Overview of Emotional Health
Would you float in the ocean on a small boat without a motor, oars, life vest, water, or any supplies for several hours? How about for days? Or a week?
While I love the ocean, and its beauty, I can definitely say that I would not put myself in that position. The outcome likely wouldn’t be a good one.
So why do we place ourselves in similar circumstances feeling “stranded” concerning our emotional health?
Keep reading to find out how these situations are similar.
In This Article
Gaining Understanding of Emotional Health
When seeking information about becoming stronger emotionally, many different lists and terms surface.
It can be overwhelming.
Based on decades of leading and mentoring in health and wellness, it has become apparent that not everything is cut and dry—especially when it comes to our mindset and emotions.
Science has its basis of our bodies but doesn’t always hit the mark about wellness.
While lists for improvement seem easy enough, we often partially focus on them because the action steps are without good explanation.
This creates a lack of understanding.
There must be a combination of both explanation and understanding.
First Things First
One important factor that I have discovered: teaching coping skills is a method which creates a position of action as or after something happens.
This often creates difficulty for bringing on measurable success especially if it is the only view we possess.
It is more important to teach proactive steps of understanding how to prevent some of the downfalls that take place with emotions.
Of course, not everything can be prevented, but staying proactive has its benefits over only trying to find ways to cope.
A side note, once something has already taken place, it isn’t impossible to overcome. A healthy mindset can still assist in forward steps.
Here we will be focusing on how to view emotional health from a wellness perspective and use this in preparation going forward.
Mindset Review
It is important to remember that mindset health can be tricky if not looked at correctly.
We will focus on mindset as one part of our whole-body health that encompasses our thoughts, emotions, and actions.
Each of these is its own entity and has its own purpose, but they work very closely together.
When considering thoughts, emotions, and actions, it has been noted that thoughts are the driving force for emotions and actions.
We also use thoughts to filter how we see things, and they can in turn be the basis for how we feel and react to things.
This information helps establish the basis for what we need to know to create a healthy and proactive view for increasing our emotional strength.
Plan for Increasing Emotional Health
Emotional wellness can be especially challenging and should be addressed in a realistic yet comprehensible manner.
We will review the basis of health and wellness and apply it to the emotional aspect.
Health– the current emotional state we are in
Wellness– Action steps to gain and maintain emotional health
Moving forward, this article will address the importance of realizing our current state and how to take steps to increase our emotional health.
If you have ever wondered why you have certain feelings, how to shake your negative feelings, and ultimately how to replace them with something better, keep reading.
Honesty About Emotional Health
What seems like a simple approach has been proven effective over time. Usually in our busy world, the simpler the better.
Let’s start by taking on the notion of addressing our emotional health just as we would our physical health.
We should treat our emotional health in a manner that keeps us fueled, rested, and active.
People often overlook this process because it’s our physical body that gets the attention. Regarding physical, we view a need for heavy lifting or specific strategies for strength.
All the while, we are neglecting other parts of our being, such as our emotional and social health, and wondering why they are so hard to deal with.
Recognizing Your Emotional Health
The best way to begin preparation for taking steps to improve anything is to realize what we’re currently dealing with. Our emotional state is no different.
Common questions people have asked are, “Why am I so emotionally weak?” Or “Why can’t I stop feeling bad or letting things drag me down?”
These questions and others like them don’t have one simple answer, but it is normal for us to think in this manner.
Quick healing, quick fixes, and simple answers are usually the preferred outcomes. However, these methods are not realistic in health and wellness.
The answers to the questions not only encompass our emotions, but also our thoughts.
A great place to start when trying to discover emotional pitfalls is to analyze your thought patterns. Creating a better understanding of emotional awareness is an important step.
Remember, thoughts lead to emotions (and actions).
Why Is It Hard to Be Emotionally Strong?
For most of us, we don’t live in an isolated manner. There are people around us continuously, whether it be physically or virtually.
This creates an easy way for us to feel like an emotional target in many circumstances.
While being connected is amazing, it has its own difficulties when we interact and filter (through our thoughts) all that we see and hear.
This can eventually, or sometimes immediately, create emotional deficits. And we want to turn off our emotions.
While we were made to be in relationship, and others might lift us up, they can just as readily knock us down.
Then we tend to measure our worth and react emotionally based on their actions or words toward us.
These are often core reasons it is difficult to remain emotionally healthy.
Note that these ideas involve other people. We will address that further moving forward.
Changing Your Thought Process
One of the best methods for initiating change to our thought process is to remember that emotions are not isolated.
They should be considered as a part of our whole being, and we should not attempt to only change or focus on how we feel.
Remember our thoughts (which are also a filter for emotions) can even skew how we see things and can drive our feelings.
It can become deceiving when we try to “figure out” how we feel about something.
We should see our emotions as a part of our entire mindset (thoughts, emotions, actions) that work closely together.
This allows the realization that we can learn to control our mindset before our emotions “run-away” into various tangents. See this article on mental and emotional healing.
Examples of emotional situations regarding other people were mentioned earlier. In these and other similar circumstances, we should remember that while we cannot control other people, we do have control over our thoughts.
We do not have to operate from a place of falling victim to others or even our own thought process.
Maintaining the view that we can take control of these aspects changes how we plan and manage our steps. Also, see this article for ideas for spending time together.
How to Create Lasting Emotional Strength
When continuing the discussion on emotional health, we should also address the spiritual realm and its role in our whole-body health (physical, mental, spiritual).
This article about spiritual wellness addresses views of spirituality and methods to take to increase our spiritual characteristics.
This is a very important topic to tie into emotional health. Not only is it another portion of our body where we should maintain balance, but it also creates space for a mindset that promotes wellness.
When discussing control of our thoughts and emotions, it is important to realize successful steps come from increasing our spiritual nature. View my personal spiritual journey.
As we have seen, those parts of whole health that are not part of a balanced focus become neglected and operate in a less than optimal manner.
A side note about emotions vs. characteristics: by nature, emotions often have a negative connotation but can also carry a different tone.
Mainly we are addressing that emotions are temporary and characteristics are consistent by comparison.
For example, happy vs. joy.
Happiness is an emotion that often fluctuates depending on our mood or circumstance. Whereas joy is a characteristic that is present no matter our situation.
This doesn’t mean we always think things are easy, it means we walk through life with a healthier perspective when circumstances arise that are difficult.
When addressing healthy emotional strength, increasing characteristics (which are a part of spiritual wellness) is beneficial.
Staying mindful is especially important in this consideration.
A healthy view to take is that some emotions are detrimental reactions to those things that are out of balance; however, characteristics are beneficial traits we gain by maintaining our spiritual health.
They are vital to our wellness.
Our characteristics are healthy and play a huge role in keeping our thoughts, emotions, and actions balanced.
Remember, emotions can be considered temporary, but characteristics are more consistent where our wellness is concerned.
Examples of Emotions and Characteristics
Know Your Role in Emotional Wellness
As was discussed, our thoughts are key in what drives our emotions.
We should each strive to identify those things that we are able to control to begin steps for emotional wellness.
For example, we cannot control other people and their actions. It is important to create a space in which we understand that we should not allow others to dictate our emotions.
If there are instances where this has taken place, we can recall these as circumstances to learn from.
It is also important to realize the things needed in healthy relationships.
This allows examples of what we decide to change and how we plan to be different moving forward.
A side note: although it takes practice, we can learn to control our thoughts and emotions for a more balanced life.
While there are sometimes medical or psychological situations that may require additional intervention, this thoughtful method is still beneficial to the process of overall emotional wellness.
Embrace Your Role in Emotional Wellness
Identifying what we are capable of is a first step, but in addition, we should analyze what type of perspective we have for the situations in our life.
This is a vital part of emotional wellness and can increase balance if in the correct realm.
Understanding the difference between optimism and positivity is key.
One other aspect to mention is self-affirmation.
We often experience talk from others that is negative, harsh, and depleting.
Instead of judging our worth by this type of rhetoric, we should replace it with affirmations. (Don’t be afraid to talk to yourself!)
There are multiple sources that give us not only a boost—but complete power—over anything that may cause emotional turmoil.
Let the words you speak to yourself resonate louder than those causing hurt from others.
State it and believe it!
Outlook for Your Emotional Wellness
No one is perfect, and we can use situations that have already taken place as our learning tools.
By taking intentional steps in the areas mentioned, we can create and maintain long-lasting emotional growth. However, we must stay focused on the correct concepts for getting ahead.
Intentionality and consistency are key in this realm.
It is important for us to set tangible and attainable goals to maintain a healthy perspective. See this article on whole body health where goal setting is discussed for some helpful hints to set emotional wellness goals.
Final Thoughts about Becoming Emotionally Strong
Remember the little boat in the ocean?
It was stated we would not get in without appropriate preparation, supplies, or maintenance. Without a strong vessel, the waves could toss us up and down and even turn us in the wrong direction completely.
Life is no different.
Each of the items we would consider taking during planning for the boat trip represents something just as important in our emotional wellness journey and contributes to emotional strength.
- Motor (Our mindset including thoughts that drive our emotions.)
- Oars (Our spiritual characteristics are poised to consistently keep us moving forward.)
- Life vest (Confidence and power that will keep us afloat)
- Water (Replenishment from daily affirmations that sustain us)
- Supplies (Those things that keep us proactive, maintaining correct perspective, and moving toward our emotional wellness goals)
Staying prepared, powerful, and planning ahead is imperative.
Initiating and maintaining these ideas can calm the emotional waves that we face once-and-for-all and help us to be emotionally strong.