The answer may surprise you; yes, our emotions affect our health big time and scientifically speaking emotions and health are sort of directly proportional. Positive emotions like happiness boost our health while negative emotions like anger deter our health.
Our environment triggers hormonal responses in our brains and once these are actioned, hormones are released and reach our blood stream and make an impact on how we feel, behaviours triggered by these feelings ultimately affect our health.
For example, when you are late for a meeting and hit a traffic jam, how you react to this situation will determine your emotions, your response to this new situation and eventually your health. You may choose to get impatient and try to take another route and feel anxious or you may choose to call and inform your office that you will be late, reschedule the meeting and listen to your favourite song while you brave the traffic. The traffic is not in your control but how you react to it is. This ability to reason wisely and choose how to react determines our emotional wellness quotient.
This is not to say that you should not acknowledge your negative emotions, you must acknowledge both your negative and positive emotions and know how to cope with them in order to achieve emotional wellness. It is not possible to handle everything brilliantly 100% of the time! We are human after all. If we can do this well most of the time, we can achieve our emotional wellness goals.
It is when we cannot cope well most of the time that our immunity lowers, blood pressure rises, levels of hormones fluctuate and health is adversely affected. If we can make a conscious effort to maintain good emotional wellness by practicing mindfulness, sharing our feelings and indulging in self-care, we can experience good health, enhanced productivity and great relationships. So, keep calm and be positive!
Next week, I will talk about social wellness.
