Improve Your Emotional Well-Being With These Ideas

With all of the chaos and violence in the news, I thought it might be good to focus on ways we can improve our emotional wellness.

When I wrote about the 8 Dimensions of Wellness a while back, I said emotional wellness was about how we handle things that we can't control. It's about being aware of your feelings (often by tuning into your body), remaining present or mindful, and choosing how you respond to what’s happening instead of reacting.

Uncomfortable emotions – anxiety, anger, sadness – aren’t bad. We all have them. It’s not possible to be happy all the time! Resilience is recognizing, acknowledging, and expressing your feelings on a regular basis. Talking to a partner, close friend, or a professional and participating in leisure activities that help you process your emotions are important for emotional self-care. 

Emotional wellness is also about setting and maintaining boundaries, accepting yourself for who you are, monitoring your self-talk, and choosing how you express yourself.

Emotional resilience affects all the other dimensions of wellness! Not processing your emotions can lead to stagnation in a whole host of ways:

• Weakened immunity
• High blood pressure
• Trouble concentrating
• Irritability (which can affect relationships)
• And more

But there are simple things you can do to improve your emotional wellness:

• Listen to your body. It’s constantly giving you signals that tell you what you’re feeling. Learn how to self-soothe and understand what your body is telling you.
• Be aware of your self-talk. The words you think and speak to yourself have so much power! And so many of us speak to ourselves in ways we’d never to speak to someone else. Pay attention and shift your language.
• Honor your needs. You deserve to have your needs met. Recognize them and fulfill them. That includes basic needs like pausing for a bathroom break or allowing yourself to take breaks instead of eating while you work as well as creating a safety or cultivating friendships and belonging.

Check out this link for 22 Ways to Practice Emotional Self-Care and Letting Go.

Ask yourself these questions to get started:

• Do you acknowledge your emotions? Are you in touch with what you actually feel?
• Do you process your emotions in healthy ways?
• Do you make time for activities that help you feel recharged?
• Do you set healthy boundaries or do you let others take over your space and time?