Self-Care: Impact on Mental, Emotional, and Physical Health

        First off... welcome to our site for the very first time or welcome back for some more wellness brain candy! This month our efforts have been to dive into self-care and research how it ties to our overall quality of health. Self care is a whole person concept that involves the conscious attentiveness to  meet the needs of our physical, mental, and emotional health. Self-care can be seen as a journey to improve one's quality of life. The nature of one's self-talk play a leading role in feelings of value and worthiness. Emotions are also an important factor in self-care due to the fact they help us understand ourselves and others. Lastly, we will touch upon the benefits of self-care and psychological well-being.

     Self-love, or lack thereof, begins in early childhood and is developed and conditioned by learning over time. We take in information from all of our senses on how to treat ourselves and others based on heredity and environmental influences before we even learn how to read and write. Healthy coping with stress and life stressors increases room for self-love and ability to bounce back after stressful events. Self-love sometimes has to be a selfish act to initiate self-care in one's life! It is easy to get so caught up in being everything for everybody that we lose ourselves. We often add toxic stress to our daily lives by pouring from an empty cup. 'Pouring from an empty cup' simply means we give all our time, energy, and care to others in our lives, but forget about the love and attention we must give to our very own bodies and minds.  When we ignore our own emotional, physical, and mental needs we open the door for health issues to occur. Effective coping with the demands of stress to increase self-love requires access to resources. Internal and external resources determine how adaptive one can be in stressful conditions and how we approach self-love. Internal resources are personal characteristics, skills, talents, abilities, etc. External resources stems from support outside of self such as family and friends, employment/income, access to healthcare/insurance, legal assistance, etc. Available internal and external resources helps  to mold our self-talk.

     Self-talk is an ongoing dialogue we have with ourselves based on one's perception and life experience. The words that we think and say have the power to create cells in our bodies of dis-ease or well-being. Its magical how much control we have on over our health through our mental attitude. We can literally speak life and positivity or death/negativity into our Universe. Negative mental attitude leads to stress, anxiety, depression, resentment, and fear which are all emotions that have the power to show up as physical symptoms of pain, digestive problems, increased blood pressure, etc. How we talk to ourselves in our own mind is the commentary of words we use to discuss and describe our very own unique life experiences that has the power to build us up or tear us down. How we perceive those experiences, whether positive or negative, shapes our mental attitude. For example, negative self-talk leads to negatively charged emotions, as well as maladaptive behaviors towards self and others. Negative self-talk creates a negative mental attitude which leads to negative judgements stemming from an experience of anxiety, fear, conflict, low self-esteem, poor self-worth and disenfranchisement.  On the other hand, positive self-talk supports a positive mental attitude of  positivity, trusting, supportive view of others, self-confidence and self-worth and an alliance with life. Assumptions and beliefs about one's self, others and life are evident in one's self-talk. For instance, doubt in one's very own God given talents an abilities may lead to negative thoughts like 'I can't do this or that', creates a layer of doubt and mistrust in our relationships with others. I've learned that the most important relationship in this life is one's relationship with self and it dictates our relationships with others. If we can not give ourselves the basics of positivity and care, it makes it hard to give it to other people whole-heartedly. Self-talk contains and reveals one's thoughts, which activates emotions and actions that shape our perception of reality. Self-talk evoke emotions and feelings to represent those experiences. 

     Emotions play an essential role in our thinking process, behavior, and outlook on the experience of life. They help us make decisions, achieve well-being, understand ourselves, as well as others. There was a time in my life when I felt that feeling emotions were a luxury, because I was so busy doing and going. I felt like I could not find time to deal with my own emotions, so I just repressed them and buried them deep down. I was completely unaware of the impact that emotions played in my attitude, behavior, and overall health.  Emotional Intelligence is a key element in self-awareness, interpersonal relationships, and self-care. Many individuals with stress management problems are emotionally under skilled, lacking awareness of emotional states. Certain negative emotions we encounter causes biological changes in the mind and body such as the hormones cortisol and adrenaline to be released from our brain which create changes in the body and organs that readies the body to protect against outside attacks. Toxic or prolonged stress wreaks havoc on our immune system, as well as make the human body more susceptible to cardiovascular disease. Emotions are expressed, suppressed, or repressed. Emotions are expressed through behaviors ranging from assertiveness, aggressiveness, or passive aggressiveness. The saying that the soul does not carry  a secret that the behavior does not reveal directly relates to our emotional health. The emotions that are repressed due to tragedy, devastation, or dysfunction all show up in our behavior one way or another whether we know it or not. Just as we take pride in washing our car and keeping it clean, the job is not done until we clean the inside as well. The same goes for our body and mind, we must tend to our emotional and mental health to match the exterior. It is imperative that we take time to tend to self-care.

      Self-care is the act of engaging in activities that increase satisfaction of life and individual well-being. Self-love is the foundation of self-care and is often overlooked or under emphasized as it provides an individual with countless benefits. Self care includes both physical and emotional elements working side by side to improve overall quality of mental health and quality of life. Exercise, healthy diet, and other activities that promote active or passive relaxation are essential tools in self-care and psychological well-being. 

Take a second today to reflect on self-care and how often we perform it. Lack of self-care opens the door to misunderstood emotions, feelings, and actions. This creates a gateway to stress which leads to illness and mental health problems due to  lack of attention and care. Plant seeds of self-love to grow everyday in every way!

Thanks you for stopping by!!
Peace & Blessings

- WildPhlower Wellness Management

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