Managing your emotional wellbeing
The importance of managing your emotional wellbeing.
It’s so hard to stay strong when everything is crumbling around you. In other words, managing your emotional wellbeing and happiness is tricky, especially during tough times.
Sometimes your emotional tank is empty and sometimes it’s overflowing. And sometimes you don’t notice the change until it’s too late!
But you can feel the difference!
For example, we’ve all felt the lows of sadness or anger, and the highs of excitement or happiness.
However, some people show their emotions much more than others! Some are emotionally expressive and others seem to hold it all inside. Both can be a hindrance or a blessing.
Either way, managing your emotional wellbeing and happiness is partly about becoming self-aware!
Managing your emotional wellbeing begins with self-awareness
I know you’ve probably heard that before, possibly from someone else or even from me! And you might be thinking that getting to know yourself isn’t as easy as it sounds. Of course, you’re right, but it is worth the effort because the rewards are significant.
The ultimate prize is feeling good about who you are.
Secondary bonuses are higher self-belief and confidence and improved health and happiness.
Other valuable outcomes are strength of mind and resilience.
But how do you become self-aware?
A good place to start is to look inside yourself and ask some questions.
Who am I?
What do I get passionate about?
Am I more emotionally outgoing or more reserved?
What are my interests, motivations, skills, and strengths?
What makes me happy?
As we go through life, we experience so much. These experiences (good or not) cause us to have feelings, which contribute to the formation of our self-beliefs and self-image. We begin to recognise what we like and dislike, what we are good at and what switches us on or off.
In other words, each experience we have is an opportunity to develop our self-awareness.
Why is self-awareness so important?
Research proves that the more self-aware you become, the better your prospects in life.
Just imagine living a life that neither excites you nor gives you any satisfaction. Getting up and dragging yourself through the workday, demotivated and unhappy. Spending the majority of your waking hours disliking what you are doing, who you’re becoming. Stuck-in-a-rut. Feeling unable to change course, paralysed by your commitments. So, you keep getting up day after day, becoming more miserable and demoralised. It’s a perpetual cycle unless you interrupt it.
Sitting on the fence and feeling unable to step off because of the risks is a common trap.
The awful thing is that fear, doubt, and inaction lead to a life of disappointment.
Self-awareness gives you the power to change because it helps you become more confident in your abilities. Above all, self-awareness gives you inner strength. Which, in turn, supports growth in courage, and in the resilience to keep going when times are tough.
Self-awareness is for everyone!
Some people are fast learners and others are late starters, but everyone can benefit from self-awareness.
Society can benefit too!
Imagine a world where every child had the opportunity to learn about themselves from an early age. Growing up and finding pathways in life that suit them and give them satisfaction. There would be less reliance on welfare because the emerging population would be better equipped (and more motivated) to map out their future and go after their dreams.
Adults also benefit because it’s never too late to invest in yourself and find happiness.
You may also like this post about How failures can support growth in children’s confidence – Mindscreen
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Helping Children Flourish
Gav Devereux
Author bio
Being diagnosed with dyslexia, labelled remedial, and regularly told that I was a “stupid boy” affected my self-esteem.
Worse still, I carried low self-worth into my adult life. Yet, later, when I learned how to challenge my destructive mindset, I began to feel happier.
I thought, if I can change my way of thinking, anyone can!
And so, in 1996 I founded Mindscreen and began developing resources to help children to believe in themselves and go after their dreams.
That’s how the Mindscreen experience® came into being. I hope it helps your children as much as it has helped me!