(08-05-13) How to Protect Your Mental Health and Avoid an Emotional Breakdown

If you physically over-tax your body, say by overexerting yourself on a hot
day or staying up for 24 hours with no sleep, you probably wouldn’t be
surprised if it suddenly “breaks down.”

We avoid such pitfalls by tending to our physical health, resting and drinking
water when doing taxing work in the outdoor heat or making sure we get adequate
sleep on most nights.

Your mind is subject to the same rules, meaning that it can only take so much
stress before it breaks down, yet many neglect to tend to their emotional
health with the same devotion they give to their physical well-being. This is a
mistake, but one that’s easily remedied with the following tips for emotional
nurturing.1

9 Strategies to Stay Emotionally Healthy and Avoid a Breakdown

1. Be an Optimist

Looking on the bright side increases your ability to experience happiness in
your day-to-day life while helping you cope more effectively with stress.

2. Have Hope

Having hope allows you to see the light at the end of the tunnel, helping you
push through even dark, challenging times. Accomplishing goals, even small
ones, can help you to build your level of hope.

3. Accept Yourself

Self-deprecating remarks and thoughts will shroud your mind with negativity
and foster increased levels of stress. Seek out and embrace the positive traits
of yourself and your life, and avoid measuring your own worth by comparing
yourself to those around you.

4. Stay Connected

Having loving and supportive relationships helps you feel connected and
accepted, and promote a more positive mood. Intimate relationships help meet
your emotional needs, so make it a point to reach out to others to develop and
nurture these relationships in your life.

5. Express Gratitude

People who are thankful for what they have are better able to cope with
stress, have more positive emotions, and are better able to reach their goals.
The best way to harness the positive power of gratitude is to keep a gratitude
journal or list, where you actively write down exactly what you’re grateful for
each day. Doing so has been linked to happier moods, greater optimism and even
better physical health.

6. Find Your Purpose and Meaning

When you have a purpose or goal that you’re striving for, your life will take
on a new meaning that supports your mental well-being. If you’re not sure what
your purpose is, explore your natural talents and interests to help find it,
and also consider your role in intimate relationships and ability to grow
spiritually.

7. Master Your Environment

When you have mastery over your environment, you’ve learned how to best modify
your unique circumstances for the most emotional balance, which leads to
feelings of pride and success. Mastery entails using skills such as time
management and prioritization along with believing in your ability to handle
whatever life throws your way.

8. Exercise Regularly

Exercise boosts levels of health-promoting neurochemicals like serotonin,
dopamine, and norepinephrine, which may help buffer some of the effects of
stress and also relieve some symptoms of depression. Rather than viewing
exercise as a medical tool to lose weight, prevent disease, and live longer –
all benefits that occur in the future – try viewing exercise as a daily tool to
immediately enhance your frame of mind, reduce stress and feel happier.

9. Practice Mindfulness

Practicing “mindfulness” means that you’re actively paying attention to the
moment you’re in right now. Rather than letting your mind wander, when you’re
mindful you’re living in the moment and letting distracting or negative
thoughts pass through your mind without getting caught up in their emotional
implications. Mindfulness can help you reduce stress for increased well-being
as well as achieve undistracted focus.

Are You in the Midst of an Emotional Breakdown?

If difficult life circumstances and the negative emotions they create are
making happiness hard to come by, I urge you to try the Emotional Freedom
Technique (EFT).

EFT is a powerful self-help method based on research showing that emotional
trauma contributes greatly to disease. Clinical trials have shown that EFT is
able to rapidly reduce the emotional impact of memories and incidents that
trigger emotional distress. Once the distress is reduced or removed, your body
can often rebalance itself and accelerate healing.

I've seen its effectiveness first-hand for a number of years, which is why EFT
is the healing technique I most highly recommend to optimize your emotional
health.

Specifically, EFT is a form of psychological acupressure, based on the same
energy meridians used in traditional acupuncture to treat physical and
emotional ailments for over five thousand years, but without the invasiveness
of needles. Instead, simple tapping with your fingertips is used to input
kinetic energy onto specific meridians on your head and chest while you think
about your specific problem -- whether it is a traumatic event, an addiction,
pain, etc. - and voice positive affirmations.

This combination of tapping the energy meridians and voicing positive
affirmation works to clear the "short-circuit" — the emotional block — from
your body's bioenergy system, thus restoring your mind and body's balance,
which is essential for optimal emotional health and the healing of physical
disease.

Healthy Habits are Happy Habits

Embracing healthy habits will help keep your mood elevated naturally even in
the midst of stress. Happy people tend to be healthy people, and vice versa, so
in addition to the tips above, the following lifestyle strategies can also help
to support emotional wellness:

Eat well: What you eat directly impacts your mood and energy levels in both
the short and long term. Whereas eating right can prime your body and brain to
be in a focused, happy state, eating processed junk foods will leave you
sluggish and prone to chronic disease. My free nutrition plan is an excellent
tool to help you choose the best foods for both physical and emotional
wellness.
Proper sleep: Sleep deprivation is linked to psychiatric disorders such as
anxiety and bipolar depression, while getting the right amount of sleep has
been linked to positive personality characteristics such as optimism and
greater self-esteem, as well as a greater ability to solve difficult problems.2
Animal-based omega-3 fats: Low concentrations of the omega-3 fats EPA and DHA
are known to increase your risk for mood swings and mood disorders. Those
suffering from depression have been found to have lower levels of omega-3 in
their blood, compared to non-depressed individuals. Krill oil is my preferred
source of omega-3 fats.
Regular sun exposure: This is essential for vitamin D production, low levels
of which are linked to depression. But even beyond vitamin D, regular safe sun
exposure is known to enhance mood and energy through the release of endorphins.


Source: By Dr. Mercola
April 25, 2013 | 12,460 views | + Add to Favorites

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