Written by Dr. Sanjana V.B Bhms,dbrm,cdn

Founder & medical director of siahmsr wellness.in

All rights reserved with siahmsr digital healthcare[siahmsr wellness]

Reviewed by SIAHMSR medical team

    What is emotional wellness or well-being?

  Of late emotional wellness or well-being is a popularly discussed topic in every sector of life ranging from household to work environment. Let us have a glance at the significance of emotional wellness in your day-to-day life and discuss methods to achieve it in the simplest ways.

Emotional wellness is the ability to manage and process emotions, cope with life's challenges, and maintain positive relationships. It also means in harmony with your thoughts, feelings, and behaviours.

 Emotional wellness is crucial for bouncing back from challenges and difficulties arising in your life. We can call this potential as resilience.

In short, your ability to cope with stress depends on your emotional wellness.  It is your ability to face stress, challenges and adapt well with it.

Importance of emotional wellness

   Life is a roller coaster with multiple challenges that are confronting you on various phases of life. Chronic stress resulting from these is detrimental to your mental as well as physical health.

Stress can make you vulnerable to many serious health issues such as hypertension, lowered immunity and infections, cardiovascular and lung diseases, autoimmune diseases, relationship problems, hormonal disorders etc. The list never ends and new diseases are being added to it with stress a main causative factor.

Emotional wellness can help you get over all the crises and challenges in life. It can fill your life with happiness and sense of fulfilment. An emotionally well person may be able to process a problem and face it with courage, balance and later move forward in life with a new goal and confidence bouncing back from all hardships.

   The emotional well-being is significant in this digital era of technology, social media & flood of information Also. Nowadays the number of people- ranging from adolescent children to old -failing to cope with challenges and hardships on the path of life is exceeding beyond our imagination. The spike in mental & physical disorders stemming from emotional causes has persuaded the health and wellness providers as well as common men to think in the line of emotional well-being for all. Social media bullying is one of the emerging causes for these untoward incidents.

    Some medical reasons also are accountable for the lack of emotional well-being. Some hormonal disorders such as thyroid and polycystic ovarian syndrome and hormonal imbalances in females may lead to emotional instability and depression. Therefore, beyond its psychosocial realms medical causes also need to be identified and addressed.

How can you improve your emotional wellness?

This journey towards  attainment of emotional well-being is a gradually evolving process  in the life of a person since childhood under favourable circumstances. But those who face adverse environment during formative years of life may not be able to cope with challenges in life. Similarly traumatic incidents and chronic stress can make a person emotionally unstable post that. 

To foster emotional wellness, we have many methods. Some of them are discussed here:

·      Adopt healthy lifestyle &habits.

Eat healthy balanced diet. Your mental health is determined by the food you eat to a great extent. Your brain and body systems require many nutrients such as vitamins, amino acids and a few crucial minerals for proper functioning of neuro transmitters or chemical messengers of brain which transmit signals within brain cells. Neurotransmitters such as dopamine& serotonin are vital for your emotional stability, mood and sleep habits.

·      Adopting a good work -life balance

Your run between official and family life often creates instability in emotional sphere as well as in family relations.  Therefore, it is vital to optimize your life with effective planning and prioritization for better work -life balance.

 Emotional wellness can be achieved by these working people through a comprehensive inclusion of healthy lifestyle, mindfulness, relaxation practices and wise planning of daily life. Finding time to spend with family is crucial in fostering emotional wellness .

·       Keep yourself hydrated always

Drink adequate amount of water every day. Make it a habit to drink 2-3 litres of water every day. Water is important to purify your body from various toxins and chemicals reaching your body from multiple sources. A healthy body is vital for healthy mind.  Water is an important component of all body fluids and integral for metabolic functions

·      Adopting good sleep routine

Sleep affects both mental and physical health. Sleeping has to be sound and refreshing and for that you may have to follow some sleep routine before going to sleep. Ensure that you sleep for at least 6-8 hours a day.

Avoid your brain and eyes getting stimulated by the light of mobile or computer screen beginning from a few hours before the bed time. It may reduce the quality of your sleep. Similarly, you can sleep in a room with subtle blue light or darkness created by switching all the lights off. 

 Melatonin is a hormone that your brain produces in response to darkness. It helps with the timing of your circadian rhythms [sleep wake cycle]and with sleep. Getting exposed to light at night can block melatonin production and thus poor sleep.

Do not overeat before going to sleep. Sleep with a half belly. It is advisable that eating your dinner 1-3 hours before going to bed may help to avoid sleep exacerbated diseases such as gastro oesophageal reflux diseases, regurgitation, breathlessness etc.

·      Mindfulness practice for sense of well-being

This ancient practice originated in India centuries ago and it is about being aware of our present moment, what’s happening in the present—of all that’s going on inside and all that’s happening around you.

Mindfulness is a slow-paced journey towards wellness. You can include it as mindful walking, mindful eating as apart of your routine. But make sure that you get sticked to this practice for long.

·      Social connections may foster better emotional wellness.

Surround yourself with positive people.  Scientists are finding that our connections with others can have powerful effects on our health—both emotionally and physically. This may include your family, friends, colleagues, team mates and many more. But ensure that you get connected to positive people and stay away from negativity spreading environment particularly when you feel emotionally unfit.

·      Include mind relaxation techniques in your life forever

You may practice Yoga, meditation and other mind relaxation exercises for better feeling and better life. Many of these processes may help to calm your overactive sympathetic nervous system. Create a happy space inside your mind with yoga, pranayama and meditation for improved sense of wellness.

For further details on these relaxing techniques from SIAHMSR you may follow the link below.

https://siahmsrwellness.in/fitness-yoga/list/mind-relaxation-yoga

·      Include physical activity in your routine.

Physical activity may help your brain very positively making you more active improving your emotional wellbeing.

 Physical exercise is considered as a strong gene modulator that induces structural and functional changes in the brain, and thus impact both cognitive functioning such as thinking, understanding, memorizing etc. and emotional well-being.

According to Harvard health, a study done at the University of British Columbia, researchers found that regular aerobic exercise appears to boost the size of the hippocampus, the brain area involved in verbal memory and learning.

To read more from us on benefits of physical activity click the link below

https://siahmsrwellness.in/physical-exercise-or-work-out-for-mental-wellness-better-cognition

·      Surround yourself with creative things & people

 Spend your time with things and people who stimulate your creativity & are pleasing to you as they fill a zeal of enthusiasm. Find out an important space for creativity in your life. Incorporate hobbies and pursuits to give a boost and happiness to yourself.

·       Set achievable goals in life and work for it

 The moment you get rewarded for your efforts you may feel happy and contented with a boost in your emotional wellness. It is important to choose goals carefully. It should be practiced as different levels of goals and make it achievable. Do not begin with huge tasks which are difficult to achieve. Do not overstrain yourself.

Bullying & emotional wellness – The social dimension

Apart from the healthy lifestyle practices and mind relaxation techniques

emotional wellness has to be read with negative social influence. Humans being a social organism it is difficult to stay away from society. But it is important to disconnect yourself from negativity and unhealthy criticism. Sometimes bullying and belittling with malicious intentions from people around your life may affect your emotional wellness very badly even if you practice all the aforementioned habits & lifestyles. Therefore, I would like to mention some practices beyond the medical and health dimension of emotional wellness.

 Nowadays we come across direct as well as online or mostly social media-based bullying and very unhealthy criticisms. Most of them are without any basis and stemming from the inferiority complexes and jealousy of its creators. But sensitive or rather oversensitive people may feel hurt by that and it may affect their emotional wellness acutely as well as in the long run.

   I put forward this issue here under emotional wellness understanding the magnitude and gravity of the problem as large number of suicidal deaths and depression cases stem from emotional trauma and instability as an after effect. These figures of rising suicidal deaths and depression elucidate the significance of fostering emotional wellness among all age groups particularly adolescents who are more vulnerable to them.

Adopt all healthy lifestyle practices and habits mentioned here as a part of life even for children.

Bullying is an important issue which needs to be addressed separately. SIAHMSR has discussed it already and go through the link below for better understanding and comprehensive solutions for bullying.

 https://siahmsrwellness.in/impact-of-bullying-in-children-adults-how-to-address-it

Tips to foster emotional wellness against negativity and belittling

·       Raise your feeling of self-awareness & self esteem

Understand that you are not the only person facing it. Many well accomplished people in all walks of life have faced it and some have fallen victims to it. Many people have faced them with strong will and bounced back with resilience.

 Encourage yourself to be among those stars who showed resilience and to develop resilience within you embrace emotional wellness as an integral part of your life.

 Know yourself. Your worth, your strengths and weaknesses. Seek the help of supportive community of friends or health professionals whenever you find it is necessary.

·       Set healthy boundaries

You are a unique person with own qualities and potentials. You are not a perfect example of neither virtue nor flaws. You are a human being who learns from the environment which includes human beings, other organisms and the landscape and vegetation.

 Our environment has profound influence in developing our personality. Understand the positive and negative influences which hinder your evolution as a confident, compassionate and emotionally stable person.

 If you surrender yourself to your environment without your desire to do the same, give a long thought to it and analyze what you exactly want to do.  Learn to say no whenever it is necessary.

You need to learn set healthy boundaries to avoid others intervening in your personal choices in a very harmful way which makes you unstable emotionally. You should evolve as a person with self esteem and knowledge to choose the best option for you.

Never allow to equate self-esteem with arrogance or haughtiness which are often painted as your face by the toxic people when you try to raise yourself from emotional traumas.  Avoid negativity. Embrace positivity. No hasty steps in this process of evolution. Learn well about your situation, your needs, seek help from kind hearted positive minded people around you. Gradually be your own friend in the journey towards emotional wellness.

References

1.    https://www.nih.gov/health-information/emotional-wellness-toolkit-more-resources

2.    https://siahmsrwellness.in/pranayama-for-de-stressing#google_vignette

3.    https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/melatonin-what-you-need-to-know

4.    https://siahmsrwellness.in/physical-exercise-or-work-out-for-mental-wellness-better-cognition