Have you ever heard that “everything is connected”, well think about that with emotional wellness and your overall lifestyle.
our emotions can be seen in every part of our life and these emotions express how we may feel about ourselves and the world around us.
Emotional wellness is essential because our emotions give us insight into how we feel on the inside and how we feel about our outside environment. Our emotions are a guide for us to make the next decision, the next thought, a new perception, or a new focus in life.
Our emotions are a major determinant factor of our well-being. So creating improved emotional wellness all comes down to how you feel about yourself and the life you are living.
Your journey to emotional wellness will be a journey full of learning, growth, and understanding where you grow into the person you were meant to become creating your own reflection of confidence, success, joy, growth, and overall healthy lifestyle.
Here are 9 ways to create emotional wellness in your life
Become aware of your emotions
Becoming aware of your emotions is the most essential step to emotional well-being.
This is because to make change within anything we have to be aware of what it is.
This awareness guides us in developing the next step to improve our emotional wellness.
To start becoming aware of your emotions you need to shift your focus towards yourself and observe your actions and reactions. This is something that can also take time but the more you practice the more it will be easier for you.
This is the start of you becoming the scientist in your life. And as you take on the practice you will recognize things you never saw before being able to have elevated insight on yourself and others around you.
Becoming aware of your emotions requires you to look at yourself as the observer and pay attention to your actions, thoughts, emotions, and reactions. The more you practice being the observer in your life, the more you will unconsciously observe yourself being able to see what things need to be healed within yourself.
Accept emotional challenges
As you become aware of these emotional reactions, actions, and thoughts you might see yourself going through phases of regret and hurt.
This is because you get to see how you truly feel on a deeper level instead of masking it.
It’s ok to feel this way for a little while (but not super long) because for you to make elevated changes you need to understand the feelings or hurt that may have been caused.
Acceptance is one of the hardest stages to go through because it feels like you are getting hit with everything at once and you may not know how to process it all.
Learning to accept your emotional challenges does not mean you say “ok, I know how I feel- I’m good now” The beauty in life is understanding that there is a process to everything, and healing yourself is a lifelong process.
Acceptance is only created when you want to change or elevate yourself to a better life.
There are no exact steps I can tell you to take to create acceptance for yourself because that is determined by everything involving you from your perspective, environment, habits, goals, and overall lifestyle.
You will become aware and accept at your own pace, no one can tell you how or when. But understand when you are ready in all areas (physically, mentally, socially, etc) you will start to see and act differently according to your emotional wellness goals.
Get to the root of your emotional difficulties
Getting to the root of things provides the time and space for you to investigate the source from the beginning.
During this stage, you create the opportunity to understand the things you might not have understood before.
Finding the source may mean asking yourself questions as you dive into your past events. It may also mean asking family (mom/dad.grandma/grandpa) questions about their life and why they are the way they are.
A lot of times our emotional challenges can be passed down generations creating a misunderstanding in behaviors because we don’t realize where it truly came from.
Questions to help with releasing
- What from your past hurts you & why?
- Do you feel like this past event determines your true authentic self & why?
- What from your present makes you smile or happy & why?
- Do you feel like this present event determines your true authentic self & why?
This is about releasing your pain, hurt, or trauma and breaking those chains that have been holding you down. If you are reading this right now, then most likely your emotional challenges have been putting a toll on you.
I also recommend you sign up for the email list to get a FREE guide to emotional wellness that breaks down the understanding of emotions and guided steps to start your emotional wellness journey. Also, I send weekly emails with content to help you on your Emotional Wellness journey.
Create a personalized wellness plan
Creating your own wellness plan that benefits your emotional wellness is very fun and exciting.
Take your time and think about your wellness goals. This part requires you to be a little selfish and not think about other opinions.
Remember this is your wellness and healing journey, and in order to help others you have to help yourself first.
But before you start to create a plan, look at these 5 other ways to gain emotional wellness to help you start creating and personalizing your plan.
Write out activities that help you connect with your emotions
- Writing out your thoughts
- Reading from your journal
- Talking with someone about how you feel
- Do something you love and reflect on it
- Draw or create something that reflects how you feel
Set boundaries for yourself
Setting boundaries for yourself is very important as you start your emotional wellness journey. Think about things you will or will not do that align with your wellness goals. Take some time alone to think about the boundaries you want to set for yourself.
- What is something you do that doesn’t align with your emotional wellness goals?
- What is something you already do that does align with your emotional wellness goals?
- What is something you would like to do more of that aligns with your emotional wellness goals?
Learn more about emotional wellness
Our emotions mean more than we know. Deciding to learn about your own emotions and others around you helps you gain a better understanding of them. You start to learn all the different emotions that we all express and why. Start by observing your own emotions on a daily basis and how they potentially affect your day. Write a reflection at the end of the day and do research as well.
Take a look at the emotions wheel below to see a glimpse of all the different emotions we can express and feel
Practice a breathing exercise
I say a breathing exercise because breathing is what keeps your body calm and relaxed. And if you create a calming breathing exercise specifically for your emotional wellness, it will give a sense of reflecting, understanding, meaning, calmness, and positive reactions.
This is a part of creating emotional wellness in your life. You can find one by looking up “breathing exercises to help with emotional release” (wellness, healing, growth, etc.)
*If you want something simple to start with: Take 3-5 deep breaths holding your breath for 5 seconds before releasing with a deep blow to let all of the tension out.
Create a meal plan that aligns with your emotional wellness goals
Your diet plays a huge role in your overall health (even emotions).
What you eat produces chemicals in your body, whether good or bad that can affect how you feel, what you think, and the next action you take. As you see food has a huge impact on your life. Start eating more foods that benefit your overall health and start seeing changes in how you feel.
Here are some vitamin-rich foods that benefit your emotional well-being
Tip: Don’t try to eliminate so many foods, instead eat more foods that align with your goals and you will automatically start eating less of the ones that don’t.
Iron- supports emotional balance
- Dark leafy greens (spinach, kale, chard)
- Watermelon
- Meat
- Nuts & seeds
Magnesium- helps reduce stress & anxiety
- Nuts & seeds
- Black beans
- Quinoa/ Brown rice/ potato
- Spinach
- banana/ apple/ carrot
B vitamins- reduce feelings of anxiety & depression
- Meat & fish
- Avocado
- Beans & lentils
- Asparagus
- mushrooms
Remember emotional wellness is a journey, not a destination. Every step of the way practice believing in yourself and the person you are working on becoming.
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