Developing emotional health takes time and dedication. It is not something that is an overnight success – but it is an essential aspect of living well.
As with most things in life, the reward corresponds to the effort put in. Because it takes time and dedication, the reward is substantial.
The first steps are to become aware of and then accept your role in changing behavior patterns that are not serving you well. This is in everyone’s own hands.
But as soon as someone accepts that they are free to choose how they respond to situations, their emotional health will start gaining strength.
Being emotionally strong means you will have learned not to give time or waste energy on negative emotions such as self-pity, excessive pride or envy.
In place of these you have room for the positive stuff in life – uplifting emotions such as hope, trust and love. You will tend to increasingly and automatically look for the positive.
You become someone who can embrace change rather than resent and fear it. You are comfortable in your ability to make choices that previously most likely would have left you procrastinating because you were full of anxiety.
Being emotionally strong means having the right tools in your emotional toolbox. You know how to use these tools – and as a result life in general gets progressively better.
Here are six major signs of strong emotional wellbeing:
1. You learn from your mistakes
Emotionally strong people may say the mantra: “There are no such things as bad things, only things to learn and grow from.”
We are all human – therefore we make mistakes. It’s totally acceptable.
By seeing mistakes as learning exercises we save ourselves from negative feelings of remorse, guilt and overwhelming anxiety. These all steal our energy.
In fact, people with the strongest emotional health, while perhaps not inviting bad things into their life, almost immediately know that everything can be learned from. This means they can continue growing.
Then, when something similar arises, they can deal with it in a much more efficient manner. It also means they are able to help other people who seek their guidance when a similar situation happens to them.
2. Recognizing when things are out of your control
A phrase often heard in recovery circles is: remember that you are powerless over other people, places and things.
But what we do always have control over is our attitude. That means we are in charge about how we react to someone or something.
It’s why the serenity prayer that’s said at many Twelve Steps meetings is so helpful to so many people. “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”
Understanding that certain things are out of our control allows acceptance to come much more swiftly. This stops a self-imposed burden from pushing down on our shoulders.
It allows us to be emotionally healthier and stronger. This means that when things do come along that are in our control we have much more energy and clarity of mind to deal with them in the right way.
3. You have healthy boundaries
A big step in becoming emotionally strong is to have healthy boundaries. It means that you know yourself and have enough self-love and self-assuredness to set and keep these boundaries.
It is that you are comfortable enough to say no to certain requests that cross your boundary. It means you can stand up for yourself when someone is threatening your healthy boundary.
Having a healthy boundary stops someone from being a people-pleaser. It is all a part of being aware enough to choose positive patterns of behavior.
4. You live one day at a time and deal with problems as they happen
Avoiding problems that come along only allows the issues to fill up your head. By living each day at a time and staying in the now you will free your mind of yesterday’s issues and tomorrow’s worries.
It is pointless to regret the past as it won’t change a thing. Likewise, to worry about the future.
In fact worrying about the future only guarantees one thing: you will ruin the present moment due to the worrying.
Swiftly dealing with problems and putting them to bed keeps your mental and emotional filing cabinet in good order. It gives a sense of job done, and that gives priceless peace of mind.
Epictetus, one of the most influential people from the Stoic school of philosophy, said this much way back in the 3rd Century BC: “Caretake this moment. Immerse yourself in its particulars. Respond to this person, this challenge, this deed. Quit evasions.
“Stop giving yourself needless trouble. It is time to really live; to fully inhabit the situation you happen to be in now.”
5. You express gratitude
By focusing on abundance and what you have in life rather than lack and what you don’t have, you’re giving yourself emotional strength.
Daily gratitude lists – when you write down things for which you are grateful – will keep your focus on the positive things in life. These are often things taken for granted, but that we would miss if we didn’t have them.
You can include your health, your five senses, your family and friends, your home, food in the fridge, running water and even smaller things such as having a pair of trainers or a comfortable cushion that you love to put your head on to relax.
Expressing gratitude helps to keep you in the present moment too by focusing on things around you and in your life. Gratitude is very powerful towards having strong emotional health – and such as depression and anxiety cannot exist alongside gratitude.
6. Letting go of your resentments
By quickly being able to recognize a resentment and dealing with it you will boost your emotional strength. You remove the power a resentment usually holds over you – and so can swiftly get on with your life.
Strongly connected with this is forgiveness. People who have strong emotional health know that forgiveness, while also good for the world around, is amazingly positive for themselves.
Frequently, when we have a resentment against someone, that person cannot feel a thing, and yet we go on feeling terrible or consumed with anger as we think about them. We are hurting ourselves.
It’s been said to be the equivalent of drinking poison, and then waiting for the person we resent to die…
So not having – or swiftly letting go – of any resentments, and then forgiving gives an immense boost to our emotional health.
Our expert team has decades of combined experience in helping people achieve strong emotional health and wellbeing. If need be, we can also initially guide people to achieve emotional rehabilitation.
Discover how we can help you or someone you care about by contacting us today.
Recovery is a journey that goes in many distinct ways for different people.
It’s true that as with many things – such as playing an instrument or going to the gym – the more you put in, the more you benefit.
But when it comes to recovery, the starting point for people is frequently a different one. Some people have more to mend than others.
Some people have gone even further down, their rock bottom looks much worse.
Then, in addition to whatever the mental health problem is, it also depends on such as how much needs to be unlearned or newly learned. Another factor to consider is the sensitivity of the person themselves.
The word “recovery” actually derives from Latin recuperare meaning “get again”. This means returning to a way of being before such as addiction, depression, stress or anxiety took hold.
But many people who get into recovery realize that while all types of mental illnesses usually get progressively worse unless treated – so too recovery gets progressively better. This is so long as what has helped move them into recovery continues to be worked.
Many people then come to realize that there’s something so much more on offer in recovery…
Here are six major benefits of recovery:
1. Improved sleep
For a great number of people the first improvement around sleep is that they actually start to get some sleep at all. As problems from the past and present are resolved sleep will get increasingly regular and better.
Part of recovery can involve dealing with anything that has been affecting peace of mind. This will only aid and enhance sleep.
Also, for those who’ve been addicted to alcohol or drugs they will come to see that what they thought was sleeping was more like “passing out”. Consequently they will awake much more refreshed.
When we are tired we are more prone to be irritable and not make the best decisions and choices. So there are immense benefits all round – and these can come swiftly for someone who starts recovery.
2. Boosted energy
One of the other benefits of regular and better sleep is that there will be much more energy. This is also combined with a clearer head.
So decision-making skills are much better. The result is there is less stress in daily living.
It also means we can put much more into life. This is whether it is from parenting or studying to working or playing sports.
3. Better health
Having regular decent sleep also means we are healthier. It means that we are less likely to catch such as a virus, but it also means if we do get ill we are stronger to recover, usually much more swiftly too.
Of course this is combined with the fact that if someone is drinking excessively or addicted to drugs they are most likely damaging themselves physically as well as emotionally. Then, being trapped in a behavioral addiction often means not eating well and/or properly.
Mental health conditions such as depression, stress and anxiety mean that people suffering from them do not or cannot look after themselves well. Meals will be skipped or unhealthy quick-fix food eaten instead of regular healthy meals.
Being in recovery means learning again how to take care of ourselves, and knowing we are worth that.
4. Increased time
One of the first things that many people who start recovery realize is that they have more time. This is because such as an addiction is not taking up their time in planning what and when to get it, then the using and/or drinking and then the getting over that – such as struggling with a hangover.
A regular part of getting over it is there’s often a great deal of time spent in trying to pick up the pieces caused by certain behaviors while using and/or drinking.
In recovery, mornings are not spent in trying to merely survive them or repair damages caused; and afternoons are not wasted in planning the next session. Then the evenings are not about getting intoxicated.
With this increased time that comes with recovery, it means more time for not only recovery – but also many things that have often been neglected such as spending quality time with family and friends.
Life gets narrower when suffering with mental health problems. On the other side of that, life gets more varied and enjoyable in recovery – with, for instance, old hobbies regained and new hobbies discovered.
5. More money
When people get into recovery, a great many look back and wonder… how they could ever have afforded to be so unwell with such as an addiction or debilitating anxiety and depression that meant they couldn’t work.
For those who drank alcohol addictively or who used drugs or were addicted to such as gambling, shopping and sex addictions, they will realize just how much of their money went on their damaging habits.
So as well as saving money that might previously have been spent on, say, drink, drugs or gambling, there’s also a boost to earning abilities. This is as people gain more time and get fully back into employment and running businesses that their mental health problems had limited or stopped.
6. Discover who you’re meant to be
So long as recovery is worked at it gets progressively better. This means to keep doing the things that help with recovery and growth.
Many people discover that recovery leads them to a way of living that is infinitely better. But also that the best recovery of all is when we once again become who we know we’re truly meant to be.
This gives a peace of mind that is priceless.
If anyone puts the necessary recovery work in with honesty, humility, courage, dedication and an open mind – combined with the support of a therapist as well as perhaps others in recovery – they will gain these major benefits.
In addition, there can be spiritual growth that gives many people’s lives a whole new meaning. There is more connection with other people, which means all relationships will improve.
Many people also learn how to keep life more in the present moment. This means they’re not trapped in their thoughts with regrets for the past and worries for the future.
Then they are much more likely to notice the beauty around them. That is in other people as well as in nature.
An immense recovery benefit is being able to value and love yourself, to care for and treat yourself well. Most people will naturally exercise more and make sure they eat healthily.
Many people in recovery talk about starting to feel lucky rather than always being unlucky. This is much to do with how we look at life: whether we focus on the negative or the positive.
“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts,” said the Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius.
Life increasingly gets more meaning. As psychiatrist Viktor Frankl wrote about in one of the world’s bestselling recovery books – Man’s Search For Meaning – when we find our meaning it leads to our happiness.
It certainly takes courage to seek help. But the results can be absolutely remarkable for someone who seeks help – and for everybody around them as well.
Our expert team has many decades of experience in treating people with all mental health problems. We listen carefully before offering proven successful treatments that are individualized for each of our guests.
Our luxury home is in an inspirational natural setting beside a tranquil lake. It is perfect for recovery.
Contact us today for a confidential chat to find out how we can help you or someone you love get into recovery.
Physical and mental wellbeing go hand in hand. For anyone starting recovery it is important to give their body the ultimate physical help it needs.
So, the right diet can significantly help the recovery process.
For instance, absorption of many essential nutrients and vitamins are severely reduced when addictively using drugs and/or alcohol. Deficiencies in essential nutrients and vitamins will affect mood, skin and hair.
As well, unhealthy toxins are likely to have built up. This is particularly the case with alcohol and drug addictions.
But it can also be for such as workaholics or addictive gamblers. This is because the addiction is their priority, coming before eating regularly and well.
Then with depression, stress and anxiety, many sufferers become indifferent to food. Appetite loss is common with these types of mental health conditions.
In recovery, it’s vital to replenish the body. By giving the body the most healthy diet, people can aid their recovery progress by physically healing from the inside out.
Here are some of the best foods for recovery.
Fish
Fish is filled with omega-3, an unsaturated fatty acid that occurs chiefly in fish oils. It plays an important role in brain function. The best omega-3-rich fish options are considered to be tuna, cod, herring, salmon, mackerel, trout and sardine.
Probiotic yogurts
Probiotic yogurts are ideal for restoring gut health. This will have no doubt been damaged to some extent with an alcohol or drug addiction. But plenty of probiotics will certainly help bring the gastrointestinal system back to a healthy state.
Fiber-rich foods
Fiber-rich foods such as wholegrain pastas and breakfast cereals are also essential to restore digestive health. The digestive system needs to find its balance to increase absorption of essential vitamins and nutrients. Other fiber-rich foods are pears, melon, broccoli, carrots, peas, beans, pulses and potatoes with skin.
Fresh vegetables
Fresh vegetables give an array of essential vitamins that help restore levels of nutrition. Leafy greens are the ultimate superfood as they are high in vitamins A, C and K as well as providing a fantastic source of iron, calcium and potassium.
Antioxidants
One of the best ways to boost your immune system and clear the body of toxins is to eat foods that are rich in antioxidants. Antioxidants are substances that can protect our cells against free radicals that might play a role in cancer, heart disease and other chronic illnesses. Dark chocolate is a snack that contains high levels. Blueberries, raspberries and strawberries are another delicious way of making sure the body gets the antioxidants it needs.
Fresh fruit
As well as blueberries, raspberries and strawberries, fresh fruit in general is superb at giving the body a boost. Every type of fruit is beneficial – and the fresher the better.
Nuts and seeds
Nuts and seeds are great sources of vitamins, minerals, protein, healthy fats and they are fiber-rich too. Walnuts have a great amount of omega-3 fatty acids. Hazelnuts, pecans, almonds and macadamia nuts are health enhancers for the heart.
Drinks
We should drink six to eight glasses of fluid a day. Make it more if it’s sunny, as the weather is most days here with us in Florida.
Fruit juices and smoothies are a healthy way to drink enough. But beware of their sugars – and it’s best to completely avoid sugary sodas.
Tea and coffee count, but many people find it helps their recovery to cut down or quit drinks containing caffeine. One reason is that they can negatively affect sleep.
Sleeping regularly and well is another aspect of wellbeing that we ensure at Tikvah Lake. Many people arrive with irregular sleep patterns.
We help our guests get into a regular schedule. So they are in bed at the same time every night and waking up at the same time each morning.
It’s also important to eat at regular times every day. We make sure that’s the case for all our guests.
Our first-class chef ensures everyone gets the very best diet for their recovery. Naturally, all our food at Tikvah Lake is carefully selected for its top quality and freshness.
We also encourage exercise. This could be such as walking around the beautiful lake or heading out on a nature trail in the stunning surrounding countryside.
We are in the ideal natural setting to enhance physical and emotional wellbeing. Our luxury mansion – with our stunning tranquil lake gently lapping up to our lawn – is made with total relaxation in mind.
Our experienced team has many years of experience treating people with all types of mental health problems. Call us to have a friendly chat about how we can help you or someone you love to get into successful recovery today.
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