What are some signs of good emotional health?

You’re trekking along thinking you’re doing alright. I mean yeah, you’ve been a little more grumpy lately and you just can’t seem to find the motivation to work on that project you planned, but you’re fine, you’re good, right? Maybe. Or maybe not. The truth of the matter is, you may not even realize you are struggling emotionally. I mean what are some signs of good emotional health anyway? Do you know how to assess yours?

Today I’ve been thinking a lot about pet peeves and how they bring on an emotional response in people that we often cannot control.

It’s interesting because over the last few days it seems like everywhere I turn someone is talking about them. It was like the universe was trying to tell me this is a topic I need to deal with perhaps in my own life, so I thought, ya know,  I wonder if maybe you are struggling with the way that you deal with pet peeves as well.

Because to be fair I don’t always respond to my pet peeves in the best way. I can admit it.

For instance, when my husband is sitting across the table from me nommin’ on a bowl of spaghetti, scraping his fork on the bottom of the bowl, slurping up the noodles off his fork, then ending with an obnoxious STHMACH as his grand finale, it’s all I can do to stop myself from coming across that table and sticking him with his fork let me tell you.

Now for those of you who are not bothered by eating or chewing noises you may have just read that and thought holy crap this chick is crazy why am I even reading this.

You know I get that, but insert your own pet peeve into that scenario and then be honest about how you respond when someone does the thing that turns you into a stark raving lunatic.

Do you just sit by passively with no response whatsoever?

Now remember, you’re being honest here.

Or is the reality, that you too, begin planning how you’re going to get away with murder?

So there can pretty much be a pet peeve for just about anything, right? I mean from leaving the toilet seat up to using too many hashtags in a post, people are hard to please. 

It’s just human nature. 

So if it’s natural to feel annoyed by annoying things, what’s wrong with it then? 

Well, nothings wrong with having these pet peeves in and of themselves, the issue is how we respond to them when they occur.

Think again about how you respond when someone does the thing you hate. Do you experience a mild irritation or a full blown murderous rage? Which do you think is the healthy response?

Furthermore, which one do you think shows a healthy emotional state of wellness?

Then how do you determine the state of your emotional health? 

Is it by the way you feel or your moods? Does it have to do with your mental health or your happiness? 

What are some signs of good emotional health? 

Today we’re going to explore this topic in order to help you decipher the state of your own emotional wellness.

What is emotional wellness?

Before you can determine the state of your emotional health you must first understand what it even means to have “good emotional health”.

Emotional wellness encompasses all things related to your feelings, your coping mechanisms, your moods, the way you handle stress, how you respond emotionally to situations, and lastly your mental health.

Now, it’s important to understand, while mental health falls under your emotional health, they’re not necessarily the same thing.

Now I mentioned some things that fall under emotional wellness, now let’s briefly discuss mental health. 

Mental health is how your mind processes and understands the things that you are experiencing. In contrast, emotional health is more about how you express the way you feel about these experiences. 

A good example that illustrates the difference is this:

Say you have an anxiety disorder which is classified under a mental health condition. 

Now say, one of your triggers is being around large groups of people, this is what causes your anxiety. 

The way you can have good emotional health while still experiencing mental health stress, is by going into the situation of a large group, say a party, and being able to see the possible trigger and rationalize the steps you should take mentally, to avoid a possible panic attack. 

So even though your mental health may not be in a healthful state, in this example you can see how you can still have a healthy emotional state of mind or response.

Now that you have a better understanding of what emotional health or wellness is, let’s talk about ways to tell if you have good emotional health or not.

And yeah, we’re not quite done discussing your pet peeve problems yet either.

What are some signs of good emotional health?

Emotional health is a profoundly broad subject. 

Emotions are complicated. 

But, like I said before, we’re talking about feelings, moods, stress management, and the most complicated of all, mental health. 

So how can you even tell if you have good emotional health or if your emotional health needs work?

Here are signs good emotional health:

• You like yourself and have a good positive self-image
• You feel as though your life has meaning
• You feel pretty content, for the most part, with your life and your decisions
• You feel grateful and thankful for the things and people in your life
• You’re kind to others regularly
• You’re able to maintain healthy relationships
• You’re always trying to better yourself
• You don’t hold grudges
• You know and practice a healthy lifestyle through eating, exercise, and self-care
• You know how to express your emotions
• You respond appropriately to most situations
• You don’t often experience feelings of guilt
• You’re not afraid to talk about your feelings

Since we’re on the subject, we must of course also then discuss what to look for when our emotional health isn’t healthy.

Signs of a poor emotional health:

• You are agitated or angered quickly, basically, you go from zero to livid in 5 seconds flat
• You avoid people 
• You’ve stopped taking care of your basic needs such as showering and wearing clean clothes
• You feel overwhelmed all the time, even by small tasks
• You can’t see any hope for the future
• You’re experiencing physical symptoms such as
  • Headaches
  • Fatigue
  • Loss or increase of appetite
  • Body aches
  • Jaw pain 
• You’re taking more unnecessary risks
• You’ve lost interest in hobbies and other things you used to enjoy doing
• You never want to talk about your feelings, EVER

What does it all mean?

Now going back to your pet peeve, or better yet, let’s use my pet peeve as an example. Looking at the two lists that I just showed you, the signs of good emotional health and the signs of poor emotional health, which list does my emotional response fall under?

The answer is simple and blatantly obvious. 

Having murderous thoughts towards my husband because he slurps his spaghetti too loudly isn’t considered a rational emotional response. It may indicate that my emotional well being could use a little work.

So how does knowing that my emotional health isn’t in a “healthy” state help me?

It is always a good idea to know where you stand in all aspects of your state of wellness, from physical to financial, none are more or less important than another.

This is how you determine the areas in your life that need extra attention and a little straightening out. 

If you just plow along through life without giving your well-being a second thought, you’re going to find yourself in the pit of despair under a mound of debt and poor choices.

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