Emotional health is an essential part of our overall health. It is vital to living a life of wholeness, balance, and contentment. It means feeling good, being happy, experiencing positive emotions like love, joy or compassion, and feeling generally satisfied with life.
Emotional health is not the same thing as mental health but is an essential part of mental health. Inadvertently, the two terms are often used interchangeably. Emotional health primarily focuses on being in tune with our emotions, which brings about overall contentment in life.
Having good emotional health doesn’t mean you’re always happy or free from negative emotions. It’s about having the skills and resources to manage the ups and downs of day-to-day life. It also implies that one can bounce back from setbacks and thrive despite problems.
Good emotional health offers certain benefits to lead an overall satisfied life. Some important ones are mentioned below:
It gives better immunity –
Researchers find that emotional distress makes you more vulnerable to physical illnesses by impacting your immune system. So, good emotional health strengthens immune system.
It fosters deeper relationships –
Good emotional health makes it easier for you to connect with others and show more empathy and compassion. You’re also better able to hold arguments and convey your feelings.
It gives higher self-esteem –
Our thoughts, feelings, and experiences influence the way we feel about ourselves. Good emotional health helps you see the best in yourself despite various challenges.
It gives resilience to stress –
Good emotional health helps you manage your various circumstances with efficiency. Thereby, it enhances your resilience to stress.
It gives more energy –
Having a positive outlook makes you feel more energized and helps you focus and think more clearly. On the contrary, poor emotional health diminishes your mental resources, leading to exhaustion.
Improving emotional health –
To improve emotional health you can do the following:
• Take balanced food – Your mood depends on the food you eat. Eating regularly maintains blood sugar levels. Not eating regularly can make you tired, irritable, anxious and cause poor concentration. It has been found that eating breakfast, eating every 3-4 hours, avoiding junk foods, and eating plenty of fruit and vegetables promotes emotional well-being.
• Do regular exercises – Regular physical activity helps release endorphins which can improve your mood. Some physical exercise, even if you don’t feel like it at first, can give you quick results in improving your mood.
• Distract yourself – When you are feeling immersed in a problem, leave it and do something completely different. When you return to it at a different time it may seem more manageable. Distracting yourself is can be a reliable way to stop fretting over a problem when you are feeling stuck.
• Learn to relax – There are lots of different ways of relaxing from the stresses of life. Taking a warm bath, listening to a soothing music, watching a film, keeping social engagements and following hobbies are some of the things that can help you keep calm.
• Do things you enjoy – Doing things you enjoy can help you to stay connected with some of the more positive aspects of life.
• Drink sensibly – Drink sensibly since alcohol can cause depressive feelings or heighten anxiety. It can also increase risk taking behaviors. Make your own decisions about what is right for you and don’t succumb to peer pressure about drinking.
• Show gratitude – It has been found that people, who regularly express gratitude for the positive things in their life, are shown to be happier overall, leading to lower rates of stress and depression. Showing gratitude can make you more optimistic.
• Take adequate sleep – Sleep affects mood greatly, so it is advisable to take enough of it. After a sleepless night, you may be more irritable, short-tempered, and vulnerable to stress. Once you sleep well, your mood often returns to normal. Studies have shown that even partial sleep deprivation has a significant effect on mood.
• Make time for contemplation – You think about the things you’re grateful for. Mediate, pray, enjoy the sunset, or simply take a moment to pay attention to what is good, positive, and beautiful as you go about your day.
• Engage in creative work – Do things that challenge your creativity like gardening, drawing, writing, playing an instrument, or something else.
• Make leisure time a priority – Do things for no other reason than that it feels good to do them like going to a funny movie, taking a walk on the beach, listening to music, reading a good book, or talking to a friend. Doing things just because they are fun is no indulgence.
The conclusion –
Good emotional health fosters resilience, self-awareness, and overall contentment in life. Having good emotional health doesn’t mean you’re always happy or free from negative emotions. It’s about having the skills and resources to manage the ups and downs of day-to-day life.
Author: Doctor Pran Rangan
I am a physician with an expertise in writing articles on health related topics. My areas of special interest are cardiology, diabetes and exercise and fitness. I also write articles on spirituality.
