It’s important to take care of your emotional health

Have you let your emotions take over you? It happens to the best of us. Life is full of challenges that can threaten our security and well-being. Emotions are powerful motivator, but they can be debilitating at times if you let them. Love can move mountains, so to speak, but fear can be paralyzing.

The good news is that we own our emotions and so, therefore, we can control them. That’s easier said than done, you might say, but it’s simply a matter of awareness and understanding your own emotions and what triggers them. Emotionally healthy people are in control of their thoughts and feeling as well as their behaviors. They feel good about themselves regardless of what others might think. They have healthy supporting relationships. They are not immune to problems associated with living, but they keep their problems in perspective and learn many ways to cope with the challenge.

You can’t avoid problems, but you can learn coping mechanisms that can help you handle your emotions. The American Academy of Family Physicians offers these tips on dealing with your emotions:

• Learn to express your feelings in appropriate ways. It’s important to let people close to you know when something is bothering you. Keeping feelings of sadness or anger inside takes extra energy. It can also cause problems in your personal and work relationships.

• Think before you act. Emotions can be powerful. But before you get carried away by your emotions and say or do something you might regret, give yourself time to think.

Take ten slow deep breaths or go for a quite walk.

• Strive for balance in your life. Make time for things you enjoy. Focus on positive things in your life. The more you put your attention to joyful existence, the more you attract the same joyful experiences.

• Take care of your physical health. Your physical health can affect your emotional health. It’s rather difficult to be joyful when you are not feeling well.

• Learn to love and forgive yourself. You can’t begin to fully love and forgive others if you don’t accept yourself and your shortcomings.

Emotions of anger, hate and fear for example can be viewed upon as action signals alerting you that there is a part in your being that needs attention. Be aware of what makes you angry and why. Anger is a signal that one of your deepest values had been violated. Anger can progress to a stronger emotion of hate if your anger is not understood and resolved.

Fear is simply a signal that there is something coming, and you need to prepare yourself. So instead of being fearful of a job interview or a test for example, do your best to prepare for it. And when you do, you will feel more confident and ready to take it on. Rather than focusing on the fear of the interview, be thankful of the opportunity to interview. Celebrate successes, big and small.

High and conflicting emotions can put your body under stress. Stress causes your body to produce stress hormones. Sometimes these stress hormones do you good, such as when you need to move quickly to avoid a falling rock, but sustained high level of stress hormones ultimately wear you down.

Sustaining a rapid heart rate, high blood pressure, rapid shallow breathing is pretty tiring for your human body. Stress can cause health problems or make health problems worse. People who are under stress a lot are often emotional, anxious, irritable, or depressed and may experience physical symptoms such as headaches and nausea.

The experts advise that changing the situation that is causing your stress is best, if possible. If it’s not possible to change the situation, accept what is. Fighting what is will only guarantee failure 100% of the time.

Relaxation methods such as deep breathing and meditation have proven to slow down the production of stress hormones. And don’t forget regular exercise. The happy hormones that your body produces with exercise will counteract the effects of stress hormones. Essentially, flooding your body with happy hormones will help you maintain emotional health.

Additionally, find something in your life that you can be grateful about. Living a state of gratefulness is the simplest antidote to stress.

Lastly, choose healthy meals that will support your health from the inside.