Throughout life, you will experience various stressors. Life stressors can be exciting and meaningful, like celebrating a newborn baby, or devastating and debilitating, like grieving the loss of a loved one. While stress is a normal part of life, how you handle it can have a profound impact on your well-being. Your emotional wellness plays a vital role in the way you handle all the things and stressors that life throws at you.
What Is Emotional Wellness?
According to an article from the National Institute of Health (NIH), emotional wellness is your ability to handle and adapt to life stressors. As noted in an article from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), emotional wellness is an important part of your overall health. Everyone has emotional wellness, but different levels of coping abilities influence how you think, act, and feel. Therefore, high emotional wellness means you are able to utilize healthy coping strategies to process and adapt to stressors. On the other hand, low emotional wellness means you may have difficulties handling and adapting to stress.
Moreover, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states, difficulties coping with stress can lead to negative health outcomes including:
- Mental health disorders
- Anger
- Difficulty concentrating
- Headaches
- Sleep issues
- Chronic health issues
- Substance use
Physical and Psychological Benefits
According to an article from the BMJ: British Medical Journal, emotional distress can increase the chances of physical illness and poorer health overall. Thus, difficulties managing stress can be linked to things like cardiovascular disease and more frequent colds. In addition, low emotional wellness can lead to unhealthy coping strategies when dealing with stress, from substance use to unbalanced nutrition. However, increasing your emotional wellness can support improved physical and psychological health.
With improved emotional wellness, physical symptoms of distress, chronic illness decrease, and premature mortality rate decrease. In addition, when you develop constructive coping skills, you learn how to make healthier life choices that support your mental and emotional recovery.
Strategies for Building Emotional Wellness
There is a variety of ways in which you can build wellness in your daily life, including basic self-care practices like eating balanced meals. Furthermore, as noted in the NIH article, there are six strategies you can incorporate into your life to support your wellness:a
- Reduce stress
- Build resiliency
- Adaptive coping
- Quality sleep
- Be mindful
- Strong social connections
Moreover, building emotional wellness can be an empowering tool in recovery as you learn how to manage daily stressors to support long-term well-being.
Building Emotional Wellness at the Guest House
At The Guest House, we know how long-term exposure to stressful situations can take its toll on your physical and psychological health. The distress you feel in your daily life is your mind and body’s attempt to grapple with trauma. Therefore, your distress can lead to self-defeating or self-destructive behaviors that impede your ability to lead a fulfilling life. With a wide range of therapeutic and holistic approaches to care, here at The Guest House, we are dedicated to guiding you as you discover the roots of your trauma to support long-term healing.
Low emotional wellness can negatively influence how you think, act, and feel. However, engaging in things like self-care and mindfulness can improve your wellness. With improved emotional wellness, you can build constructive coping skills and decrease chronic illnesses. Moreover, at The Guest House, we know trauma and chronic stress can lower your emotional wellness. Therefore, we believe in treating the whole person in mind, body, and spirit to get to the core of your trauma. To learn more (855) 483-7800.