So, you have identified you need to start taking care of your mental health and wellbeing a little better whether that be through a recovery or prevention approach. You have come to realise that living the 8 Wise Way is how you will develop the mental wealth needed to be back in control of the chaos in life and maintain optimal psychological wellbeing. You have even completed the 8Wise evaluations, developed your 8Wise map and know which pillars you need to focus on first – but what the hell do you do now. How do you get started.
Option one would be to read my book: 8 Wise Ways to a Healthier Happier Mind, follow the guidance in Section 3 and use the 8Wise journal for support.
Option two would be to listen to the Live the 8Wise podcast and follow the instruction there.
Option three would be to merge Option 1 and 2 together for a self-guided approach.
Option four might be to download the 8Wsie discovery course or 8Wise Accelerator course and follow the instruction there.
Option five is to register for the 8Wise Programme, either in a 121 format or online group format and be walked through the end-to-end 8Wise process, with a registered psychotherapist and creator of the 8Wise method (me J) personalising it for your life and your needs.
Option six is, before deciding on which of the options above is the best one for you, read the following tools and tips to help you get yourself off the ground living the 8Wise Way – today.
Kim, I have identified that I need to focus on my Emotional Wellness, what do I do?
Let’s just recap what Emotional Wellness is: It involves the ability to express feelings, adjust to stress, cope with challenges and enjoy life.
To start boosting our emotional wellness we need to start incorporating activities linked to it into our self-care routines. I have talked about the importance of self-care before, you can read more about that here: https://8wise.co.uk/emotional-wellness/8-wise-ways-to-practice-self-care/
To know what self-care areas, we should focus on for emotional wellness we need to look at the 8Wise Self-Care wheel and look at the list options linked to it. As you can see from the diagram below the options are:
- Stress & Anxiety Management: This simply means learning to identify when you are feeling stressed and anxious. What are your specific signs and symptoms? When you know this, you can work towards understanding your triggers – the things that lead to those uncomfortable feelings. This will then help you to understand how to counteract them, prevent yourself from experiencing the events that cause them or even healing from the past traumas that they developed from.
- Emotional Intelligence: This means developing the ability to monitor your own and other people’s emotions effectively. Discriminating between different emotions and labelling them appropriately and using emotional information to guide thinking and behaviour.
- Good Self-esteem: This means feeling good about yourself and confident in who you are and your abilities. Reducing worry about what others may think of you or how much you might get wring and accepting yourself just the way you are without judgement.
- Manage Emotions: Otherwise known as emotional regulation, it is the ability to manage the wide range of emotions we can feel. Our emotions are linked to our thoughts and our behaviours and so navigate us though our lives, positively or negatively. Learning to regulate them put us in control of what can be life’s natural chaos helping us to respond effectively.
- Rest & Relax: These two don’t just feel good they are important for our overall health. Stress from all the different areas and responsibilities in your life can wear you down over time and efficient rest and relaxation can reduce the risk that could come with that.
- Mindfulness: This is the orsct8ice of gently focussing your awareness on the present moment repeatedly. Spending too much time focussing on the past can lead to depression and focussing too much time on the future can lead to anxiety. Using activities to help you focus on the moment and the root of the sensations you are feeling can ground you and bring a sense of peace and calm.
- Connection: It’s about how you treat people; do you really aim to see the value in the people in your life and do you give them an opportunity to see yours. Its about not only avoiding feelings of loneliness isolation and but because relationships impact every element of our life, connection is also about flourishing in that life too.
- Resilience: This helps you to adapt to challenges and hold your own in the face of adversity. It’s about developing that survivor instinct and although in the reality of life you may not weather every challenge you are faced with, being resilient means, you can bounce back from it.
- Health: Mental health and physical health are interlinked, if we want good health, we need to take care of each equally. When we feel mentally healthy, we feel physically healthy and visa-versa, so take care of both to feel the benefits if both and to boost each other.
From this list, to boost your emotional wellness you must decide for yourself and for your life, which of these topics you would like to focus on.
Below are few tips to help you get started:
1. Learn to release your emotions through expressing them freely and not supressing them. You can do this through talking to someone or journaling them – the choice is yours, but stop holding them in or denying them, hoping they will go away …. they won’t. They will just get stronger and stringer and one day all explode together, and that’s a harder thing to clear up. This helps with emotional regulation.
2. Try incorporating a Progressive Muscle Relaxer (PMR) into your daily routine to help you rest and relax. Physical relaxation can promote mental relaxation. You can simply start by tensing each muscle in your body and then releasing it, this will also relax your mind.
3. Learn to reframe your thoughts and beliefs about yourself to build your self-esteem. Challenge unkind thoughts about yourself by asking yourself “where is the evidence to support this thinking” and “would I talk to a friend like this”.
Good luck with boosting your emotional wellness and don’t forget if you would like some additional support our 8Wise™ Wellness Programme focusses on Mental Wealth to develop optimal levels of Mental Health and Wellbeing. It can help you address every aspect of your health and wellbeing and improve your quality of life.
If you would like to book a session or register for our next programme, get in touch today.
For more information on 8Wise™ and the mental health services provided check out the rest of this website.