Practical Strategies to Improve Your Emotional Well-Being
Introduction by Host: Dr. Gee
Welcome back to our series on holistic wellness. We have been exploring the various dimensions of health and wellness. The first week was dedicated to an overview, getting a better understanding of what holistic wellness is. This week, we are exploring emotional wellness.
Point 1: What is Emotional Wellness?
According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration, emotional wellness is, “The ability to express feelings, adjust to emotional challenges, cope with life’s stressors, and enjoy life.” Are you able to express how you feel, whether positive or negative emotions? When emotional challenges come, how quickly are you able to adapt to the situation? When you experience emotional highs, how long do you celebrate before you get back to work? How much control you have over your emotions is the center of emotional wellness?
Point 2: Why is Emotional Wellness Important?
For those who don’t think emotional wellness is important, think again. Approximately 280 million people in the world have depression. Suicide is the fourth leading cause of death in 15–29-year-olds. Over 700,000 people die from suicide every year. This is why it is important for us to know how we feel. This is why it is important to seek help when we need it. This is not just a trend. It is literally a matter of life and death.
Point 3: Practical Steps to Take Care of Ourselves
The ability to control your emotions is a not a natural gift for most people. It is a process that takes time and intentionality to perfect. At the end of the day, recall how you felt at different points. What caused you to feel the way you did. Did you get mad at a family member? Were you mad at them, or something that happened earlier in the day? You may realize that after doing a certain activity, you are angrier with those around you.
Finding better ways of dealing with emotional stressors is another important step in emotional wellness. When you are sad, how do you deal with that feeling? Do you go straight for a sugary snack, or do you take a walk? Find what works for you when you are feeling down.
The third strategy for improving your emotional wellbeing is to find a safe place. That could be a physical place, or a mental place, or even a person to be with. It is easy to go to social media when you get overwhelmed, but people tend to share their successes and not their failures. People may struggle as much as you, but if you only look at their successes you may find your emotional health spiraling downward. Find a safe space and a community where you can express yourself and how you feel without judgement.
Point 4: Self-Care
Self-care is very, very tricky. In the modern day, self-care has become a word that means anything and everything. It can mean anything from spending time along to asking for help to staying home to doing anything to make yourself feel better. It is important to take care of yourself, but only you can determine what self-care looks like in your life.
Point 5: Stress
It is estimated that more than half of adults are stressed with the work they are doing. Why is this the case? Is it because we are doing more than we are physically capable of handling? Is it because we are not saying ‘no’ when we need to? Like I said earlier, we are all different people, so dealing with stress will look different for different people. Finding a healthy way to deal with stress is vital to being emotionally well.
Summary
Emotional health is a vital part of our lives. Take some time today to examine how you have felt in the past week. Are there things that stress you out that you can avoid in the weeks to come? Do you have an unhealthy way of dealing with depression that you can change this week? Take control of your emotional health, and thrive holistically today!
By Dr. Gee, Success and Holistic Wellness Advocate
