5 Tips, Tools, and Resources to Boost Emotional Health Today
It’s an oversimplification to say that 2020 and 2021 have been emotionally draining. Work-life, family life, and relationships have all required adaptation and nurturing to stay buoyant during this time of distress. If you can relate to this sentiment, feel burnout, emotional fatigue, or are just flat-out exhausted, here are five tips and resources that may help renew your emotional health amidst a sea of uncertainty.
Mood Meter- Identify to regulate emotions.
Yale University has been pioneering research into emotional intelligence since 1990. At the forefront of this research, they’ve found that you can better understand and regulate your feelings if you learn to identify emotions correctly. Primary researchers in this field have created an app called Mood Meter that guides you through identifying your feelings with a simple, once-daily check-in app. It utilizes the RULER program, which includes Recognizing, Understanding, Labeling, Expressing, and Regulating. Through the nuanced labeling of emotions, I’ve found that I respond to stressors more appropriately and feel like I’m learning a new language to understand myself better. Check out the app to try it for yourself.
Four R’s- Managing Emotions
Experiencing any negative or troubling emotions with people you care about? Try using the Four R’s approach.
Regulate- Step away and get in touch with the emotion
Review- How was your communication?
Reframe- See from a different perspective
Re-engage- Share your feelings respectfully and honestly. This practice can be helpful in any situation where relationships and human emotions are involved.
Shoutout to the psychologist Louise Carroll, guest host of the Spotify Wake Up/ Wind Down podcast, for the idea. Listen below.
Revitalize- TED Radio Hour
An incredible podcast episode that covers this topic of revitalization during an incredibly trying time. Highly recommended. Listen below.
Armored vs. Daring Leadership
Brene Brown did a deep dive into what differentiates daring leadership from society’s traditional armored approach. Her ideas provide constructive insight given the current stressors you may feel from work from home life. Listen to both parts of the podcast below.
The Science of Emotions & Relationships
Dr. Andrew Huberman recorded an incredible podcast that walks you through the neuroscience, physiology, and psychology research behind emotions and connects the dots between relationships and emotions. It’s highly recommended if you’re interested in better understanding your emotions and feelings from a scientific perspective. Listen to the episode below.
I hope these tools and ideas help you as much as they’ve helped me over the past year. Here’s to revitalization and improving our relationship with emotional health.
Until next time,
-Shiloh at Whealth
Bonus- If you’d like more help with improving your emotional health, I’ve put together a free PDF resource that helps you build your emotional first aid kit with exercises from Guy Winch, PhD. Enter your email below to download it instantly, for free!