Four Tips for Achieving Emotional Wellness

You probably hear a lot of information about the importance of working on your health, but these sources often focus on mental or physical wellbeing. There are actually many more areas of wellness to strive for, with an important one being your emotional health. If you want to prioritize your emotional wellness this year to become a better version of yourself, keep reading for four tips on how to do so!

Consider Your Overall Wellness First

As you think about how you’ll focus on your emotional wellness this season, you first want to remember that emotional health is never isolated—it is connected to other areas of your life. Focusing directly on your emotional wellness without considering other factors (like stressors that impact your emotions, your mind-body connection, your surroundings, and your sleep habits) won’t get you anywhere. Unfortunately, like everything in life, there is no “quick fix” to elevate your emotional health. It relies on a well-balanced lifestyle and healthy habits in multiple areas of your life.

Prioritize Your Emotional Wellness by Maintaining Life Balance

Since emotional wellness has no isolated fix, but instead relies on overall wellness, you should work on maintaining a healthy balance in your life. As you examine each area, you can pay special attention to how it contributes to your emotional wellness. The best way to plan out your life balance is through a wheel of wellness. Think of it like a pie chart where each important life aspect is a slice. This visualization in itself plays an important role when creating your own wellness wheel, because it’s a reminder that every part of life is a piece of the larger whole—your ultimate wellness.

Sections of the wellness wheel include financial, spiritual, intellectual, physical, environmental, social, and emotional wellness. When creating your own wheel, jot down ideas for how you’ll contribute to each area. For instance, joining a gym is an ongoing act of physical wellness, while making plans with friends is a social wellness step. In order to place special emphasis on your emotional wellness, keep in mind how the actions you do and do not take impact your emotions. Make note of situations that have a negative effect on you, as well as those that pour into your mental wellbeing and lift your spirits.

Work On Your Gratitude

As your total wellness improves, you can place special emphasis on your emotional wellness. A large part of the way you feel comes down to your mindset, and the way you approach each day. Remember that while feelings are always important to consider, you can influence your emotional wellness in healthy ways through intentionality. Bad situations will always arise and things will go wrong—these are factors out of your control. What you do possess ownership of is the way you respond to situations. 

When you feel yourself sinking under negativity and despair, remind yourself of all that you’re grateful for. You probably won’t be able to make it even halfway through the list before you realize all you have to appreciate. You can let gratitude be a conscious decision you make each morning, afternoon, and night. Think of gratitude (and an overall positive mindset) as a practice-able skill, because you can train your mind to think healthier.

Avoid Stress (and Find Healthy Ways to Deal With It)

It’s no secret that stress can negatively affect a person in severe ways. Physical side effects go hand-in-hand with the mental toll of stress, until the problem can start to take over your whole reality. A key part of achieving (and maintaining) emotional wellness is to avoid stress. That job that you know raises your stress levels, or that person who has a damaging impact on your mental health? Seriously think about whether the toll is worth it or if it’s time to make a change. 

Of course, there are always stressful situations you can’t prevent. Life is known to have its share of burdens, and no one is immune. However, if you can’t avoid all stress, it is important for your emotional health that you know of beneficial ways to deal with your feelings. This is one example of how other areas of your wellness wheel tie in—for example, physical movement is known to have an uplifting effect on stress levels. Environmental health can also help, such as cleaning your space or getting out into nature. Find what works best for you and be sure to treat stress from the get-go with healthy practices. 

With these four tips, you can achieve emotional wellness and make 2022 a year full of mindfully prioritizing your wellbeing. Remember that you can’t achieve emotional wellness without also working on a strong life balance, because each part of your wellness relies on other factors. Best of luck prioritizing a healthy you!