Emotional Wellness And How To Achieve It.

There is a pyramid of emotions that affect the emotional wellness of, not just us, but everyone close to us, right down to the family pet. For example, your spouse comes home and is sharp or mean to you, you then lose patience with your child, your child acts out towards the family pet, and the family pet is left confused and hurt. Both good feeling and bad feeling emotions trickle all the way down to the family pet. ( click here for more tips)

Anxiety is one of the most common mental illnesses. We all know someone with anxiety, and we all have experienced various levels of anxiety in our lives. Full disclosure, I have been on Celexa since 1998.

At the time that I am writing this post, many of us are going through all sorts of emotions, like anxiety and depression just to name a few. (Click here to learn more about the different types of anxiety, symptoms, and treatment options)

Emotional wellness and how to achieve it

- Emotional Wellness

I believe Emotional Wellness is the ability to cope with life and build satisfying relationships with others. I also believe the following..

A definition of Emotional Wellness as written by https://shcs.ucdavis.edu/: “Emotional wellness inspires self-care, relaxation, stress reduction and the development of inner strength. It is important to be attentive to both positive and negative feelings and be able to understand how to handle these emotions. … It is an important part of overall wellness “

- Allow yourself to feel

Accept all of your emotions. Laugh, cry, feel the anger, and feel the fear. We need to feel the negative emotions in order to truly let them go. Pushing them down will only lead to physical, mental and emotional issues. To be able to laugh at ourselves is associated with elevated mood, cheerful personality, and a sense of humor. In turn, having a sense of humor helps us cope better with our troubles and downs.

- Breath

When feeling stressed, anxious, angry or scared… take a full minute to just breath. “Be mindful of your breathing”. Inhale slowly and deeply from the belly. Think of filling your belly first, then your lungs. On the exhale, imagine slowly emptying your lungs first, and then your belly. I promise you will feel calmer.

Extra tips

1. Stay positive. Feel your emotions, but don’t wallow in the bad ones. Dust yourself off, stand/sit tall, lift that chin up, and feel the difference in your body.
2. Smile even if you don’t feel like it. Soon enough, it will be a real one. Your mind doesn’t know the difference between a fake smile or a real one. And so it will believe you are happy and start sending all those “happy feels” hormones throughout your body.
3. Check in on your close friend or family member. Asks of kindness towards others will come back to you the form of emotional wellness. It feels good.
4. Start and end your day by thinking of 3 or 5 things your are grateful for.
5. Practice daily wellness in all 7 aspects of wellness. (read here to know more)

Yours in wellness ~ Nancy Shimmy

Blogger / Educator / Essentrics Instructor A Mom, a wife, a friend. A person who tries to see life through the eyes of her inner child. I have passion for life, for family, for learning, and for healing through movement. Finding happiness, health and success through authenticity and simplicity.

Originally published at https://nancyshimmy.com on April 7, 2020.