Health Corner: On That Note by Lydia Harris

Harmonizing Your Mental and Emotional Wellbeing to Beat the Pandemic Blues

May is Mental Health Awareness Month, an opportunity for us to reflect on the effects COVID-19 has had on our mental health and well-being. Though we are familiar with the impact it had on us, during 2020, there are lingering effects that warrant our attention.

If you want to take care of your body, then you eat right, exercise, visit the doctor regularly, pay attention to signals that indicate wellness, and engage in healthy habits that support your overall well-being. But, if you want to take care of your mind or your emotions, what should you do? As it turns out, you should do the same things that you do for other parts of your health.

Taking care of your mind and your emotional wellbeing is an essential part of safeguarding your overall wellness.Yourpsychologicalfitnessisjustasnecessary as your physical health and, when you take care of one of these, you help to take care of the other.

Your mental health plays a significant role in your physical well-being and researchers have documented this effect in many ways. When you care for your body, you also are helping to care for your mind.

Your mental health encompasses your social, psychological, and emotional wellness. Mental health influences how you feel, think, and act throughout your life, while determining how you relate to others, cope with setbacks, and make choices that can change your life. Your mental health is a critical part of your overall wellness at all stages of your life.

Emotional health is what allows you to cope with stress, handle problems as they arise, and maintain healthy relationships in your life. You may not have the most robust emotional health every single day of your life. People who are emotionally healthy have a positive outlook and bounce back quickly and easily, when they experience unwanted, stressful, or adverse circumstances in their lives. Your ability to cope with stress is dictated by your psychological and emotional health. This aspect of wellness influences how well you take care of yourself, your ability to be productive and accomplish your dreams, how well you contribute to society, and your overall ability to realize your potential in life. Without strong mental health, it is exceedingly difficult to succeed in other parts of your life.

When your mental health is weak, you can have psychological or emotional problems that interfere with your ability to live happily and healthily. Mental health problems and illnesses affect your behavior, how you think, and how you feel. Disorders like anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder can make it difficult to function or lead a productive life.

National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) reported that 1 in 5 Americans suffered from mental illness in 2019. The best treatments are those that combine conventional therapies with healthy changes to lifestyle that focus on overall wellness habits. In addition to medications and psychological treatment, there are many habits, techniques, and strategies you can use to boost your emotional well-being.

Your body reacts to and is influenced by how you feel and think in the same way your emotions and mental state are affected by how you physically feel. The mind-body connection has been documented and explored consistently over the past several decades. There is definitive evidence that your emotional and mental states are connected to your physical health in many ways.

Those who suffer from mental or emotional health problems are more likely to suffer from some form of chronic disease because they are less likely to engage in healthy habits and behaviors. Anything that disrupts this balance interferes with your well-being. Being stressed, tired, or dissatisfied makes you as unwell as eating poorly, being overweight, or lacking strength and flexibility.

Wellness begins by determining what would bring (con’t on page 43)