Emotional wellness is challenging to understand and address, but once we do, it can find us seeing its impact in various aspects of our lives. It requires us to be attentive to our actions and behaviors, our thoughts, and our feelings, regardless of their being positive or negative. Emotional wellbeing is not the absence of emotions, but the ability to understand the value of your emotions and use them to move your life forward in positive directions.
As the American Mental Health Foundation says: “people in good mental health have the ability to recover effectively from illness, change or misfortunes”.
Have you ever wondered what it really means to be emotionally healthy or how your psychological wellbeing compares to others around you? In order to understand this, we must be aware of and accept our feelings, rather than just denying them. Having an optimistic approach and enjoying life despite its occasional disappointments and frustrations is critical along with the following.
Be thoughtful
Arrive at personal choices and decisions based on the synthesis of feelings, thoughts, philosophies, and behavior. Sort out what is reality and what is negativity. This can be hard to do when so much of our lives is governed by our emotions, but active reasoning will allow us to make sound decisions.
Appreciate other’s help
Live and work independently while realizing the importance of seeking and appreciating the support and assistance of others. People are there for you just as much as you are there for them.
Accept change in your life
Change is inevitable and provides invaluable opportunities for growth. Resisting change takes a lot of energy and can leave you feeling frustrated and sad. And at times, change can be so great and positive!
Take responsibility for your actions
Manage your life in personally rewarding ways. Form relationships with others based upon a foundation of mutual commitment, trust, and respect. People and things can be enjoyable, but resist relinquishing responsibility for your happiness to them.
Keep your expectations realistic
Unrealistic expectations of yourself and others, lead to disappointment and feelings of failure. Reason through your expectations, loosen them up if you find them to be a bit challenging, there’s nothing wrong with growing with the people around you.
Learn to laugh, especially at yourself
Research shows that laughter can boost your immune system, ease pain, relax your body, and reduce stress. It is said that angels can fly because they take themselves lightly. No one’s perfect and everyone’s on a path to grow!
Let go of resentments
Be willing to acknowledge that you are not in charge of others people’s behaviors nor their punishment. Love yourself enough to let go of anger’s toxic waste and resentment that only poisons your mind, spirit, and probably your body, as well. Remember those things for which you have been forgiven and how precious that gift is. And then, do the same for others.
Take care of your body
We cannot separate the mind’s health from the body’s health. Just as emotional difficulty can contribute to physical illness, many physical problems contribute to emotional distress and can be avoided by a healthy diet, exercise, and good sleeping habits.
As we previously mentioned in our Introduction to Wellness post, many things in life affect our wellbeing and are not in our control. The good news is that by following these useful tips, we can greatly influence our mental and emotional health by learning to adopt healthy habits and attitudes that foster wellness.
Remember that strengthening the emotional well-being involves identifying, building upon, and operating from your strengths. Improving emotional health is similar to improving physical health. It transcends the notion of mere freedom from illness to involve actively feeling well and living well.