Emotional Well-Being

Emotional Well-Being:

The test of emotional well-being is when a human mind adopts a positive disposition in all respects of life and confronts an obstacle with resilience and confidence. The mind is an amalgamation of all positive, negative, and neutral experiences that are accumulated over a period of time. They are definitely stronger than our conviction and demand a lot of energy, consciousness, and courage to change into something positive, bright, and joyful.

What changed over generations?

Gone are the days when families stood strong behind people, as institutions of mental health and well-being. They taught good-bad, right-wrong, what is safe and unsafe, etc. The children and grandchildren adhered to the instructions and advice received from their elders who endured rich life experiences. Religious scriptures, sense of faith in a higher power were instilled from childhood, which in a way provided psychological support and avoided the feelings of loneliness and abandonment at times of difficulty. There were people around who empathized and provided all forms of support.

People did suffer from mental health issues back in the day but the intensity and frequency have considerably increased over the decades.

Gradually with the changing times and advent of evolutionary ideas from across the world, people started believing less and exploring more. This exploration was based on biased sources like the internet than first-hand information from books, scriptures, or scientific journals. Those who explored by logic and research enjoyed fruitful results along with a sense of freedom from others' guardship. At the same time, many others chose to rebel without actual thought into their belief system. This slowly glorified into personalities which became a hard nut to crack and fostered egos instead of knowledge. People started attributing their failures more to situations than their inability to cope up. These attributes are directly carried forward to their progenies. While situations are common to everyone, the way we react and act is highly personal. No one is an exception and every form of life on earth is confronted with challenges in its own respect (on how to face challenges – refer to life skills page on this website).

The size of families reduced, sources became scarce, and competition high. A massive shift in circumstances took place which compelled people to become either aggressive or crafty in order to progress in life. High competition, exposure, many choices, less awareness, lack of guidance, shortfall of financial resources, and many other factors led to drastic change towards the downside in the mental health of the population.

What hinders emotional well-being?

A childhood governed by either sheltered, too critical, or unconscious parenting.
Traumatic life incidents washed under the rug or dealt with, by self, without guidance from external sources.
Lack of trust in people and practices; either traditional or modern approaches that safeguard emotional health (like resistance to seeking therapy, counseling, or adopting healthy practices like an exercise regimen, yoga, meditation, etc.)
Magnification of issues, withdrawal to emotional solitude, and lack of awareness
Carrying toxic relationships; avoiding good and positive relationships
Lack of confrontation by people, cocooning self in comfort zones.
Presence of cognitive distortions like entitlement, over-generalization, blame-game, minimization, and many others.
Lack of self – introspection.
Choosing poor examples from others' bad experiences.
An unhealthy lifestyle - lack of good diet with nutrition, sufficient sleep, exercise, substance abuse, etc.
Lack of awareness about the importance of mental health.
Reluctance to seek emotional help when required.

Do the groundwork:

Imbibe a constant and relentless aspiration to be happy and joyful.
Converge your efforts towards building up an inner core strength that will best support you at all times.
Try handling both joyful and not so joyful moments with grace.
Trust the power of the universe and creation.
Enrich your cognition by constantly upgrading it with knowledge from different life experiences, rather than attributing negative biases to them.
Avoid looking at the world and situations in black and white and look at the brighter side.
Practice mindfulness, spend every moment consciously.
Build up a healthy perception of life around you.
Regulate the cognitive triad of feeling -> thought -> behavior. Do not let every feeling translate into behavior, without proper incubation of thought.
Control impulses and temptations in all respects.

Ways to be emotionally healthy

Be physically active - slumber, feelings of solitude, apathy, mood swings, lack of enthusiasm to live through the day, etc., are indicators of a possible depressed mind. Physical exercise releases endorphins in the brain which in turn regulate the pain receptors in the body keeping a happy state of mind. It also stimulates the release of dopamine and serotonin which regulate mood and curtail emotional turbulences.
Develop hobbies and routines that do not demand equipment or people - Examples are yoga, painting, sewing, carpentry, sculpting, pottery, content writing, poetry, gardening, etc. This helps us live happily even when we have to stay alone for purposes of education or career.
Develop hobbies that involve people like sports, marathons, indoor games, etc. - These help in dealing with anxiety and panic attacks which essentially are outcomes of a socially withdrawn lifestyle.
Give more – getting to know another side of the coin is important and makes the brain reduce the gravity of the situation. Doing charity or social work helps us realize the blessings and look forward to betterment than regress to undesired perspectives.
Practice proper breathing- Breathing exercises are highly important for good physical and mental health. As many as ninety percent of the health hazards can be avoided when you adapt a full-fledged breathing regime. Breathing enables the complete absorption of oxygen into blood cells. When we do not breathe properly the carbon-di-oxide is not expelled from the body and blood doesn’t get to carry full oxygen to send to organs.
Learn a new skill that is either relevant to your present career or which brings joy
Do something that you always wanted to do but didn’t find time to.
Choose relationships consciously and ensure they support mutual growth. Avoid conversations that flare up emotional stress.

Pick up that tracksuit and run, let the colorful watercolors make their way to canvas, take out that sewing machine from the attic and sew your torn dress, join a gym or yoga session, practice meditation, read a story, write a poem, watch a movie and have a coffee with that good friend.

Life is not mere living by days or years, it is a beautiful journey. Joy lies not only in happy moments but also in picking up shattered pieces and continuing to live with a robust personality. It is for us to choose whether to regret the happenings as occurrences of fate or cherish the moments both good and bad and to leave some hearty lessons for our kids to pick up.

AMBROSIA