When you are emotionally healthy, you are better able to respond to your own thoughts, feelings, and behaviours.

What is emotional wellbeing?

Emotional wellbeing is being able to navigate both the positive and negative feelings that you experience in life. It is an important part of building self-awareness and is related to your overall happiness with your life.

It can help you deal with stress, improve your connections with others, promote physical health, and feel better about yourself.

Emotional wellbeing is impacted not only by your individual experience, but also by your community and the broader social and political environment that you live in.

Having good emotional wellbeing does not mean you only experience positive emotions, and it does not mean that experiencing negative emotions makes you unhealthy.

Negative emotions and experiences are part of life and they happen for many reasons. They can stem from things like challenges in relationships, grieving and loss, or instability of job or income. These difficulties can be even harder when they are out of your control, or related to injustices, like facing discrimination based on how you look or how you live your life. Big life events can also affect your emotional wellbeing, for either a short or long period of time.

Through learning about yourself, healing from trauma, and practicing resilience, you can take action to maintain your emotional wellbeing.

Emotional wellbeing is about building the skills and resources to navigate and cope with your life experiences on a daily basis. Having strong emotional wellbeing may look like:

• Identifying your emotions – Being mindful of your emotions can help you process them in a healthy way.
• Awareness of your thoughts – Things you think about yourself and the meaning you attach to those thoughts have an impact. Limiting negative self talk can help emotional wellbeing.
• Processing emotions – Having a healthy way to express the feelings that arise rather than keeping them inside of you.

What are some ways to improve emotional wellbeing?

Emotional wellbeing can increase and decrease. It is an ongoing process that needs to be maintained.

Some things that can help improve emotional wellbeing are:

• Practicing mindfulness. Pay attention to the present moment. You may find journaling, meditation, or music to be helpful.
• Having social connections with others. Stay connected with loved ones and friends, either in person or virtually.
• Getting your body moving. Make some time to exercise or even take a short walk every day.
• Having a good sleep schedule. Regular sleep patterns can help to balance your emotions.
• Getting support. Don’t be afraid to talk to a professional counsellor or therapist if you think you may need help.