Health and Emotional Well Being Checkup

Emotions are always a part of us, and affect how we think, feel, and act in various situations.

Give yourself a periodic emotional health checkup

What is in this article?

• · emotions and moods
• · boost your emotional well being
• · suppressed feelings
• · emotions for modern day man and cave man 
• · when to go for professional counseling
• · risk factors and mental health
• · you, yourself, and others

He sweeps her up in the air, grabbing her waist, and lifting her just above his head. They lock eyes as they spin around together and smile broadly . Laughter fills the air and even people who don’t know them can feel this couple’s happy moment.

The Power of Emotions

Emotions are somewhat universal, but not totally, as there are differences among cultures and countries. You can look the definition of emotions up in the dictionary, although it is difficult to define. There are theories about emotions, but not one that is agreed upon by all professionals. Yet, we have an innate ability to read, feel, understand, and sometimes predict the emotions of people we observe. We feel our emotions inside us, sometimes welling up to the point they overpower our very being. We can read the facial features or physical gestures of others and know what they are feeling. And when people express their emotions, it evokes a feeling in us. Emotions are elusive to define, but powerful enough to affect our thoughts, behavior and even our health and well being.

Emotions have a tremendous impact on our health, quality of life, relationships, work life, and our productivity. All these aspects of our lives, in addition to how we feel about ourselves, our mood, our experiences, and the challenges and opportunities we are facing affect us in many ways. With these aspects come joys and stresses. Stress can cause an emotional imbalance and lead to a deteriorating lifestyle. A balanced self can also create emotional well being – and where there is stress – a healthy mind and body can handle life’s difficulties in constructive ways. From life’s difficulties and life’s pleasures, joys can be amplified and egos can be strengthened. A balanced emotional self can grow from all experiences. Stress, anger, anxiety, and a myriad of other emotions , we feel them everyday, and see them on everyone around us.

Emotions are part of our daily experience. Our experiences from the moment we are born are imbedded in us. From then, till now, and forever forward our experiences affect our emotional well being.

Emotions and Evolutionary Survival

Emotions are part of our everyday life and contribute to how we think, feel and behave. Ever wonder why you react one way, and someone else reacts entirely different? There are major differences in the way we show our feelings. We express our emotions under different conditions, and with different people. Emotions are really an evolutionary adaptive reaction to survive under various situations. Each emotion is designed to help us with the circumstances we find ourselves in. In prehistoric times, when a wild animal was chasing a cave man, it was the one who was able to react and run away to safety that survived. His emotions gave him the “flight or fight” response, and because he survived, it is his genes that passed through the test of time. The ability to respond to life’s threatening situations gave an obvious advantage over those who did not react properly. To gain a mate, different emotions were and still are needed to socialize and again gave rise to survival advantages. These genes too were passed through time. Modern day man still has these and other hard wired emotions.

Emotions are temporary. Moods are for a more persistent period of time and emotional well being is an overall state of our mental health. People who are emotionally healthy are able to balance life’s challenges and bounce back from adversities. They live satisfying and fulfilling lives and have a strong support network and healthy relationships with others. emotional health doesn’t just happen automatically. Life knocks us around a lot. So just like a car needs a tune up, so does your emotional health. Just like you go to the doctor for a healthy body, your mental state needs a periodic checkup by you. It is a good thing to help yourself build resilience, boost your mood and do things that bring you pleasure.

Emotional Health Checkup

Your psychological well being tends to need attention from time to time, even though we may take our health, physically and emotionally for granted. To give yourself an emotional checkup and some tender loving care when things are bad and when things are good. Ask yourself how you feel about yourself. And your answer, whatever it is, is OKAYAY There is no wrong answer. Evaluate the quality of your relationships. It is healthy to have loving, nurturing, and emotionally fulfilling relationships. And if you are not, it is okay, because your checkup is telling you this is an area to work towards. It is unhealthy to be in abusive, controlling or unsatisfying relationships. Evaluating this is important for your emotional well being, and know that you can do something about it, to make things better and happier for yourself. Monitor your ability to handle your feeling and think about how you deal with challenges and difficulties.

People who have boosted their emotional well being enjoy better moods, greater pleasure from life, and better health in all ways. Laughing, having fun, enjoying the company of others, feeling satisfied with who you are and how you spend your time, who you spend it with, and how you feel about yourself, stimulation from life, the ability to handle stress, resiliency, a purposefulness to what you do, meaningful relationships, an ability to adapt to changes, a healthy balance between work and relaxation, being well rested, having a good self image, and a feeling of confidence, hopefulness and optimism are just some of the benefits of good mental health. Bad times happen, good times happen. Emotional reactions reflect our environment and our experiences. It is great to feel happy, but sometimes we feel angry. Anger, sadness, anxiousness, and other negative emotions are part of being human. Allow yourself to feel human. Emotional well being means, when life throws stuff at you, work with it. Don’t deny your feelings. Suppressing feelings means putting them away where you can’t find them, and when they pop up unexpectedly, you probably won’t be ready to handle them. So deal with your feelings gently and accepting them for what they are trying to tell you. If emotions are hard wired, then they are trying to warn you about something you probably need protection from. Negative feelings are okay, but when they become prolonged or affect work, relationships, daily tasks, sleeping , eating habits, and other behavior, you may need someone to turn to for help. Professional therapists and online mental health counselors, friends, clergy, relatives, and other trusted people are all good as a support network.

Invest in Yourself

The best investment you can make in yourself is an emotional well being checkup. Evaluate your habits, and encourage self reliance, nurturing relationships, and taking care of yourself.

It is very important to get enough sleep, eat nutritiously, exercise, and give up cigarettes, drugs, and alcohol overuse. Poor health habits will adversely affect you, your mental health and your ability to deal with stress. Good health habits will reward you with resiliency, a balanced self, and more satisfaction from all situations. Make things good for yourself. Give yourself an emotional checkup on a regular basis. Start today, and see the good that happens.