7 Self-Care Habits to Emotional Wellness

By Esther | September 3rd 2020 | Self-Care Series, Wellness and Recovery

We live in a time of so much struggle, grief, unrest, and pain. Life sometimes becomes difficult, uncomfortable, unpleasant, or distressing, and many people often cope through all these overwhelming emotions by ignoring them or holding them in. Sometimes people focus on the negative instead of the positive and their stress levels elevate which affects how they show up every day.

This way of dealing with all of life’s stressors can be unhealthy, mentally, and emotionally. Mental and emotional health are two very different concepts, but both are essential to our whole life abundance and both affect the other.

It is important to talk about the emotions that you are feeling because keeping it all in results in critical and devastating outcomes. The build-up of negative emotions leads to you getting overwhelmed until it becomes explosive. This becomes so unhealthy as the stress affects your emotions, your mindset, your physical well-being, your relationships, and everything else around you.

So, how can we become mentally and emotionally healthy?

Everything starts within us and we begin by taking care of ourselves. Self-care is anything that you do intentionally to take care of your mental, your emotional, and your physical health. It isn’t something that you do by happenstance. It is something that you plan out on a daily basis. You have to set your intentions to take care of yourself, and this can vary from person to person.

Here are some self-care habits that you can adopt:

1. Put your oxygen mask on first.

Self-care means that you have to take care of yourself first before you can take care of anyone else. This is not being selfish nor self-centered. In fact, taking care of yourself is the onset of selflessness because you are only able to help someone else when you have enough of yourself to give to someone else.

Just as we are instructed to put our oxygen masks on first when we encounter problems as we ride an airplane, we also have to make sure we are alright and available before we can help someone else. You have to put your oxygen mask on first and make sure that you are breathing before you can help others to breathe.

When you’re not in a good space emotionally, it is difficult for you to be in a good space mentally. And when you’re in that kind of space, are you really able to help anyone else? How do you react to everything around you when you are not in a good space?

Self-care is not selfish to care. It is loving yourself, and loving yourself enough to take care of yourself so that you are in the right attitude and mindset to help others. When you are doing well mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually, you can better serve and focus on your family, your community, and everyone else around you. It brings harmony in your life that causes you to mentally, emotionally, and physically be well.

2. Be intentional.

Think about what intentional self-care you will be doing on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. We all have a daily routine that we do, and we get used to doing it. We brush our teeth, take a bath, or comb our hair, and these are all important aspects of life.

Just as we have these routines to take care of ourselves physically, we also need to go deeper within our inner selves and take care of our mental and emotional health. That part of our life is something that most people many times miss.

It becomes so easy for us to go out and be there for someone else who needs emotional and mental support, but difficult to find the time to take care of our emotions and thoughts. We want to make sure that everybody’s okay but all the while we are hurting and dying on the inside.

You need to make an intention to take care of yourself. Plan out how you will deal with your emotions and your thoughts. How do you make sure that your emotions and your mindset are at a place of harmony?

God created us with a sound mind. However, the majority of our mental wellness is influenced by our life experiences. When you find yourself with an unsound mind, with negative emotions and thoughts that affect your decisions and perspective, you need to find a way to get out of that negative space. And that’s where intention comes in.

Your intention will allow you to be ready for whatever you will encounter in your life. It will give you the courage and the clarity to do what you need to do to get back to how you were originally created.

3. Get into a practice of prayer.

The scripture said, “Be anxious for nothing but in prayer and supplication.” Tell God all about your emotions and thoughts. You can find someone, a friend, a coach, a therapist, that you can talk to and have a safe space with. But get into a practice of prayer. You need to make sure that you are spiritually well because that feeds into how you are emotionally, mentally, and physically doing.

Psalms 3 says “The Lord is my glory and the lifter of my head.” At times when you feel depressed, God will lift your head by giving you instructions and guidance on what you are meant to do. As you make the intentional decision to take care of yourself and talk to Him and listen to His instructions, you begin to listen to what’s in your heart and then you find that He has lifted your head.

You will find that your joy, your peace, and your happiness will come back. God wants us to be happy, to have peace, and to have joy even in uncertain times. He is our certainty and it is in Him that we find our peace.

4. Routine and consistency.

As you get intentional with your self-care, plan out your day, and have a routine of your daily activities. Many times, we don’t set our intentions and we don’t have our days planned. But this often leads to chaos and confusion.

Things happen in life that can throw you off and lead to anxiety. When you plan your day, set a schedule, and do time management, you don’t become stressed out because you know what things you are doing for the day and it makes it easier for you to adjust to unforeseen and unplanned events.

5. Stay aware of your mental wellness.

What is your mental wellness right now? You need to be aware of where you are right now mentally. When you feel that you are not in a good space, have a set of things to do to bring you down to a good place.

Take your mind to a happy place. Be mindful of things that trigger your emotions. Think of how you can stop those triggers and remove them from your life. Find a safe space to talk about the things that are bothering you or weighing heavily on you. You can do this in a journal or in prayer with God, or you can find an accountability partner who will help you get your emotional and mental burdens out.

6. Find positive coping mechanisms.

How do you cope with the difficult and negative things in your life right now? Not all coping mechanisms are good. There are others who feel worse and become worse health-wise because their coping mechanisms do not bring them harmony and peace.

How you cope and how you’re struggling will affect you emotionally and mentally. Choose to cope positively. Choose coping mechanisms that give you peace and a sound mind. It can be positive affirmations or thinking about your happiest moments and going back to your happy place.

Speak positivity over yourself and over your life so that it is put in the atmosphere and God then brings it all together. This will bring peace and joy into your life.

7.  Set boundaries.

Declutter your life and set boundaries. Declutter not just your physical surroundings but also your mind and your emotions. Get rid of things that do not spark any joy and happiness in your life. Know when relationships, emotions, and thoughts can get too much.

Establish your boundaries and work on making sure that you stop what needs to be stopped and take care of what needs to be taken care of at the right moment.

These are just some of the self-care habits that you can begin to practice for your mental and emotional wellness. There are many more that you can do should you choose to add more but these are the ones that worked for me.

Listen to what your body tells you because your heart, your mind, and your body will know when you are reaching your limit. That is how you can do your self-care. If you don’t take care of yourself, how are you going to take care of others to the best of your ability?

Self-care is becoming the best of what you were created to be. It is putting you on that path of who God created you to be. It is making sure that your life is in harmony and in symphony where all of the pieces in your life work together to make beautiful music.

I want to share with you part of my intentional self-care right now, and that is my 40-day prayer challenge. I encourage you to join me or do a prayer challenge yourself. You can do this for 40 days as it is meant to be done, but you can extend it as well because you would want to see God move in your life and in your loved ones, in this land and in the world. But listen to what God is saying to you when you are in conversation with Him in prayer.

The 40-day prayer challenge:

1. Set an appointment with God to meet Him at a time you want to do the prayer.

2. Write your prayer and the reason for your prayer on a prayer journal so you can see how God is going to move and how He is going to answer prayers.

3. Get an accountability partner to pray with you and encourage you to not miss a day. You don’t have to be together just as long as you agree to a time that you will meet God in prayer.

4. Circle your prayer. List what it is that you want to pray about at a time, keep praying about it, and whatever you add to that list continue to circulate in prayer.

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