top of page
Writer's pictureAyla Donlin

Three Strategies to Support Your Mental/Emotional Wellness


We can explore our mental/emotional wellness by checking in with three important elements:

Focus: Our ability to pay attention to what we want to, when we want to.

Feed: Our ability to stimulate and grow our intellectual and emotional capacities.

Feel Good: Our ability to cultivate positive emotions and to bounce back from setbacks.

We can support our mental/emotional wellness through a variety of strategies that boost our focus, feed, and feel good abilities. The key is finding the strategies that work for you. See a list of suggestions below.

How are you feeling in the realm of mental/emotional wellness?

Here are a few questions we can ask ourselves to check in and make small adjustments.


What types of activities help me focus best? Meditation, deep breathing, listening to a certain type of music, doing certain activities at certain times of day?

What am I doing to prioritize feeding my mind and my emotions? Am I taking time to listen to, read about, and discuss topics that interest me?

How am I cultivating positive emotions in my life? When set backs happen, what are my strategies to cope and bounce back?


Three - ok, way more than three, but broken into three main categories - simple strategies to support your mental/emotional wellness:


Focus: Support your ability to focus by...

-Using resent moment/mindful meditation

-Traveling through your senses by finding:

4 things you can see.

3 things you can hear.

2 things you can smell.

1 thing you can touch.


Feed: Support your ability to feed your mind and emotions by...

-Listening to podcasts. Below are a few suggested podcasts.

-The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos

-TED Radio Hour with Manoush Zomorodi

-Good Life Project with Jonathan Fields

-The Doctor’s Kitchen with Dr. Rupy Aujla

-Work Life with Adam Grant

-A Little Bit of Optimism with Simon Sinek

-Reading a book about a topic that you are curious about.

-Watching/listening to TED Talks.

-Conversing with experts about their area of expertise.

-Sharing a meaningful conversation with a friend.

-Journaling about your thoughts, feelings, & emotions.

-Using mindfulness to observe your emotions.


Feel Good: Support your ability to feel good by...

-Performing the Gratitude Visit: write a letter to someone thanking them for something specific, and then read the letter out loud to that person - either in person or via virtual connection (i.e. FaceTime, Skype, Zoom, Google Meet, etc.).

-Performing a random act of kindness for someone. Can be as simple as opening the door for someone who has their hands full.

-Listening to a favorite song and move your body.

-Smiling. Sounds goofy, but research suggests that putting a smile on our face actually starts to generate positive emotion.

-Sharing a meaningful conversation with a friend.

-Journaling about your thoughts, feelings, & emotions.

-Setting specific goals; identifying potential obstacles; recruiting a friend to hold you accountable; establishing a game plan.


Play around with as many strategies as you would like to find what serves you best.


Be well, my friend!

Comments


bottom of page