Feel your way to wellness.

Emotions in short can be described as your mental state, or how you are feeling. These internal feelings can affect our choices, actions, relationships, work, and more.  How each one of us reacts internally to our outside world is very unique and thousands of hours have been spent by psychologists, philosophers, spiritual leaders, psychiatrists, medical doctors, neurologists, and many others in order to understand human emotions, what drives them, and how to manage them. Emotions are something we all have and no matter who you are, understanding them can help you to be more successful and to make choices that will promote your long term happiness and wellbeing.

Basic and Sub-Emotions

Image Courtesy Wikipedia

How emotions relate to your wellness is an interesting topic and we will share a few ideas. Emotions help guide us and it is important to interpret our emotions in order to make choices that will be beneficial to our long term wellbeing. For example, if a person recognizes that they are feeling feeling angry and anxious about work stress and decides that they want to do something to feel better, they might try some relaxation techniques. Or, as another example, there might be a person who has been wanting to start a new weight management routine and when they see they have lost weight begin to feel very optimistic and happy about their progress. The key is understanding ourselves and what we want and interpreting our emotions in order to help us make choices that are likely to help us feel the way we want to feel in the future.

One consideration in interpreting our emotions is the idea of long term vs. short term benefit. A vigorous fitness routine might be challenging, and we might feel resentful or irritated at the difficulty, but in the end, the long term benefits well outweigh these temporary feelings. Or for the person who has been working to lose weight and is feeling happy about their progress, considering the possible guilt and sadness of giving up on their new healthy lifestyle and gaining weight back might help to keep them on track. It can be very helpful to think ahead about how your choices are likely going to make you feel and use these projected feelings as a guide for your choices in the now. Keeping a positive mental outlook can go a long way to helping us achieve our goals.

A Word on Eating When You’re Not Hungry & Emotional Eating

Emotional eating and eating when we are not hungary are common and there are many studies investigating it now. According to WebMD, people may be triggered to eat when they are not hungry for many reasons including searching for a feeling like feeling comforted when stressed, socializing like at a party, or situational like passing a donut shop. Stopping to consider the long term feelings that might be the result of our choices can be very helpful in these situations. To overcome emotional or stress related eating, people are often aided by understanding their stress and finding relaxation techniques that work for them and beyond this, possibly working with a Lifestyle Coach, Dietitian, or becoming involved in spiritual practices, or group or personal counseling.

If you believe you may have a medical condition, seek help from a medical or psychological professional, for other assistance with emotions, stress, and choices browse our Merchant Directory for a range of services and find what works for you individually

Author: Tony Montijo, BS Kinesiology, CPT, CES