Updated 11/10/2022
The key to a happy, satisfied, content, balanced everyday life is having a basic understanding ofwhat emotional health is, and beyond that understanding, fully grasping the emotional health meaning that can change your life for the better.
Emotional health, at its core, refers to our personal thoughts, feelings, and emotions. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll take a deeper look at emotional health, what can influence it, and provide ways to support your own emotional health.
What Is Emotional Health?
Emotional health is about how we feel about ourselves, how we handle difficult situations, and how we acknowledge both our own and other people’s feelings.
The definition of emotional health is pretty much the same as the definition ofemotional well-being. It’s what helps you not just survive but also heal when you’re faced with difficult times in life and thrive overall. Emotional wellness or health is an essential component if you want your everyday life to feel whole and balanced.
Understanding Your Emotional Health
To fully understand what emotional health is, you need to look at what it encompasses. Emotional health, at its core, is a consistent and productive state of positive psychological functioning. On some level, emotional health is just an extension of your mental health. It combines everything you think, feel, and do — during both of the highs in life as well as the lows.
Why is emotional health important?
Emotional health is essential in keeping your whole being healthy on multiple levels. When your emotional health is monitored and taken care of (whether it’s through in-person oronline therapy), you’ll be more in control of every aspect of your life. From your feelings, to your thoughts, to how you behave — you’ll be more prepared and able to deal with all of life’s emotional distress and challenges, and learn how to form lasting, healthy relationships with others.
Focusing on your emotional health doesn’t just allow you to maintain a productive perspective. It also helps you notice when you need to course correct so you can come back from disappointment and challenging times. Being mentally and emotionally healthy lets you feel good in general about both yourself as well as about the relationships you have.
It’s important to note that just because you’re emotionally healthy doesn’t mean you’ll be in a constant state of bliss. It simply means you’re more cognizant of the emotions that you have. You can handle whatever life hands you. You’ll still feel every emotion, including anger, disappointment, stress, and even sadness, but you’ll have strong emotional resilience and a greater sense of how to manage the basic negative emotions and feelings that everyone has.
What Can Influence Your Emotional Health?
Many things influence how emotionally healthy you are. Not maintaining a good work-life balance can be detrimental to your health in general. Toxic or emotionally draining relationships can have an impact as well. There are some genetic aspects to emotional health too, and there are a number of other environmental factors that come into play and could have a negative — or positive — impact. Even your actual physical health can affect how emotionally healthy you are.
“There are so many factors that can impact our emotional health. Some include our environment (work/school, home, social lives), our physical health, and our genetics and family history of emotional health needs.”
What’s the Difference Between Mental and Emotional Health
The difference between mental and emotional health is that mental health is a label that examines and determines how your mind is understanding and processing any information or experiences you gain out of life.
Emotional health, on the flipside, delves into how well you’re able to both manage and express all the emotions that surface from those experiences and things that you’ve learned.
There are other differences too, including:
How to Support Your Emotional Health
Much like improving your physical health, emotional health takes a dedicated act to improve. It’s helpful to first look at your emotions and try to make sense of them so you can better understand them.
Every negative or positive emotion you have has value to it, even when you are feelingvery emotional. They’re all part of you, and even challenging emotions like sadness, anger, or grief are opportunities for you to grow and become a more whole person.
That said, there are some emotions we deem as being negative that wouldn’t be healthy to hold on to long-term. An important part of being emotionally healthy is learning how to deal with negative emotions as you have them. You want to be able to compartmentalize them as appropriate, so you can heal and move on rather than letting them hold you back.
Grow your support system
Having a solid and trustworthy support system can give peace of mind and be a welcome addition to your overall emotional health.
Knowing that you have someone you can count on, or a group of people who you love and can trust, means you’re better equipped to deal with painful or difficult times. You can rely on your support system for emotional, mental, physical, and even spiritual support when you need it.
Exercise more
It’s a well-documented and researched fact that working out is good for your mind, body, and soul. When you exercise, your body releases endorphins which help you feel better and be more productive. There are a plethora of other positives to working out too, including:
Find ways to reduce anxiety
Stay away from drugs and alcohol
The occasional glass of wine isn’t going to send your emotional health into a tailspin, but like most things in life, drinking should be done in moderation. Excessive alcohol consumption can lead to both physical and emotional health issues. Drug use is also a known contributor to poor emotional, mental, and physical health.
Eat healthy foods
When you fill up on good foods, the nourishment offers more than just a healthy body. Foods that are rich in nutrients, vitamins, healthy fats, and “brain food” (like those high in Omega-3s) nourish your mind, which is a great way for you to improve your emotional health.
Meditate
Meditation has several positive emotional health benefits. Research shows it can help youfocus betterwhile improving your self-awareness and self-esteem, lower your stress levels and anxiety, and give you energy and motivation.Studiesalso show there’s a distinct correlation between mindfulness and the ability to process new information.
Meditation has physical health benefits too, like improving your pain tolerance and helping you fight off addictions.
How to Receive Help for Your Emotional Health
You can find help with your emotional health using any of the following tactics:
Your emotional health is just as important as your physical or mental health. Prioritizing your whole being — your spirit, body, and mind — means you’ll be able to live an emotionally healthy life that allows you to have a positive outlook and perspective. Turns out, seeing the world through rose-colored glasses really can be good for you.
Sources:
Emotional Wellness Toolkit. National Institutes of Health (NIH).https://www.nih.gov/health-information/emotional-wellness-toolkit. Published 2021. Accessed November 7, 2021.
Robinson L, Segal, Ph.D. J, Smith, M.A. M. The Mental Health Benefits of Exercise – HelpGuide.org. HelpGuide.org.https://www.helpguide.org/articles/healthy-living/the-mental-health-benefits-of-exercise.htm. Published 2021. Accessed November 7, 2021.
Rea S. Neurobiological Changes Explain How Mindfulness Meditation Improves Health – News – Carnegie Mellon University. Cmu.edu.https://www.cmu.edu/news/stories/archives/2016/february/meditation-changes-brain.html. Published 2016. Accessed November 7, 2021.
Hölzel B, Carmody J, Vangel M et al. Mindfulness practice leads to increases in regional brain gray matter density. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging. 2011;191(1):36-43. doi:10.1016/j.pscychresns.2010.08.006.https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S092549271000288X. Accessed November 7, 2021.
Our goal at Talkspace is to provide the most up-to-date, valuable, and objective information on mental health-related topics in order to help readers make informed decisions.
Articles contain trusted third-party sources that are either directly linked to in the text or listed at the bottom to take readers directly to the source.
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