Emotional Health

Emotionally healthy people are in control of their emotions and their behavior.  They are able to handle life’s challenges, build strong relationships, and recover from setbacks. But just as it requires effort and work to build and maintain physical health, so it is with mental and emotional health. Improving your emotional health can be a rewarding experience, benefitting all aspects of your life, including boosting your mood, building resilience, and adding to your overall enjoyment of life.

Mental or emotional health refers to your overall psychological well-being.  It includes the way you feel about yourself, the quality of your relationships, and your ability to manage your feelings and deal with difficulties. Good mental health isn’t the absence of mental health problems. Being mentally or emotionally healthy is much more than being free of depression, anxiety, or other psychological issues.  Rather than the absence of mental illness, mental and emotional health refers to the presence of positive characteristics.  Similarly, not feeling bad isn’t the same as feeling good.  While some people may not have negative feelings, they still need to do things that make them feel positive in order to achieve mental and emotional health.

People who are emotionally healthy have:

- A sense of contentment

- A zest for living and the ability to laugh and have fun.

- The ability to deal with stress and bounce back from adversity.

- A sense of meaning and purpose, in both activities and relationships.

- The flexibility to learn new things and adapt to change.

- A balance between work and play, rest and activity, etc.

- The ability to build and maintain fulfilling relationships.

- Self-confidence and high self-esteem.

These positive characteristics of mental and emotional health allow you to participate in life to the fullest extent possible through productive, meaningful activities and strong relationships.  These positive characteristics also help you cope when faced with life’s challenges and stresses.

The Resilience in strong emotional health

Being emotionally and mentally healthy doesn’t mean never enduring bad times or experiencing emotional problems. We all go through disappointments, loss, and change.  And while these are normal parts of life, they can still cause anxiety, sadness, and stress.  The difference is that people with good emotional health have an ability to bounce back from adversity, trauma, and stress. This ability is called resilience. People who are emotionally and mentally healthy have the tools for coping with difficult situations and maintaining a positive outlook. They remain focused, flexible, and creative in bad times as well as good.  One of the factors in resilience is the ability to balance stress and your emotions.  The capacity to recognize your emotions and express them appropriately helps you avoid getting stuck in depression, anxiety, or other negative mood states.  Another key factor is having a strong support network.  Having trusted people you can turn to for encouragement and support will boost your resilience in tough times.  First you need to understand what you need, then how to get what you need.

Physical Health is Connected to Emotional Health

Taking good care of your body is a powerful first step towards mental and emotional health.  The mind and the body are linked. When you improve your physical health, you will automatically experience greater emotional and mental well being.  For example, exercise not only strengthens our heart and lungs, but also releases endorphins, powerful chemicals that energize us and lift our mood.

The activities you engage in and daily choices you make affect the way you feel physically and emotionally.

Get enough rest.  To have good mental and emotional health, it’s important to take care of your body.  That includes getting enough sleep.  Most people need seven to eight hours of sleep each night in order to function optimally.

Practice good nutrition.  The subject of nutrition is not always easy to put into practice.  But the more you learn about what you eat and how it affects your energy and mood, the better you can feel.

Exercise to relieve stress and lift your mood.  Exercise is a powerful antidote to stress, anxiety, and depression.  Look for small ways to add activity to your day, like taking the stairs instead of the elevator or going on a short walk.  To get the most mental health benefits, aim for 30 minutes or more of exercise per day.

Sunlight.  Sunlight lifts your mood, so try to get at least 10-15 minutes of sun per day.  This can be done while exercising, gardening, or socializing.

Limit alcohol and avoid cigarettes and other drugs. These are stimulants that may unnaturally make you feel good in the short term, but have long-term negative consequences for moo and emotional health.

Learn to Take Care of Yourself to Improve Your Emotional and Mental Health.

In order to maintain and strengthen your mental and emotional health, it’s important to pay attention to your own needs and feelings. Don’t let stress and negative emotions build up. Try to maintain a balance between your daily responsibilities and the things you enjoy. If you take care of yourself, you will be better prepared to deal with challenges if and when they arise.

Taking care of yourself includes pursuing activities that naturally release endorphins and contribute to feeling good. In addition to physical exercise, endorphins are also naturally released when we:

Do things that positively impact others.  Being useful to others and being valued for what you do can help build self-esteem.

Practice self-discipline.  Self-control naturally leads to a sense of hopefulness and can help you overcome despair, hopelessness, and other negative thoughts.

Discover new things.  Think of it as “intellectual candy.” Try taking an adult education class, joining a book club, visiting a museum, or simply traveling somewhere new.

Enjoy the beauty of nature or art.  Studies show that simply walking through a garden can lower blood pressure and reduce stress. The same goes for strolling through a park or an art gallery, hiking, admiring architecture, or sitting on a bench.

Limit unhealthy mental habits like worrying.  Try to avoid becoming absorbed by repetitive mental habits – negative thoughts about yourself and the world that suck up time, drain your energy, and trigger feelings of anxiety, fear, and depression.

Appeal to your senses.  Stay calm and energized by appealing to the five senses: sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste.  Listen to music you like, place flowers where you will see them, be affectionate or massage your hands and feet.

Be productive. Do things that challenge your creativity and make you feel productive, whether or not you are paid for it.

Get a pet.  Yes, pets are a responsibility, but caring for one makes you feel needed and loved.  There is no love quite as unconditional as the love a pet can give.  Animals can also get you out of the house for exercise and expose you to new people and places.

Make time for appreciation.  Think about the things you are grateful for.  Meditate, enjoy the sunset, or simply take a moment to pay attention to what is good, positive, and beautiful as you go about your day.

Everyone is different; not all things will be equally beneficial to all people.  Some people feel better relaxing and slowing down while others need more activity and more excitement or stimulation to feel better.  The important thing is to find activities that you enjoy and that give you a boost.

Supportive Relationships: The Foundation of Emotional Health.

No matter how much time you devote to improving your emotional health, you will still need the company of others to feel and be your best.  Humans are social creatures with an emotional need for relationships and positive connections to others.  We are not meant to survive, let alone thrive, in isolation.  Our social brains crave companionship – even when experience has made us shy and distrustful of others.

Social interaction – specifically talking to someone else about your problems – can help reduce stress. The key is to find a supportive relationship with someone who is a good listener – someone you can talk to regularly, preferably face to face, who will listen to you without a pre-existing agenda for how you should think or feel. A good listener will listen to the feelings behind your words, and will not interrupt or judge or criticize you.  The best way to find a good listener? Be a good listener yourself.

Keep in mind that screens will never have the same effect as an expression of interest or a reassuring touch. Communication is a largely non verbal experience that requires you to be in direct contact with other people, so don’t neglect your real world relationships in favor of virtual interaction.