Celebrating National Emotional Wellness Month

At Imagine Backyard Living, we’d like to take a moment and remind you how important it is to pay attention to your physical, emotional, and spiritual health. In today’s fast-paced world, we often forget to pause and take moments to both reflect and appreciate.

During the daily grind of work/life balance, it can seem that the tasks we all set out to accomplish are never-ending and sometimes insurmountable. During National Emotional Wellness Month, we’d like to remind you of a few healthy habits you can incorporate into your routine to help you handle stress and stay on the side of positivity no matter what.

Being an emotionally well person involves paying attention to your thoughts and feelings while also being able to examine your behaviors.  This awareness, acceptance, and exploration of feelings enable you to remain open and positive when confronted with obstacles. Self-knowledge is paramount to feeling grounded!

Here are a few questions to ask yourself in order to gauge how in touch you are with your emotional wellbeing:

• How do you arrive at personal choices?
• What factors contribute to your decision-making process?
• Do you take responsibility for your actions?
• How do you face challenges or risks?
• Do you think conflict can be a source of growth?
• How supportive is your community, family, workplace?
• Do you appreciate and accept the assistance of others?
• Are trust and respect valuable to your relationships?
• Do you have an established balance of work and family?
• Can you set priorities and goals and take active steps towards achieving them?
• Can you deal with stress in a positive way?

Recognizing emotional wellness as a priority can go a long way towards giving yourself the attention you need. Similar to how your physical body needs exercise in order to perform, the mental self needs consideration in order to excel. A few ideas to help promote your own emotional wellness are as follows:
Intentional Breathing and Reflection
Give yourself five minutes a day to sit in a quiet space and just pause and reflect. Close your eyes and concentrate on deep, consistent breathing. Use this time to check in with how you are feeling, where your stress level is, and releasing tension in your body. It’s also a perfect time to consider the tasks at hand and develop an approachable course of action for the day.
Self Care
This is a big one. What do you do on a regular basis that takes care of you? Long walks to let your mind wander, soaking in a relaxing spa, visiting a massage therapist to help you relieve stress, or cooking a great meal for you and a few friends.
Nurturing Your Body
Just as emotional wellness needs attention, the physical body needs to be nurtured as well. By participating in an active lifestyle, complete with healthy foods and proper exercise, you are setting yourself up for feeling your best.
At Imagine Backyard Living, we are all about promoting the health and happiness of you and your family and friends. By building backyard environments that provide unique settings to enjoy your time, we hope that we can contribute to your emotional wellness by inviting you to sit back, relax, and live in the moment!