Your Emotional Health Matters

[ummtaalib]

 

Peace of mind, contentment, happiness and freedom from worries and anxiety – this is what everyone is searching for to have a good life and find complete happiness and joy.

 

Looking after your emotional health is just as important as caring for your physical health. People who are emotionally healthy are in control of their emotions and behaviour and are able to handle life’s inevitable challenges, build strong relationships, and lead productive, fulfilling lives.

 

Being emotionally and mentally healthy doesn’t mean never going through bad times or not experiencing emotional problems…

 

The difference is that people with good emotional health have an ability to bounce back from adversity, trauma, and stress. People with positive outlook remain focused, flexible, and creative even in bad times. However, it is not easy to maintain a healthy, positive emotional state as people often misjudge what will make them happy and content!

 

What is Emotional health?

 

Mental or emotional health refers to your overall psychological well-being. It includes the way you feel about yourself, the quality of your relationships, and your ability to manage your feelings and deal with difficulties. It is a sense of contentment, a zest for living and the ability to enjoy life, and a sense of meaning and purpose in both your activities and relationships. The flexibility to learn new things and adapt to changes. Having self-confidence and high self-esteem.

 

How to achieve good emotional health?

 

1. Pray with complete devotion and sincerity: Performing acts of worship (Ibadah) with perfection and seeking forgiveness from Allah Ta’ala helps one to achieve good emotional balance.

 

2. Manage your stress levels: Stress takes a heavy toll on mental and emotional health, so it’s important to keep it under control. While not all stress can be avoided, stress management strategies can help you bring things back into balance. Try to avoid becoming absorbed by repetitive mental habits; negative thoughts about yourself and the world around you drain your energy and trigger feelings of anxiety, fear, and depression.

 

3. Do things that positively impact others: Being useful to others regardless of what community they belong to and being valued for what you did for them can help build self-esteem. Make people feel your absence! Rasulullah Sallallahu Alayhi wa Sallam said, “The most beloved people to Allah are those who are most beneficial to people. The most beloved deed to Allah is to make a Muslim happy, to remove his troubles, to forgive his debt or to feed his hunger.”(Al-Mujam Al-Awsat)

 

4. Realize your values and capabilities: When you are living your life in harmony with your values, you naturally have more energy, fulfilment, balance and stress-free living. Your values represent your unique and individual essence and your way of being and relating to others. We should discover our unique capabilities with which we can positively change the world around us.

 

5. Clear the clutter: Clutter is not just those physical things hoarded for years. It includes relationships, time commitments and other things that use up more of your energy than you can afford to give them. Cleaning up your life and just keeping things that support you in your chosen lifestyle boosts your energy levels, gives you joy and protects your values since you are no longer wasting time and mental thoughts on things not of importance to you. You can now focus on the things that really matter.

 

De-cluttering means to eliminate the things that cause worry and to achieve the things that bring happiness. It may be done by forgetting about bad things in the past which cannot be changed, and realizing that dwelling on them is a waste of time. A person must strive to stop himself from feeling anxious about the future like imagination of poverty, fear and other bad things that might happen to him.

 

6. Enjoy the beauty of nature: A simple walk through a garden can lower blood pressure and reduce stress.

 

7. Express your emotions: To be emotionally healthy you must express your emotions in a healthy and assertive way.

 

8. Exercise: Regular exercise assists in boosting one’s emotional well-being.

 

These positive characteristics allow you to participate in life to the fullest extent possible through productive, meaningful activities and strong relationships. They also help you cope when faced with life’s challenges and stresses. Positive emotions are linked with better health and greater well-being. On the other hand, chronic anger, worry, and hostility increases the risk of developing heart diseases, as people react to these feelings with raised blood pressure and stiffening of blood vessels.

 

Jamiatul Ulama (KZN)
Council of Muslim Theologians