The subtle dance towards toward emotional health is a one that takes patience, acceptance, and compassion. As a mental and emotional health professional I assist others in maneuvering the challenges of our feelings towards understanding and healthy expression. This aspect of health seems very important to me because I daily see how emotions shape our outlook and our ability to maneuver the bumpy road of life. The following are three qualities that will assist you to feel emotionally balanced and mentally healthy.
Patience is the first quality I wanted to share with you as a way to better understand the rollercoaster of feelings that flow through you on a daily basis. Patience is important because all feelings are transitory and will come and go on their own. There really is no effort needed if you can just watch feelings arise in you and then dissipate into another feeling, into another feeling and then guess what, into another feeling. Waiting long enough, which will usually be at the most 10 slow mindful breaths, will transform even the most difficult emotions into something you can handle or at least be ok with in the moment. Patience means being able to be spacious with emotions and just let them be and not reacting to them.
The second quality for emotional well-being is acceptance. All feelings are ok. Sure some are very difficult but they are still ok to be experiencing them. Acceptance of yourself having a full range of emotions gives you a wide spectrum of possibilities in your response to the world around you. Acceptance means be ok with who you are and what you feel. Accepting your uniqueness, appreciating your differences from the norm means you are comfortable with yourself and that is very liberating.
Compassion is the third quality of emotional health. Too often you and I learn to be so self critical in the earlier years of life. The critic in you needs to be set aside and the compassionate heart needs to run your self-assessment program. Your caring, kindness and understand of yourself will be very supportive to your emotional wellness. Having compassion for the full range of emotions life puts you through is important. Compassion is needed when your off track thoughts tangle you all up in unhealthy reactivity. The way of compassion is the way of self-love, self-respect and self-confidence.
Today be aware of times when you need to be more patient, when you would benefit from being more accepting, and when a big dose of compassion is called for and give them to yourself and those around you. This will make life seem much lighter and more hopeful.