Amazing Tips to Improve Your Emotional Health

You should understand that emotional health is not the same as mental health. Although the two terms are usually used to denote the same thing, emotional health is being in tune with your feelings, authenticity and vulnerability.

Earth’s Wisdom today wants to discuss how you can build emotional health.

Remember that being distressed or sad sometimes doesn’t mean that you are not in emotional health. Emotional health is about how well you can manage your distress and sorrow.

Here are examples of good emotional health:

Curiosity about Your Thoughts

Emotional health thrives when you are curious about your feelings, thoughts and behaviors, and about the reason of their emergence at certain times.

Understanding Your Own Self-Judgments

This refers to converting that critical inner voice into an opportunity for self-love.

For example, if you find yourself in a mood of a negative self-talk, you might think:

• What makes it difficult for me to treat myself just as I treat others?
• If my spouse, child or best friend talk to me in this manner, how would I react?

Understanding Upsetting Feelings

This enables you to exactly identify them and manage them in healthy ways. E.g. you may opt to have healthy boundaries with your loved ones or at work. Or you may choose to confront someone calmly who annoyed or hurt you instead of lashing out at them.

Why is Emotional Health So Important?

Improving your emotional health is as important for you as improving your physical health, because:

• Being emotionally healthy helps you to see the best in you.
• According to research, emotional ill health increases your chances of being physically ill by negatively affecting your immune system.
• Being emotionally healthy makes you feel more energetic, focused and clear, whereas emotional ill health makes you feel weak and exhausted.
• Being emotionally healthy helps you to connect easily to others and show more compassion and empathy.

How to Improve Emotional Health?

Emotional health may be a continuous process rather than being a goal. Here are a few tips to work on your emotional health.

Practice Regulation of Emotions

Learning and practicing coping strategies can help you react positively to upsetting situations. These include:

• Meditation
• Listening to music
• Journaling
• Talking to a therapist

Strengthen Social Bonds

Connecting to others can powerfully affect your physical as well as emotional health. Such bonds can provide you a buffer while going through challenges. Connect to your loved ones, family and close friends, either personally or over the phone.

Exercise

If you are overstressed at home or at work, you may feel that you can never exercise. However, taking the time for exercise can help reduce your stress and improve emotional health.

Try setting aside at least 30 minutes a day for any kind of physical activity. If even that is not possible, find chunks of 10 to 15 minutes several times a day and go for a walk.

Quality Sleep

Avoiding sleep makes you more susceptible to stress. As per a 2018 study, being sleep-deprived results in more recurrent negative thoughts. Being excessively tired can make you emotionally more reactive. This emotional reactivity can adversely affect your viewpoint, relationships and performance.

Make sure you get enough sleep consistently and your bedroom environment is optimized.

Mindfulness

An increasing amount of research connects mindfulness with reduced reactivity and increased relationship satisfaction. Mindfulness can be as simple as turning household tasks into a mental break, trying social media detox or focusing on one thing at a time. The key is to practice mindfulness consistently and take even only a few minutes for something you enjoy.

Good emotional health is important for your total well-being. If you are not being able to improve it yourself, take help of a therapist and soon you’ll feel more relaxed, focused, calm and clear.

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