what’s important to you in life, and focus on that. This could be your work, your family, volunteering, caregiving, or something else. Spend your time doing what feels meaningful to you.
- Stay positive. Focus on the good things in your life. Forgive yourself for making mistakes and forgive others. Spend time with healthy, positive people.
When it comes to our physical health, we all know when things aren’t running at full speed. We feel those nagging aches and pains, we sneeze when we have a cold, and we notice when we’re a little more out of breath than we should be after rushing up the stairs. And thanks to these signs, we’re able to take action to treat our ailments and improve our physical wellbeing.
But most of us aren’t quite so tuned in to our emotional health. When was the last time you paused to take notice of your emotional wellbeing?
Emotional and physical health are two sides of the same coin, and caring for our emotional wellbeing is vital if we are to live each day with positivity and intention.
So how do you know if you are emotionally healthy?
Signs of emotional wellness
Use them to guide your own journey towards improved emotional health…
1. You are comfortable with who you are.
Feeling generally content with life, and liking who you are as a person are signs that your emotional health is in balance. Of course, it doesn’t mean that you are happy all the time, or that there aren’t things you might like to improve upon, but having positive self-talk helps us to feel comfortable being ourselves, whatever the situation.
2. You are adaptable and resilient.
Being able to recognize, and express our emotions is key to moving forward when things don’t go to plan. This self-awareness helps us to manage our emotions, and avoid emotional drama. Emotionally healthy people are open-minded, and don’t feel emotionally attached to a particular way of doing things. They don’t take themselves too seriously, which helps them avoid feeling emotionally overwhelmed.
3. You have positive relationships with the people in your life.
The social aspect of emotional intelligence is central to emotional wellness. Being able to communicate your own feelings, and empathize with the feelings of others is an important characteristic of emotional health. This isn’t always easy, but having a strong support network to help you through the difficult times is a great sign and source of emotional wellness.
4. You have a sense of purpose.
Do you feel connected to yourself, to other people, and to the wider world? Having a sense of meaning in your life is not only a sign of emotional balance, but helps you appreciate the bigger picture, trust your own decisions, and persevere when things are tough.
5. You take care of your physical health.
Someone who makes the effort to take care of themselves physically, by eating well, exercising, and getting enough sleep, is likely to be someone who enjoys a sense of purpose in their life. They’re optimistic, motivated, and focused. Someone who feels emotionally strained is far less likely to be opting in for healthy snacks and smoothies, or enjoying a leisurely walk. As we’ve discussed, emotional and physical health are closely linked, so taking care of one is taking care of the other.
6. You are comfortable saying ‘no.’
If you are able to hold clear boundaries, and say no to things without feeling guilty, then this is a great sign of emotional health. Emotionally healthy people are not weighed down by the opinions of others, or fixated on receiving approval. And of course, they do not feel awkward about asking for help when they need it.
7. You make time to relax.
Emotionally healthy people recognize the need to recharge their batteries, and make time to relax and reflect. Whether it’s meditation, spending time with friends, painting, gardening, playing a musical instrument or caring for a pet, try to find an activity you enjoy that creates a sense of inner peace.
Activities to Encourage Emotional Health
Make sleep a priority
Sleep is an important part of taking care of yourself. It plays an important role in your mental and emotional health. When you are not getting enough rest, it can be difficult to deal with situations that arise in your life. You may find that you lack patience and struggle to handle stressful situations that happen.
It’s recommended that you try to get between 7 and 9 hours of sleep each night. And it’s not just about getting too little sleep. Getting too much sleep can also be a problem as well. If you’re struggling to get the rest that you need at night or find that you’re either sleeping too much or not able to get enough sleep, it can be helpful to talk with your doctor to discuss any possible problems. While there are over-the-counter medications that you can take to fall asleep faster, you may want to talk with your doctor to discuss any possible causes of your sleep troubles.
Exercise
There are several different ways that exercise or physical activity can help your emotional health and mental wellbeing. When you participate in physical activity, your brain releases hormones that work to boost your mood. This can help you to have a more positive outlook on your current situations.
Exercise can also help you sleep better at night. It has also been linked with boosting immune systems, which can be good for your general health as well.
Getting more exercise doesn’t mean that you need to head to the gym and work with a personal trainer. You can do simple things at home like going for a walk or run.
Deep breathing
Deep breathing can be a helpful strategy to use if you are struggling with a difficult situation. When you feel your stress level rise or begin to experience difficult emotions, you may notice a physical response in your body. This could include things like increased heart rate, higher blood pressure, dizziness, and short quick breaths.
Deep breathing exercises can help to interrupt the cycle that stress has on your physical body. When you practice deep breathing, you may notice that your heart rate and blood pressure return to normal. This can help you to gain control over the difficult emotions that you might be experiencing.
Volunteer your time
Equally, volunteering your time to a cause or organization that you care about can go a long way in helping your emotional health. It can help you shift your thoughts and feelings off of yourself and on to something or someone else.
If you’re going through a difficult time, volunteering may help you gain a new perspective on the situation. It can also help you to get in better touch with your emotions as you see what other people are going through and become familiar with their stories. And if you’re dealing with difficult emotions, putting your focus on something else for a while can give you and your emotions a much-needed break.
Spend time with friends
There are many ways that spending time with friends can have a positive impact on your emotional health. Participating in activities that you enjoy together can help you take any focus off of the negative emotions that you’re experiencing and put your energy on something positive.
Spending time with your friends can also cause you to laugh and enjoy your time, which has a positive impact on emotional and mental health as well. And there’s something that can feel rejuvenating about spending time with people who care about you when you’re struggling with difficult emotions.
Take time to unplug
In this day and age of technology, it’s easy to feel like you’re always connected. This can be overwhelming if you feel like you’re constantly getting notifications of things that are demanding your attention. It can be difficult to be in the moment when you’re constantly being pulled away by the dinging notification sound of your cell phone.
It can be good for your emotional health to take a break from technology from time to time. Whether you are getting out of the house and heading out into nature, or simply taking time to turn off all technology and read a book or participate in an activity that you enjoy at home, unplugging can help you to unwind and reconnect with yourself and your emotions.
Do some journaling
Further, if you struggle with processing and thinking about your emotions, you may find it helpful to do journaling on a regular basis. Taking the time to write about your day and the things that you’ve experienced can help you get a better insight into the emotions that you have around the situation.
Also, as you write, you may notice that you’re able to go deeper into the situation and think about things in a different way. It may help you to realize the struggles that you’re facing and what things you can do to address them.
Get organized
Similarly, stress can have a negative impact on your emotional health. If you feel like you are constantly being pulled in different directions and are having a hard time getting things done, taking time to get organized can be beneficial for you. This can include things like learning how to manage your time better or learning how to set priorities in your schedule.
When you are constantly on-the-go and feeling overwhelmed, it can be difficult to be in touch with your emotions. Taking steps to help your life run smoother can also open up more time for you to process the situations that are happening around you and the feelings that are happening within you.
Make a gratitude list
Some people benefit from keeping a gratitude list. This is simply making a list of things that you’re thankful for. It can be helpful to look back at this list during difficult times in your life. It can help you to see that there are things that you have to be thankful for and positive things in your life. Focusing on gratitude can be beneficial for improving your emotional health.
If you’re struggling in life with your mental health or handling difficult emotions, it can be helpful to talk with a therapist. Even if you don’t know exactly where your struggle is coming from, a therapist can help you get to the root problem and learn skills that you can implement in your daily life to improve your emotional health and wellness.
Furthermore, emotional health is more about being in tune with your emotions. It’s about being able to recognize and handle the emotions that you have as they happen in a healthy way.
So, while emotional health is not the same thing as mental health, there are ways that they connect together. Learning how to maintain your emotional health can go a long way in helping with your mental health as well.
Be Blessed…Stay Safe