What is emotional health?

Emotional health is one aspect of mental health. It is your ability to cope with both positive and negative emotions, which includes your awareness of them.

Emotionally healthy people people have good coping mechanisms for negative emotions, and they also know when to reach out for a professional help.

How do you know you’re struggling with emotional health?

Some warning signs of emotional health in need of care include:

• Isolating yourself from friends, family and coworkers
• Lower energy than usual
• Sleeping too much or too little
• Eating too much or too little
• Increased use of substances
• Racing thoughts

Tips to improve your emotional wellbeing

• Strive for balance: Find a healthy balance between work and play, and between activity and rest. Make time for things you enjoy. Focus on positive things in your life
• Manage stress: Learn methods to cope with stress. These include deep breathing, Meditation and exercise
• Watch how you talk about yourself: Negative self-talk can become a self-fulfilling prophecy or just put you in a negative mindset. Work on creating a positive image of yourself with your words.
• Meditate: Meditation helps you to notice your thoughts and emotions which is key to emotional wellness

• Set goals and celebrate your achievements: Give yourself something to strive for and celebrate your accomplishments to build self-esteem and positive feelings about yourself
• Exercise: Staying physically active for atleast 30mins a day can help to improve your overall emotional health. The exercise doesn’t need to be overly tough or intense. Just going for a walk or dancing around your house can help
• Get enough sleep: Studies show that lack of sleep lessens your ability to sense the emotions of others and your ability to process emotions in general
• Know when to reach for help: You don’t have to handle negative emotions on your own. Knowing when to reach out to a mental health professional for help with difficult emotions is a useful skill to have. You should also reach out to one if you have tried to improve your emotional health but still not feeling your best.

Beauty Oyibo is a Certified Health Coach and the Lead Health Coach at Ariella Health and Fitness Ltd, Africa’s First Digital Lifestyle Medicine Practice.