9 Ways to Optimise Your Emotional Health
You probably know that eating right, exercising and getting enough sleep and rest are ways to optimise your physical health. How about your emotional health?
Looking after your emotional health is as important as taking care of your body. People who are mentally and emotionally healthy are better at dealing with difficulties, handling stress and building relationships, and are more productive at work. They also bounce back easily when bad things happen.
If your emotional health isn’t as solid as you want it to be, don’t worry. There are several things you can do to optimise your emotional fitness. It may take time to do it, and does require effort. But there’s a huge payoff.
Consider the following tips and suggestions to optimise your emotional health:
Learn or discover new things.
There’s really more to learning and discovering new things. Apart from expanding your knowledge, it gives you opportunities for growth and at the same time, it helps widen your perspective. Consider joining a class, traveling somewhere, attending a workshop or learning a new skill. With learning come new experiences that will make you a better and more confident person.
Limit unhealthy habits like worrying.
Too much worrying can sap your energy, make you anxious, and prevent you from making sound decisions. Try to avoid repetitive mental habits, including self-limiting and negative thoughts that trigger feelings of anxiety, depression, fear and the like.
Address limiting beliefs.
Many people succumb to mental health issues because they label themselves as being weak or inferior. But rather than getting tied to these limiting beliefs, see yourself as a person who is fully capable of doing good, feeling good and becoming better – someone who can be happy despite the circumstances surrounding you. Recent studies on epigenetics support the idea that we should allow ourselves hope and space for healing.
Protect your self-esteem.
We would never sprinkle salt in an open wound. But for some reason, we have this tendency to push ourselves way below the ground when we are already down. Self-esteem is like armour that defends us from being emotionally injured. When our self-esteem is low, often we become self-critical which hurts us even further. People with low self-esteem are more likely to suffer from depression, anxiety disorder and other mental health problems. So if there’s one thing you should give much importance to, it should be your self-esteem. You can boost your self-esteem by practising self-compassion. Treat yourself like you would treat your best friend. And whenever self-critical thoughts enter your mind, try to push them away by thinking about your strengths rather than weaknesses, and believing in yourself.
Distract yourself from brooding thoughts.
Ruminating about upsetting events only makes us feel worse. Develop healthy habits to counter rumination. For example, when negative thoughts start to play in your mind, distract yourself by engaging in a simple task or activity that necessitates your full attention like solving a math problem, listing the name of your high school classmates, solving a puzzle, or sketching.
Recover self-worth after rejection.
Scientists found that the pain rejection brings is similar to the pain that physical pain registers in our brain. So really, being rejected by others hurt a lot. But unless we know that, we are likely to interpret feeling this way as a sign of weakness. We think we are being pathetic or needy. Don’t think that because you are rejected you are no longer worthy. Whilst it could make you feel that way, the good news is that you can recover your sense of worth and one way to do that is to practise gratitude. Think about your strengths. Remind yourself of what you have to offer. Know that you are unique and special and capable of doing things better. Each night, before you sleep, write down 5 things that you are most thankful for in a given day. You will be surprised of how a simple act of gratefulness can optimise your emotional health and make you feel better again.
Realise that failures are bound to happen.
Failures bring a mix of negative emotions that make us feel helpless and unworthy that we end up losing our motivation. But remember that even the most successful people fail at times. Ask 10 people you know if they have encountered failure already and most of them if not all will tell you that they did. To combat the negative feelings failure brings and uncover the insights and learning it offers, choose to focus on things that you can control. Try to find ways on how to improve your chances of success by analysing what the problem or problems have been and what can be done next time. Focusing on areas you can control will help you regain your energy and motivation, and get closer to success.
Find meaning after a loss.
Loss is probably the most painful thing which nobody can ever avoid. Regardless of how traumatic the loss is – the important step to achieve healing and recovery is to be able to find meaning in the events. With loss come new lessons that can lead us to a more fulfilling life. For instance, loss can make you realise that time is of great essence so it should be spent more on things that truly matter to us – like our family and loved ones. A loss can also help you develop greater appreciation of things and/or people who remain.
Get support.
Healing gets easier with the right kind of support. At the top of your support system are your family and friends. You can also get support from a professional therapist. Don’t think that seeing professional help is a sign of emotional weakness. Many people have found better ways to boost their emotional fitness through counselling and other forms of psychotherapy.
Optimising your emotional health is as important as optimising your physical health. So make it a priority. Hope these tips have given you an idea on how and where to start.
©Copyright 2013 by http://www.naturaltherapyforall.com All Acupuncture Stoke on Trent Rights Reserved.