Being emotionally fit is a very important aspect of everyday life. Having an emotionally fit lifestyle can be seen as having the ability to process and accept negative feelings without too much effect on your overall well-being.
Feelings Aren’t Facts
Understanding that you only have control over your attitude and actions.
While often feelings seem like facts, they’re actually not! This is very important to remember on your journey to emotional well-being and fitness. When you’re in the moment and currently experiencing stress or other negative feelings, it can be hard to stop and pause…making acknowledging them a bit trickier. Throughout this article, we’ll set you up with surefire tools to help you in relieving the symptoms that accompany the feelings.
Breathing Exercises
Practice makes perfect.
My personal favorite! Simple breathing during times of disarray will prove infinite value in reducing stress and bringing you back into the present moment. There’s a saying I love, “when you live in the past you’ll feel depressed and when you live in the future anxiety is around the corner”. Simple, yet perfectly describes the value that accompanies striving to stay present each day! So remember when your thoughts and emotions get flowing…STOP…PAUSE…BREATHE. As you continue to practice and improve on staying present you’ll notice the overwhelmingly positive effects it’s having on your life.
Mindful Listening
Staying in the present moment
This one might sound a little off the wall to some of you, but needless to say, it’s very effective! Throughout your day-to-day tasks, take some of your energy off what you’re currently doing to stop and listen. Focus on the sounds around you, take them in and acknowledge the noise. For example, when I’m chopping lettuce, I focus on the noise the knife is making as it elegantly cuts through my green leafy friend. By focusing on these sounds it assists in keeping my thoughts in the here and now. Personally, when I get stuck on obsessing over a specific situation, interaction, insecurity or anything else of that matter, I have an amazing ability of blowing it way out of proportion!
Measure Your Current Stress
Tracking your progress to fuel your success
As you continue to work towards emotional fitness, an amazing tool is evaluating how you feel in the moment. Whether you’re in a high-stress work environment or dealing with life’s struggles, pausing to evaluate what level of stress you’re experiencing is the first step in communicating your feelings with another individual. What I mean by this is come up with a scale in your head, possibly with ratings 1 to 5, and when you’re in the middle of a crisis or situation rate the level of stress you’re going through. As you continue to advance in emotional mindfulness you’ll notice the situations becoming much less of a concern. The awesome thing about this is that you’ll start to notice progress! By identifying progress, it grants you the miracle ability to walk through harder situations more readily.
Talking About How You’re Feeling
Find a partner that can aid in communicating your thoughts and feelings.
Arguably one of the most effective methods for escaping emotional fitness problems may be venting or talking about how you feel. I know, voicing your feelings doesn’t exactly sound appealing, but the benefits you’ll receive as a result are more than worth it! If you don’t already have someone that you’re comfortable sharing your feelings with it may be a good idea to partner with someone else interested in emotional wellness. Do your best to check in once a day and describe the feelings that you experienced throughout the day. Some days there won’t be much to report but the practice of being emotionally mindful will improve your awareness of your feelings. You’ll soon start to realize that you have more feelings than you thought!
Living an Emotionally Fit Lifestyle | Taking the Next Step
In conclusion
The list of actionable tools that can assist you in reducing stress and increasing internal peace can go on ad-infinitum. However, I hope that some of these can be used as a platform to begin your journey with emotional-mindfulness. As you begin your practice you’ll start adjusting the way you do things and that’s okay! Everyone finds a pace and rhythm that works best with their own needs. The important thing is that you have a practice. Ultimately, consistency is going to be the key that unlocks the door to long-term serenity!
