Celebrating a New Year of Holistic Health: Emotional Health

Although often overlooked, our emotional health pillar is crucial to take care of, because it can impact our physical and nutritional health as well. The ups and downs we experience can take us on an emotional rollercoaster, but if we are better in tune with these emotions, it may make the ride much less bumpy.

Read about last week's holistic blog on managing your nutritional health. 

Over the past few years, mental and emotional health has become much less stigmatized, and therefore, people are talking about their feelings and state of mind more. There’s no better time to check in on your emotional health. Here’s how you can make it a priority.

What is Emotional Health?

Our emotional health pillar encompasses how we feel, understand those feelings, and convey them to others. Having strong emotional health means we not only know how to express emotions in a healthy way but also means that we’re able to handle challenging emotions when they arise. The state of your emotional health can both positively or negatively affect your relationships with yourself and others.

This pillar also involves our mental health and the processes our brains go through. Our mental health can affect how we think, feel, and act. It can also make an impact on how we handle stressful situations, how we relate to others, and the choices we make. It’s important to note here that just because someone is suffering from poor mental health doesn’t necessarily mean they are suffering from a diagnosed mental illness.

Healthy Habits to Impact Emotional Health, Holistically

Be Nicer to Yourself

Whether we admit it or not, we all talk to ourselves, but how we talk to ourselves can make a major impact. Think of it as the inner dialogue with ourselves. Positive self-talk may be uplifting to one’s mood and can improve both your mental and emotional health. Contrastingly, negative self-talk can contribute to anxiety and depression. Shifting our inner dialogue from negative to positive takes practice, but can make a major impact on your mindset.

Increase Mindfulness

Mindfulness is the practice of living in the present moment. It can teach us to slow down and “roll with the punches.” Consistently practicing mindfulness will help you to become more in tune with your emotions and reduce stress levels. and become more in tune with your emotions. One easy way to practice is to pause and go through the five senses. What are you touching? What are you smelling? Seeing? Hearing? Tasting?

Practice Gratitude

Starting a gratitude practice or journal can help change your perspective to focus on the good things in life. Journaling is a great way to process your feelings and emotions, especially if you feel that you have difficulty expressing them to others. It’s also an excellent way to measure your progress or growth. For particularly emotional time periods, consider using our Transition Natural Elixir to help take the edge off the emotions that come along with tougher life events. Try wearing it as a fragrance on your pulse points, or applying a few drops on your air conditioning filter to scent your home.

Seek Therapy

Sometimes life can throw things our way that are too difficult to process on our own. When your emotions or mental health gets to be too much to handle, that’s when a professional should be sought. out. There are numerous types of therapy available, besides traditional therapy, so try to find a form that works for you. For instance, group therapy is an alternative way to help you cope and find perspective. Finding a therapist that clicks with you may take some work, but don’t get discouraged. You deserve to have someone you are comfortable with when sharing your most private thoughts.

What are your favorite ways to take care of your emotional health? Let us know in the comments! And stay tuned to next week’s holistic health pillar, social health!