‘Tola Oladiji: 6 Simple Habits To Improve Your Emotional Health

A lot of people are guilty of paying attention to only their physical health while neglecting their psychological and emotional wellbeing. This is almost surprising, especially when we consider that our emotions also affect our physical health. For example, a heartbreak may show up physically as a pain in the chest and anxiety may manifest as an upset stomach.

My point is: your emotions also contribute massively to your health and while you practice all your dieting and healthy living, please pay attention to your emotional health.

Here are six simple habits you can practice every day to improve your emotional health:

Practice Optimism

Optimism isn’t about denying reality and embracing false hope. On the contrary, it means understanding that even though bad situations and events may happen to you, they are not permanent. This understanding helps you not to define your reality by them. You should learn how to reappraise situations from a different perspective. It helps to ask yourself “how can I think about this situation differently?” You would be surprised to find out that the job loss you are brooding about is really extra time on your hands to start that business you’ve always wanted to start.

Take Responsibility For Your Happiness

When you relinquish the responsibility for your happiness to other people, you give them more power than they should have. The reality is that no one is responsible for your ultimate happiness. When you understand this, you free yourself to remain in control of how you feel, regardless of their actions and inactions.

Manage Your Expectations Of People’s Behavior 

Another reason we struggle with our emotional health is that we have unrealistic expectations of other people’s behavior towards us. For some reason, we fall into the trap of thinking that people who have always treated us badly in the past will treat us differently in the future. When this doesn’t happen, we get disappointed again and again. You should understand some people may never treat you right, accept that reality about them and choose not to hold resentment in your heart.

This may be a particularly difficult pill to swallow when it’s not a relationship you can easily get out of – like your parents or a work supervisor, but when you accept that their behavior for you may never change, you will be free to move on past those events and not be tied to them.

 Accept Your Mistakes 

You are always going to make mistakes. That’s right. The important thing is to stop your self-criticism and learn from them. Often times, we dwell on our past mistakes – like failed relationships or businesses – and choose to brood over them till they consume our thoughts with “what if” and “if only”. That’s a sure recipe for unhealthy emotions. The key, instead, is to accept that we made certain mistakes but choose not to be permanently damaged by them. That means that you show kindness and understanding to yourself, decide to let go of past hurts so you can focus on a bright future.

Accept Support From Other People 

It’s important that you realize that nobody is an island… and that includes you! Social connections are very vital in navigating negative life situations, so you should learn how to trust those around you to support you when you need it. It’s not a sign of weakness to need help, instead, it takes great strength of character to pick up your phone and send a text to your friends to come hang with you while you go through your difficult moments.

Learn How To Manage Stress 

Stress can be draining on your emotional health. From crushing deadlines at work to difficult times within your home, any stressful period can negatively affect you. That’s why you should find out what stress relief mechanism works for you as a person. It could be exercising at the gym, going for a walk or even watching funny videos on Instagram. Whatever yours is, just make sure you include it in your schedule and actually do it.

It may not be easy for you to start doing this, especially if you have become accustomed to doing the opposite all your life. But as you start to practice these things every day, you can build a lifestyle that is healthy and encouraging for your emotional health.

Live well.