What is Emotional Wellness?

People often equate wellness with being physically healthy- proper diet, exercise, weight management, etc. But it is much more than that, and emotional well being is crucial if you want to have a balanced life.

Emotional wellness will inspire you to develop inner strength, reduce stress, relax, and include self-care in your daily routine. It is not just about having positive thoughts all the time, but being in tune with both your negative and positive feelings.

It is about handling your emotions at the right time and the right way. It won’t come in one day, no matter how many tricks and tips you learn. Emotional wellness comes with the ability to learn and grow from experiences.

 

An integral part of overall wellness, psychological well being encourages proper decision-making skills and autonomy in you.

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Path to Emotional wellness

 Awareness Development

Many times instead of being in control of our emotions, they are in control of us. The more we are aware of our feelings as in how we feel in a particular situation and our mood swings, the better we will be able to take charge of them.

Rather than waiting for a particularly drastic situation to happen, take several moments of the day to assess how you are feeling, what you are doing, and what you are thinking.

Become aware of your shifting emotions so that you know how to react when they flare-up. Don’t give in to them too quickly.

Assess your situation and respond accordingly to make the situation less damaging to you if not wholly favorable.

Having an impartial view

ACT or acceptance and commitment therapy describes it as Diffusion. It means you are separating or de-fusing yourself from an emotional situation.

We should never tie ourselves with everything that is happening around us. We are not defined by the problems we have faced. It’s our ability to survive and experience through it that makes us who we are.

Otherwise, a parent who always has issues regarding his child will always think like a parent in every situation. But he doesn’t. He learns patience and management from parenting, which he then manifests in different situations accordingly.

Don’t take issues surrounding you personally every time. When you emotionally and mentally detach yourself from turbulent events, you focus on your values, strengths, actions, and goals..

You eventually stop criticizing yourself for every little thing and become emotionally healthy.

Acceptance of feelings

We are human beings and are bound to face varying levels and kinds of emotions regularly.

When we want to be emotionally stable and independent, we often make the mistake of just focusing on the good feelings and completely ignoring the bad feelings.

It is absolutely the wrong way to handle your emotions. When you let yourself feel everything instead of numbing yourself, you don’t feel the punch so sharply.

When you are not resisting or fighting them, you are actually focusing on managing and controlling them. Many people resort to alcohol and drugs to numb certain hurting emotions.

But do they ever get rid of it by doing so? Wouldn’t it be better to face them head-on rather than avoiding them for indeterminate time till it’s too late?

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Development of perception

Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) and Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) are two approaches to mental health that address feelings, thoughts, and behaviors.

Both assert that the actual problems are not our most significant issue. The emotions and feelings that eventually arise from them are our real issues.

Those emotions related to the issues overcome us, and we, instead of focusing on the solution, are trapped in dealing with the feelings that continuously seem to drag us down.

Instead of going on s self- destructive mode blaming everything on others or ourselves, it’s better to change the narrative in our head. Think about it from a different perspective.

What if there is something good in a bad situation that we are yet to discover. What if the person who just snapped at us has a reason for that behavior?

Always try to find the reasons behind an action instead of jumping to a conclusion.

Reframing Situation

It is a cognitive reappraisal and also pertains to perspective-taking. A bad situation is often made worse in our head itself.

Sometimes we anticipate horrible conditions from events that could be potentially beneficial for us. It’s the hype in our head that makes us miss opportunities sometimes.

For example, someone with social anxiety convinces herself to visit a buffet one day. She must be thinking about the worst-case scenario, where she will probably embarrass herself.

But she leaps of faith, enjoys good food, and even talks to someone she knows and has a good time overall. You don’t need to change yourself overnight because that may not be possible.

But don’t stop yourself either because you fear the unknown. That unknown can be the best thing waiting to happen to you.

Being amiable and pleasant

Humor is the most powerful asset you can have. Don’t underestimate it. We don’t mean make fun of others at every insipid moment that would be borderline bullying.

What we meant is always to find something amusing under challenging situations. Don’t be sarcastic, but just satirical. Laughing is good for our health, and smiling will make us look and feel pleasant.

As you embark on a journey to develop your perspective, try adding humor to your life. Take breaks to laugh at something if you don’t find the situation to be appropriate somewhere, watch something funny on the internet.

Just keep yourself amused and in a jolly mood. You will find yourself more approachable and productive.

Practice Mindfulness

Someone wise once said that life should be living in the moment. Although we all have and should do some future planning and learn from our mistakes in our past, ultimately it’s what in the present that should matter to us.

Most of our strongest emotions are often linked with some events in the past or our worries about the future. When we are practice mindfulness, we focus on what is happening right now and right here in the present moment.

Our mindfulness will help us keep grounded and prepare us to be a better version of ourselves.

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Improving Emotional wellness/Regulation

It simply means not giving in to our impulses. We are all aware of our emotions and how they fluctuate in certain situations.

We cannot avoid every unpleasant and unnecessary situation in our lives, but we can avoid the way we react to them. What we can do is practice noticing how and when we respond to a situation.

So that when a similar situation arises, we choose not to act in the same way. It can sound tiresome but understand the practicality of it.

When we react to a situation adversely all the time, we become predictable. Sometimes people deem that as our weakness and sometimes can even try to take advantage of it, thus harming our interests along the way.

Why should we give anyone or anything that level of control on us?

Don’t pursue happiness.

We cannot and mustn’t force positive emotions in us when we don’t feel like it. Happiness cannot be forced.

Sometimes when we try too hard to be happy, we create a false environment around us that could supposedly induce euphoria.

Have you noticed people who always post glamorous and cheery posts on social media/ people who always need to go to parties and surround themselves with people? Do you think they are always happy? Emotionally comfortable people aren’t happy all day every day.

They have their ups and downs. But the only difference is that they are in tune with their emotions; they express them appropriately and then eventually move on. And so should you!

Optimism

When a flower pot breaks by your hand, what do you do? Do you throw away the plant and vow never to grow a tree ever? Or do you plant it in another pot or on the ground to grow well? Optimism is discarding that broken pot and planting the plant in a new one to thrive.

Optimism is a crucial element in having emotional wellness. It means that you are aware that negative situations and people exist, but don’t let that define you.

You know that they are not permanent, and such unfavorable conditions will pass eventually. 

Emotional wellness is a personalized approach to life that will allow you to become the kind of person who can become the best version of himself based on his potentials, circumstances, and fate. But still, he/she will feel fulfilled. Wouldn’t you want to be that person?