How to Achieve Optimum Emotional Wellness: Three Nourishing Practices to Help

Living with a chronic ill-health condition not only has an impact on your physical wellness, it can affect your emotional wellbeing also.

I know only too well that living with pain and illness can gnaw away at how you feel about yourself, impact your moods, and lower your sense of purpose and self-esteem.

Over the last three and a half decades of living with chronic intractable pain, it is only fair to admit to you that I have made many mistakes – and been down many a dark tunnel.

And what I have come to know, is that when it comes to your emotional wellbeing,  the following three nourishing practices really help:

1. Be proud of who you are.

It’s easy to compare yourself to others in life, to feel they are more deserving of happiness or success than you. When you see yourself as less worthy in some way, however, your emotional wellness is threatened. The hunger for life in your soul risks being extinguished as you lose a piece of what makes you you.

The secret to feeling good about yourself is to learn to love yourself as you are. Each one of us is perfectly imperfect in some way. Having a perfect body, enjoying excellent health, or living an ideal life is not the reality of our world. Perfect is not real life. We each have our quirks, strengths, weaknesses, talents, skills, preferences, interests, passions, and abilities. It is up to each one of us to own our story, live and tell it well, and fulfil our unique place in the world.

In the words of the wonderful Mariah Carey, “You really have to look inside yourself and find your own inner strength and say, ‘I’m proud of what I am and who I am.’”

A great nourishing practice is to get out your journal regularly and list 10 things you are proud of yourself for — both the small and the large.

2. Own your space.

It is important to recognize that what you let into your world impacts who you are. You can surround yourself with a space that erodes your soul and enthusiasm for life, or you can consciously choose your inputs to uplift, nourish, and positively benefit you.

Put simply, what you take in shapes what you put out; your inputs will impact your outputs.

The space you create around you will subconsciously make and influence your emotional well-being and how you show up in your world.

And so, become more self-aware and get in the healthy habit of taking ownership of what you feed your subconscious. Surround yourself with things that light you up or uplift you in some way. Likewise, be intentional about mixing with people who feel like sunshine. Own your space and who and what you allow in it. Every day, aim to touch base with some of those soul-nourishing people, events, or things. Whether it is picking some fresh flowers from your garden or having them delivered with your supermarket shopping, buying a new uplifting book or magazine, lighting a scented candle, enjoying the smell of fresh bread from your kitchen, or uploading an inspiring image or quote as the background on your phone or computer, get in the habit send positive messages to your brain!

3. Find joy in the journey.

Consciously and actively get in the habit of taking steps to let more of the joy come back into your life. It is joy that will uplift you at an emotional level and bring more meaning and purpose to your life.

It’s important to understand that living with joy doesn’t necessarily mean that you will not experience adversity, feel acute sadness, experience grief, or be overwhelmed by loss or pain at times. Like happiness, joy does not depend on circumstances. It is the light that you choose to emanate and shine from within you — expressing your heartfelt appreciation for life itself and freely embracing your soul and spirit within.

In short, if you are serious about achieving optimum emotional wellness, you must do more of the things that nourish and feed you and spark joy in your soul and do less of the things that deplete your soul, pull your spirits down, or drain.

Asking yourself the following questions regularly can help:

“In what ways are my current actions and living patterns separating me from the joy within me?”

“What could I start to do differently to craft and let more joy into my life?”

To find out more about how you can start to Rise Up, Feel Alive, and Live Well with Pain and Illness, I invite you to find out about my #1 Internationally Best-Selling  Book Unhackable Soul, and my 30-day Online Unhackable Soul ‘Reignite the Light Within’ course  Click Here.