Whenever you hear the word detox, is emotional health the first thing that comes to mind? Surely not. At least not normally. Instead, we tend to think of a glass of green yucky vegetable smoothie that is within a few hours of struggling to drink it, is going  to keep us locked up in the bathroom for hours and maybe days. Lovely! Thank God we are not talking about that today. Let’s look at the emotional aspect of your health and how you can best improve it. 

Amazingly enough, one of the most neglected aspects in the journey of  health and wellness is our emotional health. Our emotional health is key when it comes to talking about the quality of our day. How productive and how effective we are during the day, depends a lot on the state of our emotional health. How are you dealing with the various challenges that arise in your life? How well are you handling the unexpected expenses, relationships that cause more stress for you, the pressures of social media, etc? Do you actually have these things under control or do you just think you are doing just fine? The problem is that, most times, we subconsciously tell ourselves that either we got it and everything is just fine. When you are not emotionally sound, it affects important organs of your body like your liver and your heart. This in itself is dangerous to your overall health, putting you at higher risk for high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer, etc.

How can you effectively detox your mind and body to keep your mind sane and effectively navigate through life without constantly feeling rushed and overwhelmed? Let us look at five tips that could help you.

#1 IDENTIFY YOUR SOURCES OF STRESS

You cannot detox yourself from something when you have no clue regarding what that thing is. What worries you throughout the day? What do you think about over and over when you try to lie down? Is it something about your spouse? Does it concern your job? Is it regarding your friends? Are you the problem or source of stress of your own stress?, etc. It is not only important to identify your major concern, but make sure you write it down. It may seem trivial, but writing this very important source of stress is very powerful in seeking a long lasting solution and making much needed progress.

 

#2 TALK TO SOMEONE

Talking out something has a way of relieving stress. Usually when we talk, we feel like we have unburdened ourselves from a heavy load we carried around every single day. We cannot just talk to anybody available because we feel like it is time to talk about it. Talk to someone who may not only be ready to listen attentively to you, but to suggest possible solutions for your issue at hand. Sometimes your very close friends are not going to be helpful. At times the people you least expect will really help you during a time like this, will be the most helpful. Once you pray about and meditate on whom to talk to, it becomes easy to approach this person and talk to them.

 

# 3 GET OUT OF TOXIC RELATIONSHIPS

The problem is not finding yourself in a toxic relationship. The issue is getting out of it. Sometimes it is not as easy to get out as some people may think. Being in a toxic relationship often means that you are always walking around the person on eggshells (always trying to impress them or avoiding making them angry) and hardly ever trying to be yourself. Toxic relationships are very controlling. In the sense that, you tend to always ask yourself what that other individual would like you to do or to say at any given time or moment of your life. It is always about how they would feel, and never about you. This is one way you know you are in a toxic relationship. Once you know this, find a way to detox yourself from it, by getting out of it in a healthy way.  

 

#4 GO OUTSIDE AND PLAY

Yes. Adults are allowed to play. This in my humble opinion, is a great way to detox and improve your emotional health. When we get stressed and sad about issues, when we feel overwhelmed and out of control, we generally want to go in the room, lay in the bed and turn out the lights. This kind of behaviour only sets you up for depression. It solves nothing. The next day, you will find out that keeping to yourself has not changed any dollar amount from the bill you have to pay. That overdue bill you are worried about still remains the same. No change. That controlling spouse is still controlling and depressing you more when the next day comes. So staying in your room or in a corner of the house and pouting at everyone neither awards you a medal or solves your problem. So get up, put  on some clothes go take a walk outside. You can also meet a friend for dinner or movies. You could go to the gym and work on that six pack you always wanted. How about a massage? Call the massage parlour and schedule one. Why not? Whatever you do, get out of the house and do something for you.

#5 LEARN HOW TO CELEBRATE AND ENCOURAGE OTHERS

Normally when your life is full of overdue bills and cars breaking down, it is very hard to be happy for your neighbor who seems to always drive brand new cars and constantly working on another home improvement project. It becomes hard to give your neighbor simple uplifting and positive compliments such as “I love the new addition to your pool”, or “Congratulations on your brand new lexus truck. Those cars are really nice”. These seem like very simple compliments but when things are not going well for you, you may tend to be unconsciously unsupportive and negative to people around you. I have found that it takes nothing away from who I am, or what I am presently going through, when I celebrate others. If anything,  it actually gives me hope and assurance that some day, I might be celebrating just like they are now. So you see, celebrating others is a very effective detox strategy to improve your emotional health.

 

There are so many other tips that I did not discuss above. Some of these tips might work better for you than they work for others and vice versa. If you think you might be falling into depression, please consult with your medical doctor as soon as possible. Whatever you do, pay more attention to the present state of your emotional health and take steps to always improve it in order to see a steady progress in your health and wellness journey.

 

Coackay

WLS, FNS (NASM)

#mashfire