Steps to Protect Your Mental and Emotional Health

Maintaining mental resilience and emotional health can help you move through disappointments and hurts more easily and quickly. Instead of getting stuck in the pain, you recognize the emotions attached to the event and process them in a healthy way.

This positive outlook is more than just a mental state; your physical health receives a boost when your mind and spirit are at peace and full of joy despite circumstances. Learn how to protect your mental and emotional health to gain clarity and control your emotions and behaviors.

Protecting your mental and emotional health

Picture your physical body as a candle. Atop the candle is a bright, flickering flame, your mental and emotional health. You can see in the dark as long as the flame stays lit. But you must protect your flame from the wind of disappointments, hurt, and betrayals. You must protect your light from the storms of trauma, stress, anxiety, and depression.

When others try to blow out your flame, you must learn to pivot and surround yourself with a boundary of respect. Take the following first steps in protecting your mental and emotional fire.

Recognize your emotions

Part of maturing in mental and emotional resilience is recognizing your emotions. Pause and notice when you are “not okay” and take the time to name what you are feeling. When you name the feeling, pause to identify the trigger. Does talking to a particular person over the phone leave you with feelings of low self-esteem? Does a daily situation make you angry or put you in a bad mood? Do you have specific negative thoughts that leave you depressed?

Most people are told to “stuff” their feelings inside. Unfortunately, burying your emotions can result in inner turmoil that manifests as mental distress and physical ailments. The best way to process these emotions is to identify and sit with them for a while. Analyzing the root of your feelings will also help you to learn more about yourself.

Sharing your feelings with others is also an important part of processing your emotions. Romans 12:15 tells us to “rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.” Sharing our feelings in a supportive community allows us to be comforted and cared for in our feelings, and move through them well.

Create a productive morning routine

Starting your day with a smile can make a difference in your outlook for the rest of the day. Think of a few things you can do in the morning to start your day on the right foot. You may need to set the alarm for an earlier time. Try fifteen minutes to start, but you may want to move the alarm back further to allow more time in your morning.

Your routine could look like this: You wake up an hour earlier than you used to and immediately slip on your workout clothes. You exercise for thirty minutes, then quickly shower and dress in the outfit you laid out the night before. Next, you spend fifteen minutes drinking your coffee and reading a devotional in front of the kitchen window or porch while enjoying the fresh air and sunshine.

Customize your morning routine to put your mind at peace before the day’s responsibilities start.

Manage your stress

You probably know what surface stress feels like: sweaty palms, rapid heart rate, and muscle tension. We have all felt that type of stress. But are you aware that chronic stress can lie under the surface? Chronic stress can lead to high blood pressure, rapid weight gain or loss, insomnia, acid reflux, headaches, anxiety, panic attacks, and depression.

You must reduce stress by removing or distancing yourself from its sources. Are you trying to honor too many commitments? Choose the one or two things that mean the most to you in this season of your life and say no to the other opportunities. You may think staying busy shows you are productive, but is the cost worth it?

When you are stressed out about trying to please everyone, eventually, your health begins a downward spiral, and you can no longer give one hundred percent. Delegate what you can, bow out of other commitments, and slow down your pace.

Move your body to release stress

When you exercise, your brain releases endorphins that lower stress levels and leave you feeling happier. These endorphins also release a painkiller effect that soothes those tight muscles and tension spots. Exercise improves sleep, lowers blood pressure, burns fat, and increases energy.

Working out can help you regulate your mood and emotions and help you think more clearly as more oxygen moves through your body. Start small with thirty minutes of moderate exercise three days a week. Slowly add in more days and longer sessions or increase the intensity of your activity.

Let people know how you feel

Often to maintain peace, we will overlook other people’s behavior. It seems simpler that we take care of someone else’s responsibility. How often do you bite your tongue when your spouse leaves things on the floor? Or when your coworker is still not doing a task correctly, and you must fix it again?

You should not wear your emotions on your sleeve, yet you also cannot keep burying them. You have every right to voice how you feel about a situation. Your opinions and feelings should be validated. Sometimes it is easier to stay quiet than to return a hateful word, but responding in kindness can turn the tide of a conversation.

If you struggle with expressing your feelings or creating boundaries, contact a counselor today for help.

Avoid vices that make you feel bad

Consuming certain things or engaging in harmful activities can leave you feeling down. These vices can change your demeanor and lower your willpower. Illicit drug use, prescription drug abuse, overconsumption of alcohol, high-risk behaviors, and sexual promiscuity make maintaining a healthy mental state difficult.

Some of these vices may seem extreme but think about other behaviors that leave you sluggish and depressed. How do you feel after spending hours scrolling social media and comparing your life to others? After you consume fast food or sugar, do you feel sick and depressed when your blood sugar crashes? Also, consider the feelings of guilt and shame that impact you after you engage in these activities.

Vices are strongholds that make you feel good temporarily but will ultimately ruin you. Even if you do not feel the effects of your stronghold immediately, what will be the long-term consequences? Will your marriage and your mental health survive pornography addiction or gambling?

Addictions can squeeze the life out of you. Reach out for help today if you are battling an addiction.

Set new goals

It is tough to stay down if you have powerful goals you are working toward. Set goals that make you want to jump out of bed in the morning. These goals should follow the S.M.A.R.T. goal-setting formula; your goals should be specific, measurable, attainable, relative, and time-based.

For example, if you set a goal to write a book, you should narrow the focus of your goal. You could say, “I will write one thousand words every morning at 5 AM during the work week so that I complete the rough draft of my book in four months.” Now you have a pressing deadline and a plan to reach your goal. Even when life hits hard, and it will, you know you have something to get back to tomorrow.

Know when to get help

A sign of a healthy mental and emotional state is the ability to recognize when you need help. Sometimes circumstances will be too much for you to handle by yourself. You need an advisor; a person with the knowledge, techniques, and strategies to assist you in moving past the problem.

A Christian counselor can help you develop mental and emotional resiliency. Depending on your situation, it may only take a few sessions with a licensed mental health practitioner for you to gain the necessary skills to bounce back quickly after a disappointment.

Getting help

Mental health disorders can block attempts to boost your mental and emotional health. Whether the mental condition is due to a chemical imbalance, genetics, childhood trauma, or something else entirely, seeking help is critical to gaining control over the situation. Contact our office today to schedule an appointment with a counselor.

Mental and emotional health is as important as physical health. Get the help you need today.