When COVID-19 hit us and the lockdown happened, both of us were in a different city than our families because of our jobs. It was a once-in-a-century kind of event and no one knew what was going to happen next.
There was panic all around because the virus was spreading at an exponential pace and medical professionals were racing against time to figure out its severity, preventive measures, and cure.
On top of all this, the hospitals were flooded with patients. There was a shortage of medical equipment and supplies because the healthcare system was not equipped to handle the situation on such a large scale.
We, like countless others, were glued to TV screens to know what was going on and what can we do to protect ourselves.
But all we could see were extremely sad and horrifying images of people dying because the hospitals were operating at full capacity and couldn’t take on more patients. Every other day we would hear the news of someone we knew passing away.
It was a time of absolute panic and fear and even thinking about it now sends chills down our spine. The fear was because of the uncertainty about what was going to happen next.
Uncertainty of how long this would last and how much more bad news we have to hear before things cool down.
All we would think about during that time was how to survive this pandemic. We would pray every day that our families stayed safe.
This was the time when our mental, physical, and emotional health took a serious hit because surviving the pandemic was the main focus and everything else took a backseat.
A few months into the lockdown, things got even tougher as Pooja was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, a mental health condition triggered by the isolated and fearful environment created by the pandemic and lockdown.
In fibromyalgia, the brain sends false pain signals and you feel chronic pain throughout the body. If you’re curious about this condition, we have written a blog explaining it in detail.
It was actually our first blog, and it was the reason we started this blogging website, to guide and help people navigate through the tough times by sharing the knowledge we’ve gained through our experiences.
When we consulted with the rheumatologist, who diagnosed this condition, he told us that he’s seeing new fibromyalgia cases every single day because of the lockdown.
This is happening because the emotions were left unchecked during this time, and combined with the isolated and panic-ridden environment, it snowballed into this condition.
So many people would have been diagnosed with different kinds of mental health problems during the pandemic, all because of the suppressed emotions while fighting this situation.
When the dust settled and as we reflected on the past few months, we realized the importance of acknowledging and expressing our emotions and the damage they can do to our overall health when left unchecked.
Welcome back to our self-care series where we’re exploring the different dimensions of self-care and sharing tips and strategies to help you create your personalized and unique self-care routine.
We started this series with an introduction to self-care, followed by blogs on mental self-care and physical self-care.
This is part 4 of that series where we’ll focus on emotional self-care. In this blog, we’ll understand what is emotional self-care and why it is so important to take care of your emotional health.
Later on, we’ll talk about some tips and strategies you can use to create your emotional self-care routine. Let’s dive in.
Table of Contents
What Is The Meaning of Emotional Self-Care
In simple terms, emotional self-care is the intentional and proactive practice of taking time to acknowledge, understand, and care for your emotional health.
It is about finding healthy ways to address and express your emotions so that they don’t affect any other dimension of your well-being.
Emotional self-care includes any proactive step you take to express your feelings and emotions related to the events happening in your life.
The Importance of Emotional Self-Care
Let’s first understand what role emotions play in your life, then we’ll discuss what happens when you don’t address those emotions and feelings, and how can emotional self-care help in all this.
The Role of Emotions in Our Daily Lives
Emotions, like love, fear, anger, etc. play a very powerful and vital role in our lives. They govern how we think, how we behave, and how we live our lives.
They influence each action we take in our day-to-day lives. It is because of those emotions we are what we are today.
In the evolutionary process, the fear of the dangers at every corner motivated us to strengthen our survival skills and helped us become the species we are today, at the top of the food chain.
In the course of history, we have seen people doing extraordinary things out of love and we’ve seen people doing unimaginable things out of anger and hatred.
Emotion is that invisible yet powerful force that motivates us to do extraordinary things that we once thought we were incapable of doing.
Emotions can make us achieve great things in life, but they also have the power to make us destroy everything we have in life. Every moment of our life has emotions in it.
Think about it, the feeling of joy when you meet a loved one, the sense of accomplishment after you complete a project, the feeling of sadness when you fight with someone, and the gentle comfort of contentment after a satisfying meal.
All these are different emotions you experience in your daily life. They add depth and meaning to the experiences in life. As humans, we are blessed to experience so many different types of emotions that not many species are capable of experiencing.
From happiness and excitement to sadness and frustration, we experience a wide spectrum of emotions. It is through this range of emotions that we navigate our interactions, make decisions, and form connections with others.
The Impact of Unaddressed Emotions on Mental Health
But when they are left unchecked, they can do a lot of harm to ourselves and our well-being. They can seep into your mental well-being.
When you bottle up those feelings or consider them insignificant and ignore them, it can create a pool of tension within your mind which will gradually impact your mental well-being.
Over time, these accumulated feelings and emotions will lead to heightened stress levels and decreased resilience, and they can even contribute to the development of mental health conditions.
This is exactly what happened in our case, which resulted in fibromyalgia.
Emotional Self-Care as a Preventive Measure
This is precisely where emotional self-care comes in. It is a proactive approach to maintaining the delicate balance of your emotional well-being.
It is about recognizing, acknowledging, and responding to our emotions in a healthy and constructive manner.
You must understand that emotional self-care is not about removing your negative thoughts and emotions completely, but about understanding and managing them effectively.
As we’ve discussed in our previous blogs, your physical, mental, and emotional health are deeply intertwined with each other and one has a direct impact on the other.
When you’re taking care of your emotional health, you’re essentially caring for your physical and mental health as well.
What Are The Benefits of Emotional Self-Care
When you start your journey of emotional self-care, you’re investing in your overall well-being which has many benefits. Let’s take a look at the different ways in which taking care of your emotional health can positively impact your quality of life.
1. Enhanced Emotional Resilience
Life is uncertain and no one knows what’s going to happen next. We hope for the best and expect only positive things to happen, but we should be strong enough to face anything that comes our way.
When you practice emotional self-care, you’re creating a protective shield against life’s inevitable challenges.
2. Improved Mental Health
Practicing emotional self-care will help you prevent the accumulation of unaddressed emotions that could lead to stress, anxiety, or even depression.
When you actively tend to your emotional well-being, you’re creating a positive environment to support your mental well-being.
3. Better Stress Management
There are so many stressors in the modern-day lifestyle because it’s hectic and fast-paced.
When you practice emotional self-care, you’re creating effective strategies to manage that stress in a better way through mindfulness, relaxation techniques, and expressive practices.
You’re better equipped to handle the challenges of life with a sense of calm.
4. Strengthened Relationships
Emotional self-care positively impacts your interactions with others. When you are attuned to your own emotions, you become more empathetic and understanding of the feelings of those around you.
This creates healthier and more meaningful connections with your loved ones and strengthens relationships.
5. Increased Self-Awareness
One of the key benefits of emotional self-care is the deepened connection with yourself. When you regularly check in with yourself, you understand your strengths, weaknesses, and triggers.
Once you are able to identify, accept, and handle your emotions and feelings successfully, your self-esteem increases.
This self-awareness and increased self-esteem will allow you to make choices aligned with your values and well-being.
5 Tips And Recommendations to Practice Emotional Self-Care
No matter at what stage you are in your life’s journey, everyone should practice emotional self-care. Following are some of the tips and strategies that will serve as the fundamental principles in creating your emotional self-care routine.
1. Acknowledge and Accept Your Feelings
The first step in creating your emotional self-care routine is to acknowledge and accept all your emotions. When we are hurt or when we feel sad, our natural tendency is to suppress those emotions and keep them inside.
We feel that we should always show ourselves to be strong in front of the people around us, and we shouldn’t show any vulnerability.
We fear that others might think of us as weak. But this is a very unhealthy thing to do because these suppressed emotions keep accumulating inside us, which can later snowball into bigger health issues.
You need to understand that each emotion has its place in your life, and all your emotions are valid. We have very limited control over our lives and it’s not sustainable to expect only positive emotions all the time.
So, don’t suppress your emotions. Acknowledge them, accept them, and find a way to vent them out. Either talk to your loved ones or pen them down in your journal.
2. Identify Your Emotional Triggers
The next step is to identify your emotional triggers, which can be events, situations, or even specific words that evoke intense feelings and emotions within you.
These are often deeply rooted in your past experiences and they can vary from person to person.
Knowing these triggers will help you identify patterns, and more importantly, take steps to reduce their impact on your mental well-being.
To identify your emotional triggers, take some time to think about the situations where you felt emotionally high. What was common in these situations?
Keeping a journal is a very helpful thing because you can record your emotional responses to various situations and express your feelings without the fear of judgment in your journal.
After a while, when you reflect on these situations and your feelings in these situations, you’ll start noticing patterns and potential triggers.
Once you’ve identified the triggers, the next step is to set clear boundaries and limit yourself from being exposed to such situations.
3. Set and Keep Healthy Boundaries
Has it ever happened that you were watching a movie or a TV series and one of the characters was constantly facing harassment but they weren’t fighting back?
And it made you anxious and got you thinking, why aren’t they doing something about this? Why aren’t they reporting it or fighting back? Why are they taking all this s**t?
Well, it’s because either they did not set any boundaries or they let people cross those boundaries. When you don’t set boundaries, the people and the world around you will harass you in different ways, both physical and emotional.
Always assume that you live in a bullish world and if you don’t set clear boundaries, you’re making yourself vulnerable to harassment.
People will either take advantage of you or mistreat you in different ways. All this will have a direct impact on your emotional health. So, learn to set clear boundaries and learn when to say “no”.
Whether it’s at work, at school, with friends, or even in your personal life, if something is hurting you or making you uncomfortable, set clear boundaries and make sure they are respected.
It will take a lot of courage but you will eventually get better at it.
Otherwise, you’ll always feel sad, drained, overwhelmed, or angry, and you’ll always complain that things are not going your way. It’s not your job to please everyone around you, but it’s very much your job to please yourself.
You should also understand that this won’t happen in a day, and it’s an ongoing process. It’s not about building walls but about making sure everyone understands what’s comfortable for you.
4. Talk to Your Loved Ones
We humans are social creatures and we thrive on meaningful connections. Think about when you buy something new, you can’t wait to show it off to everyone, right? But when you feel sad, you don’t want to talk to anyone. That’s not fair, is it?
Moreover, that is the time when you should definitely talk to your loved ones. It could be your best friend, your partner, or your parents, whoever you feel close to.
You don’t have to tell the whole world on social media. Just talk to someone you trust. It will make you feel lighter and better.
When you talk to your loved ones and tell them how you feel without worrying about them judging you, you’re providing an outlet for all those emotions.
After that, you might find that things don’t feel as heavy, and you’re not alone in dealing with them. That’s what we do to keep our emotional health in check.
We sit on our balcony after dinner and we talk about the events of the day and if there is something any one of us what to vent out.
This simple act has helped us a lot in dealing with fibromyalgia and keeping our overall health in check.
5. Embrace Positivity
Life is full of surprises as you never really know what’s going to happen next. Sometimes, things won’t go the way you want and you will feel frustrated.
There might be some situations where you might think “This isn’t how it’s supposed to be” or “I deserve better”. It’s normal to feel this way.
The truth is, we can’t control everything because life is way bigger than what we can see. However, what we can control is our own perspective.
When you only focus on what you don’t have, you will miss out on things that you do have. That’s why, you must try to stay positive in every situation.
There’s a saying that goes, “If you only see the thorns, you’ll miss the roses.” It’s a reminder that in every situation, no matter how tough, there’s something positive waiting to be noticed.
Embracing positivity isn’t about pretending everything is perfect, it’s about finding the good in between the not-so-good.
When you approach life with a positive mindset, you’ll not just see challenges, but you’ll also see opportunities. Embracing positivity won’t change the situation, but it can change how you navigate through it.
And who knows, you might just turn a challenging moment into a stepping stone towards something wonderful.
Wrapping Up – What Is Emotional Self-Care and Why It Is Important for Your Overall Health
As we wrap up this part 4 of our series on self-care, we want you to understand that tending to your emotional well-being is not a luxury, but a necessary practice for a fulfilling and high-quality life.
In the grand scheme of human experience, where highs and lows are inevitable, intentionally caring for your emotional well-being becomes a powerful tool in navigating the challenges and complexities of life.
In a world that constantly pushes us to move forward, and encourages us to keep moving, this blog will remind you to take a pause and tend to your emotional needs.
In the end, we want you to remember that emotional self-care is not about avoiding difficult emotions but about fostering a healthy relationship with them.
By taking care of your emotional health, you empower yourself to navigate life’s complexities with resilience and authenticity.
May the tips and strategies we discussed serve as lanterns and guide you through the twists and turns, and remind you that your emotional well-being is as worthy of intentional care and attention as any other dimension of your well-being. Namaste!
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