The first thing to understand is that everyone's life goes through its ups and downs. Try to visualise one of those giant sequoia trees in California. As you stand at the root base and stretch your neck backwards, the trunk proceeds straight and true. Up, up it goes in a regular fashion until suddenly, without warning, there are two forks: one pointing one way, one the other. What to do? Which direction should you take?
So it is in life. A normal pattern is for your life to move along fairly smoothly, skipping over the inevitable knots and thorny problems on the way, until suddenly you encounter a major crossroads, one you have not encountered before.
Now, people who are emotionally healthy are in control of their emotions and their behaviour. They are able to handle life's inevitable challenges, build strong relationships, and lead productive, fulfilling lives. When serious things happen, as they will, they're able to bounce back and move on.
Unfortunately, however, too many people take their mental and emotional health for granted. Whereas, with their physical health they may take preventative action and build into their lives fitness regimes to keep their bodies supple and pliable, too often their emotional health gets forgotten. Mental health is something only to be thought about when problems develop. But just as it requires effort to build or maintain physical health, so it is with mental and emotional health. As with your physical body, the more time and energy invested in your emotional health, the stronger it will be. The good news is that there are many things you can do to boost your mood, build resilience, and get more enjoyment out of life.
What exactly is emotional health?
This refers to your overall psychological well-being. It comprises the way you feel about yourself, your ability to deal with difficulties and manage your feelings, as well as underpinning the quality of your relationships. But good mental health isn't merely the absence of mental health problems; rather, it is about being free of anxiety, depression or other psychological problems.
Focus on the word ‘health': this is full of positive, vital connotations. Just because in this article we are referring to ‘mental health' doesn't suddenly make the issue a negative one. From now on, we should picture the term ‘mental health' as being one full of positive characteristics, giving the resilience to deal with those inevitable knotty problems in the tree of life and bounce back again..
How to recognise when you are close to the edge?
Lately you have become increasingly absorbed by repetitive mental habits - negative thoughts about yourself and the world that use up time, drain your energy, and trigger feelings of anxiety, fear, and depression. Stress has started to take a heavier toll on your mental and emotional health. When you were a child, you often felt lonely, isolated, unsafe, confused or maybe you were abused. As you grew up you suffered the loss of a parent or experienced other traumatic experiences such as war or hospitalisation.
And now it's become worse. You can't sleep, you feel down, hopeless most of the time and you can't concentrate. In a misguided attempt to allay your feelings you've turned to smoking, overeating, drugs or alcohol to cope with your difficult emotions. And even the worst-case scenario: your thoughts have sometimes turned to death or suicide as a way out.
So, what can I do to help myself?
Simply this. It's never too late to make changes that will improve your psychological well-being. No matter how many risk factors you have encountered in your life so far, these can be counteracted with protective factors like a healthy lifestyle, strong relationships and learning coping strategies for managing all those negative emotions and stress.
I've done all I can.
Is there anyone else who can help me?
If you've made consistent efforts to improve your mental and emotional health and you still don't feel well - then that is the time to seek professional help. There is nothing to compare with the relief felt by unburdening all those inner stresses and turmoil to someone sympathetic and caring. Mental health therapists can motivate us to do things for ourselves that we are not able to do on our own. It's much easier to overcome a mental or emotional problem by dealing with it while it's small, rather than waiting until it's a major, entrenched problem.
Just remember that giant sequoia tree. It didn't become so tall, strong and resilient by falling down with the first blow of an ill wind; nor did it give up when attacked by numerous fungi or pesky creatures gnawing into its life-giving sap. It overcome all by doing what it does best: focusing single-mindedly on its inner well-being. We could do far worse than learn from the tree of life.
