What is Emotional Health ?
By Eren Mckay
Filed under Personal Development and Growth
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Embracing Home is a place to get inspired... Make room for joy, love, laughter and peace in your life.
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This is a guest blog post by LaTara Ham-Ying Founder of Integrated Woman Ministries. I’m very happy to have LaTara here. She has a great approach to life and I’m sure you will enjoy her nuggets of wisdom. You can follow her on twitter at @latarahamying and also her ministry at @IntegratedWoman .
This may be an odd way of starting a post, but I have a few a questions for you.
• Do you deal with your emotions in a healthy way?
• Do you deal with life with your emotions at the helm?
• Do you find it difficult to get your emotions under control?
• Have you ever wondered what the Word says about emotions
and how it tells us to deal with them?
When I learned about emotional health and how the emotions can work, I learned that what we feel can be good or bad depending on the situation. There are many ways to interpret emotions and that is why knowing how to manage them is pertinent. People who learn to manage emotions well fair better in cooperative situations; and are good with motivating and managing others.
On the other hand, people who never learn to manage emotions often misinterpret emotional signals and have difficulty with relationships. This is what scientists call emotional intelligence. Although emotional intelligence probably has an inherited component, it is believed by many psychologists that people can be guided into making better use of the emotional intelligence that they possess.
“Emotional intelligence refers to people’s ability to monitor their own and other people’s emotional states and to use this information to act wisely in relationships.”
Maybe you are reading this and you say that you are not that emotionally intelligent. That is ok because it can become a healthy habit. However it takes work to become emotionally smart.
I still deal with not allowing my emotions to take over good judgment. However, after taking the classes I did to learn more about emotions and how to handle them, I have learned some techniques that will help anyone learn to effectively manage their emotions.
If your emotions are not healthy then it has a direct effect on how you run your business and your life.
Physically, when your emotions are “out of whack”, so is your body. Spiritually, when your emotions are off kilter, then your walk with God seems pretty dull and listless.
Some dangers of not getting your emotions under control include…
• Distorted perception causing a false sense of reality
• Assumption living – you assume more than you find facts
• Miserable existence
• Depression, suicide, and other conditions
The dangers of mismanaging your emotions go even deeper than what was just mentioned and when they go that deep it can almost take you to the edge of no return!
Part 2 of this topic I share techniques that you can use to help you manage your emotions for healthier living → How to Improve Emotional Intelligence.
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First let me say thank you to Eren for allowing me to speak with her readers this week. I am always humbled when someone thinks enough of me to let me share my little ole’ thoughts.
For those reading this post and the next one that will be up on Thursday, be sure to comment because I am having a giveaway for each leg of the month long tour and will be announcing the winners January 31, 2011 over at the Integrated Woman Blog! Comments must be relevant to the subject at hand!
The prize for this blog is a copy of Joyce Meyer’s book Love Revolution and 30 minutes of emotional management coaching with me.
LaTara Ham-Ying a certified herbalist, writer, Biblical Life Coach, entrepreneur, and the Founder of Integrated Woman Ministries; a coaching ministry that focuses on helping Christian work at home women find their true path through abundant integrated living. She emphasizes the use of practical Biblical Strategies for healing, transformation, and living in the NOW for a better life and business. For a membership option that will help you mind, body, and spirit visit Integrated Woman Ministries today and learn more about the IWM VIP FREE membership option for Christian work at home women http://integratedwomanministries.com/vip-membership
LaTara Ham-Ying
Eren, thank you for sharing me with your readers. I appreciate you being a host for the tour!
Eren Mckay
My pleasure! Emotional health is essential for people to be happy in their lives. Thank you for this wonderful post – loved it
Blessings,
Eren
Arika
Great post LaTara! Eren, Thanks for having LaTara as a guest – she definitely is full of helpful information!
Emotional health is one of my weaker areas for sure. For the longest time I didn’t realize that I was in control of my emotions, but instead when through life letting my emotions control me. It’s definitely something that is a continuous work in progress.
Atmaja
Thank you for sharing your insights LaTara and Eren for letting me know about this post. Emotional challenges are part of being self-focused. Most people want what they want and need to “walk a mile in the other person’s moccasins”.
It is much easier to not hold on to negative emotions when we consider how the other person feels – and at first you won’t know so you have to ASK and hope they can communicate them in a way that you can understand their viewpoint.
Depression comes from being self-absorbed. The more selfish you are the more you think only of what you don’t have and that leads to unhappiness.
The easy way to find emotional health is to surrender completely to God and walk with Jesus. When you are doing His will you automatically focus outward and serve others instead of money, greed, habits or things.
There is great peace to be found through surrender.
Crystal
This is just what I needed to read. In 2008, I was emotionally messed up where I was close to losing it. I was filled with anxiety and was experiencing emotional breakdowns. The other day I was saying how God has brought me so far…I must say I have improved emotionally, but because I have damaged emotions…I am very soft in that area. Though at times I cry I haven’t had the breakdowns in a long time, but my emotions are still affecting different areas of my life in some ways. I am trying to get over the oversensitive thing which I’m not proud of having. A Well done blog LaTara!!!
LaTara Ham-Ying
@Arika Our emotions can rule us and we think it is really ok for them to do that until we get in what I call “emotional clutter rut” where they consume us so much that we really don’t know who are. That is when you realize you need to get a grip.
@Atmaja Thank you for your comment. I love your comment about depression being selfish. I have been there and that is what God showed me. I wanted it to be about “me” and it clearly was not. It is about God being glorified and my carrying out the will of the One who created me. Depression is almost like slapping God in the face and telling Him that this is not the life you want and He needs to make it better. We have the power to take the steps necessary for change. God has it all ready for us to walk in but we have to willing to release self. Thanks again for your comments!
@Crystal I have been there girl and baby let me tell you it ain’t nothing nice. I actually tried to take my life in February of 2008 and it was not my first time but God would not let it be and here I am today coaching other women on transformation because mine was PHENOMENAL! Keep your head up and never look back. Move forward and keep your eyes focused on your journey and the call on your life.
Bless you all!
Eren Mckay
It truly is amazing how God can transform our minds and get us out of the rut when we seek Him. So many times He has used other people to show me things- to enlighten my understanding on a topic. The one thing that I have learned is that there is a whole other spiritual dimension to life that people don’t even know exist. There is the spiritual world and evil spiritual beings trying to influence us constantly. Applying God’s truth and having the faith is a very big weapon that we have to fight against them.
In relation to depression being selfish – I believe that there are cases when this is so; however when depression is brought on by extreme trauma, I would have to say that it is a series of misconceptions and lies that found their way into our minds. For example, when I lost 8 people of my family in the time frame of 6 months it really affected my joy. I tried very hard to “snap out of it” but simply couldn’t seem to be able to. Then the Lord began to show me His perspective on the losses and this began to change my view too. Sometimes it’s a wrong way of seeing an event that has happened that can lead to depression.
In all things we need to seek His face for the right perspective.
Blessings,
Eren
Whit
Thanks for the reminder to each of us about how very important emotions are. We need to always remember that it is God who gave us our emotions. They are a gift from Him. It is our responsibility to use them wisely and to manage them effectively.
His gifts are most often not “for” us, but are to be used in order for Him to work “through” us. How we manage our emotions then, becomes not just about ME — but more about how God can work through me (using my emotions) to meet the needs of others.
I believe God wants to work through us and use our emotions to make a positive impact on those around us. Managing our emotions and not allowing them to run wild becomes all that more important.
Looking forward to seeing your techniques soon!
LaTara Ham-Ying
@Eren I hear ya and this is true about the depression part. However, God always shows us how to rise above it and if we choose to stay stuck in it then that is selfish. You saw what He was showing you and that is wonderful. So glad that you see the blessings in all that occurred.
@Whit Exactly! The key to healthy living – mind, body, and spirit – is to first realize that you are not the center of focus…God is! That will help you with emotional healing and management! Thanks for sharing!
Crystal
Thanks LaTara! I will! God is using you in a mighty way!
Eren Mckay
@LaTara - So true. We have the free will to decide to make a change and work to get out of that dark place. Accepting defeat ultimately is agreeing with our enemy (the devil) instead of with God. It may take time and I have found that it’s like a spiral progression to get completely out of that space. Each step, the Lord shows us one more truth until we are completely out. And when we are finally on the path of light we never ever want to go back there again. It makes us so much stronger to have gone through it and changes the way we look at life completely.
@Arika- It’s a pleasure to have LaTara guest posting. The vision that the Lord has given her of integrating Him into every aspect of our lives is the same vision He has given me personally for my life too. We can all unite in Him to uplift and help each other on this journey.
@Atmaja, @Crystal and @Whit - Thanks for your insightful comments and sharing your experiences with us all.
Blessings,
Eren