Emotional Well-being: How Can It Be Improved?

Emotional well-being helps us better manage our emotions in stressful situations. Often we humans tend to focus on physical health, but at the same time, and in order to better respond to challenging situations, we forget the importance of maintaining emotional balance.

According to some experts who have written on the subject, emotional well-being is “ responsible management of emotions, thoughts, and behavior ”. This definition means the ability to recognize everything we know and think, give them a name, accept them, and integrate them into our lives.

People with balanced mental health have the ability to manage their emotions convincingly. They also have good self-esteem and maintain balanced and healthy relationships. In contrast, imbalances on an emotional level can lead to a variety of disorders, such as anxiety disorders or depression, as some studies have shown.

This happens because reactions to grief, anxiety, anger, or depression reach a high intensity that persists over time and causes changes in human behavior. This in turn makes us forget many healthy habits, which in turn increases the risk of addictive behavior or jeopardizes our well-being on a physical level as well. But then how could we improve our own mental balance and emotional well-being?

Emotional well-being and its development

According to a publication by the Instituto Superior de Estudios Psicológicos (ISEP) in Spain and Latin America , balanced emotional well-being is reflected in an increase in general well-being. It is important to understand that all emotions are desirable because they meet certain goals in our lives.

For this reason, and while certain emotions are classified as negative and unwanted, it is important that we learn to manage our emotions properly without trying to suppress them. This means better emotional well-being, and it reduces our tendency to suffer from stress, anxiety, depression, and other disorders that significantly affect both our physical and mental well-being.

But what, in practice, can we do to improve emotional well-being? To achieve this, there are a few small changes that will help us train for better control of the emotional part of our minds. Next, we present to you in more detail the 8 most important of these general recommendations. To improve your mental health and emotional well-being, you can take the first step today!

Recognize your feelings

By learning to recognize our feelings, we also succeed in distinguishing from the crowd those emotions that make us frustrated, angry, or sad. As we mentioned earlier, the purpose is never to suppress these feelings, however negative or distressing they may be, but to seek to accept them as they are; that they are part of us and that there is some reason why we experience our feelings this way.

Express your feelings

We could somehow say that the expression of emotions is synonymous with balanced emotional well-being. If we feel uncomfortable and this causes tension, we may have difficulty – either at work or at home – if we don’t properly express what we actually feel.

For example, if you feel at home that your partner isn’t paying enough attention to you, suppressing that feeling can only eventually lead to bigger problems that will take significantly more time and effort from the relationship to resolve. Therefore , talking about things in a timely and correct manner is the key to more balanced emotional well-being.

Think first and then act

In addition to learning to express our feelings, it is important that we first figure them out in our own heads before bringing them out. This is very important advice because the intensity of our emotions can lead us to misbehave, in which case we will have to apologize or regret the consequences of our words or actions in the future. To avoid this, it is best for us to pause for a moment to consider the results and consequences that our actions or words may produce afterwards.

Use a variety of relaxation techniques

As noted in detail in an article in the medical journal Complementary Therapies in Medicine, various meditation techniques are resources that have positive effects on stress management.

Indeed, it is known today that different relaxation techniques can help control nervousness and anxiety, allowing the drowned or untreated emotions behind these symptoms to be seen in a whole new light. For this reason, to ensure better emotional well-being, it is convenient to try different options such as mindfulness i.e. meditation skills, meditation or yoga.

Take your time

Living in a hectic and busy society often makes us forget that our own time is an invaluable aid when we talk about improving and maintaining our own mental well-being. 

Living in a hurry is one reason why we are so immersed in the stress and conditions that cause nervousness and anxiety. That’s why it’s good to take our own time, live in peace, and enjoy things that are simple, but that fill us as a whole and that help us feel happy.

Rest enough

An unbalanced lifestyle combined with poor quality of sleep greatly affects our mood. That is why it is essential that we set aside enough time for rest. In other words, in addition to sleeping at least 7 hours a day without interruptions, we also invest in active breaks throughout the day.

Make positive connections

We must try to get rid of conflicting relationships. If we surround ourselves with people who bring good things into our lives, our emotional well-being will also improve dramatically. In addition, it is good to keep in mind that focusing on positive things also helps to avoid falling into the gray of everyday life as well as complaining about unnecessary little things.

Positive relationships also arise when we do things that help others. We cannot always think individually, because in many cases, in order to achieve good emotional balance and true well-being, we must also act for the benefit of other people.

Learn new things

So that we don’t lose our curiosity about all the good the world has to offer us, we can learn new languages, start a new book, enroll in a new interesting course, start a new hobby, or travel to a place we don’t already know.

It’s good to keep in mind that every person is different, as are our needs. That is why it is important that each of us gets to know our own innermost being and explores what kind of things arouse our interest and what kind of things we get peace of mind from. In addition, we must remember that in order for all to be well, in order to achieve this goal, each of us must work for our own balanced and emotional well-being.