Improving your Emotional Health

Calm your mind and body. 
Relaxation methods, such as meditation, are useful ways to bring your emotions into balance. Meditation is a form of guided thought. It can take many forms. For example, you may do it by exercising, stretching, or breathing deeply. 

Take care of yourself. To have good emotional health, it’s important to take care of your body by having a regular routine for eating healthy meals, getting enough sleep, and exercising to relieve pent-up tension. 

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, helplessness, and other negative thoughts.
• Learn or discover new things. Try taking an adult education class, join a book club, visit a museum, learn a new language, or simply travel 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 beach.
• Manage your stress levels. Stress takes a heavy toll on mental and emotional health, so it’s important to keep it under control. While not all stressors can be avoided, stress management strategies can help you bring things back into balance.
• 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.

References:

Improving Emotional Health: Strategies and Tips for Good Mental Health. (n.d.). Retrieved May 31, 2021, from http://www.helpguide.org/articles/emotional-health/improving-emotional-health.htm

 Finally catching up on some therapeutic writing and blogging……

#PenandPaper: Stop trying to prove to somebody that You Can Be Somebody!  #LoveLifeAndRelationships 

 

The First Two Steps to Creating Resilience

  

When life is shaking us up and we’re feeling stressed … it can be tough to feel resilient. Resilience helps us to deal with the chaos and moments of frustration, but how do we create it when we feel like we’re underwater? 

The first step is to remove things that are adding unnecessary stress. The second step is to do things that help us feel replenished. 

Those two steps won’t get us all the way to full resilience, but they’re a huge huge start.

Remove Extra Stress

Some stress is inevitable — wishing for a life where we feel zero stress is just going to add more stress. But if we are flooded with stress, removing some of it can help us to clear the space to create even more resilience. If we don’t remove the extra stress, we’ll never do the things we need to take care of ourselves or to train our minds to be more resilient.

So removing unnecessary stress is the first step. Some examples:

• If you’re working late into the night, creating a stopping point earlier would be a big help, if possible.
• Cut back on your workload a bit, if you’re able to.
• Stop saying yes to everything, and take fewer meetings.
• If you’re fighting a lot with someone, refrain for a bit. Take a breather and let yourself settle.
• If you’re watching things or playing games late into the night and getting little sleep, cut back on that.
• If you’re watching the news or reading things online that really get you angry, stop that for a while.
• Cut out social media if that gets you anxious.

And so on. Removing these stressors will help you catch your breath.

Then Replenish Yourself

I don’t mean that you have to take a spa weekend (though that would be great!) … I mean doing little things that help you feel more recharged and settled.

These things fill you up so that you can better take on the world.

For example:

• Go for walks out in nature.
• Create space for reading, having tea, taking a bath, journaling.
• Talk with someone regularly, in person, or over the phone.
• Take naps.
• Get better sleep.
• Take a weekend off.
• Get some sunshine, if there’s anywhere you are.
• Take moments of stillness and deep breathing during your day.

These little things can make a huge difference.

You won’t get all the way to resilience with these two steps — but you’ll have given yourself what you need to take the further steps of shifting your thinking patterns and practicing resilience.