Balanced Health
Are you aware of the profound impact that our mental & emotional health has on our physical and spiritual health? Our spirits, souls, and bodies influence every part of our beings. If any part of us is out of balance, it has the potential to unbalance everything else!
Don’t Underestimate the Importance of your Mental & Emotional Health
Because we live in a society that normalizes the experience of feeling stress, we often underestimate the influence of our mental & emotional well-being on our overall health. We shouldn’t do that!
Our thoughts actually have the power to shape our reality.1 Negative thought patterns and stress can manifest themselves in physical symptoms such as headaches, pain, and digestive issues, as well as more serious symptoms such as high blood pressure, insomnia, and immune suppression.2 In other words, unmanaged emotions can shorten our lives.
It shouldn’t surprise us that, like many things in life, the reverse is also true. The Bible says that a cheerful heart is medicine to us3 and modern science agrees.4
Your Thought Life
The impact of our thoughts and emotions doesn’t stop at your body; they also affect our spiritual life! the Bible says that those that are pure in their thinking will be happy and be with God.5 Logically, this means that if we are not pure in our thinking that we could be kept away from God. The Bible does indeed speak on this matter:
The breath of the Almighty gives us life… if a person’s thinking is controlled by his sinful self, then there is death. But if his thinking is controlled by the Spirit, then there is life and peace”
Job 33:4; Romans 8:6, ICB
What does this really mean to us? Is God going to kill us because we have negative thoughts and out of control emotions? No! It means that if we choose to engage in wrong thinking and out of control emotions that we are opening a door to the negative effects that come from them. It means that our decisions about how we manage stress, seek social support, and prioritize self-care profoundly influence our physical health and longevity as well as our relationship with God. It also means that self care really isn’t selfish, it’s necessary.
Mental & Emotional Self Care is Required if you Want to be truly healthy
So, what is mental & emotional self-care?
Well, in a sense, it’s putting ourselves first. I know, I know, we aren’t supposed to do that. Hear me out: The Bible says that we are to esteem others as better than ourselves,6 so we should not be selfish or fight to have our own way. There must, however, be balance. How can we share what we don’t have? We can’t… this is why flight attendants tell you to put your own oxygen mask on first. If you pass out, you won’t be helping anyone else! Helping yourself in order to be able to help others is not selfish.
The question is: what is your oxygen mask? Time? Sleep? Exercise? The options are almost endless. Whatever it is that you are lacking, you will need to find a way to bring into your life. In doing so you will “put on your oxygen mask.” Your new habit of self care will help you and those around you.
How to improve your Mental & Emotional Health
So how do you start cleaning up your mind and emotions and bringing your mind into order? One step at a time:
Step 1: Identify what is hurting you the most.
Everyone’s problem is different, so it is time for a little self-examination and prayer. Some people’s greatest problem is stress. For others it may be anxiety, depression, anger, physical exhaustion, self-hatred, or… The list is basically endless, but you get the point. Identify your kryptonite.
Step 2: Think about why you have that problem in your life.
Are you stressed because you always feel like you are in a hurry?
Do you feel anxious because you don’t seem to have enough money?
Maybe you feel depressed… do you know if it is because of negative circumstances in your life7 or does it have a physical root like inflammation?8 Or, maybe you’re feeling down because you are thinking negative thoughts (like “I’m fat” or “I should have done more with my life”)?
If you consistently feel angry or grumpy, is there someone that you need to forgive? Do you need to forgive yourself?
Are you are physically exhausted? Do you need to schedule more time for sleep? Buy blackout curtains? Make time for daily naps?
If you feel like you hate yourself, why? How you can you reframe those thoughts?
Step 3: Choose an appropriate action.
Is your time management lacking? Invest in a good planner and set aside 5 minutes every morning, lunch break, and evening to review it.
If you feel like you aren’t managing your money well, start tracking where it is going and make adjustments from there.
If you are feeling down because of, say, a troubled marriage, find a marriage counselor. Even if your spouse declines to go, going alone can still help you feel better. No idea why you have the blues? Work with a professional (integrative or holistic doctor, naturopath, health coach, etc.) to try to find the root cause.
Are you harboring resentment toward others? Learn how to forgive. I recommend this book.
If you need help unwinding to sleep, try the Full Focus Journal and using amber light bulbs after sundown.
Finally, if you are having trouble liking yourself, forgive yourself. Remember that that you are made in God’s image9 and that you are His workmanship.10 Ask Him to forgive you for viewing yourself as less than that and ask Him to tell and show you who He sees you to be. Have a look at these verses and then pick up a special Bible designed to help you discover how valuable you really are.
Step 4: Make your answer a habit. Put it on repeat every day.
Now that you have an actionable solution, it is time to use/do it. Self discipline can be hard, so try to stack your habits.11 For example, if you are trading your spending, track all your receipts while you drink your morning coffee. Or, if you are journaling, make it the thing you always do immediately after you brush your teeth. By tying your new habit to an old one you are setting yourself up for success!
Congratulations! By Step 4 you will have cleaned up a mental & emotional mess.12 If you now see something else you need to bring into order, take a deep breath, pat yourself on the back, and start the process again while still maintaining your new habit. You’ve got this!
Don’t Do it alone
If the above seems too hard for you to do alone or if you don’t trust yourself to stick with it, please don’t beat yourself up. Most of us have found ourselves at a place where we don’t want to tackle the hard things alone. There is no shame in that! Find a friend willing to be your accountability buddy. If it is something you want to keep private, we are available to coach you through this with some friendly, nonjudgmental support.
Do you still feel lost?
If you don’t identify with any of the above, don’t worry. The same steps will work for your particular situation too! Just:
1. Identify the problem.
2. Determine why it is there.
3. Take action to address it.
4. Make that action a habit.
If you are ready to do this but need to talk a bit to really dig out what the underlying problem actually is, we would be happy to help you with that. Verbalizing makes it so much easier to ‘see’ things!
The Benefits of Improving Our Mental & Emotional Health
Ok, now we’ve gone quite a ways into what mental & emotional messes13 are and how to fix them. Let’s take what we learned and go back to the idea that poor mental & emotional health has negative effects on our spiritual and physical health.
So, how does improving our mental & emotional health improve our spiritual and physical health?
Well, if we think about things that are good, worthy of praise, true, honorable, beautiful, and respectable (none of these are negative or judgmental), the God of peace will be with us!14 And if He is with us, we will not be scared or discouraged because He will strengthen us, help us, and uphold us.15
Now, if the God of peace is with us, what are we going to feel? Peace! What does peace feel like physically? Better sleep, lower blood pressure,16 increased focus, improved cognitive function,17 enhanced digestion,18 and a longer life.19
I hope that this post serves as a gentle reminder of the influence our minds hold over our well-being. Let’s work to align our thoughts and self talk with the Word of God so that we can have healthier and more fulfilling lives.
We are here for you!
Be well,
Your Friends at Purely Jubilant
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Resources For This Post:
- Proverbs 23:7 ↩︎
- https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/11874-stress#symptoms-and-causes ↩︎
- Proverbs 17:22 ↩︎
- https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/if-you-are-happy-and-you-know-it-you-may-live-longer-2019101618020 ↩︎
- Matthew 5:8, International Children’s Bible ↩︎
- Philippians 2:3 ↩︎
- https://www.verywellhealth.com/situational-depression-5093165 ↩︎
- https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/happiness-is-state-mind/202009/the-relationship-between-inflammation-and-depression ↩︎
- Genesis 1:26 ↩︎
- Ephesians 2:10 ↩︎
- Atomic Habits but James Clear ↩︎
- Dr. Caroline Leaf ↩︎
- Dr. Caroline Leaf ↩︎
- Philippians 4:8-9 ↩︎
- Isaiah 41:10 ↩︎
- https://psychcentral.com/stress/the-benefits-of-stress-management ↩︎
- Liu, Qingjin et al. “Impact of Chronic Stress on Attention Control: Evidence from Behavioral and Event-Related Potential Analyses.” Neuroscience bulletin vol. 36,11 (2020): 1395-1410. doi:10.1007/s12264-020-00549-9 ↩︎
- https://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletter_article/stress-and-the-sensitive-gut ↩︎
- https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/if-you-are-happy-and-you-know-it-you-may-live-longer-2019101618020 ↩︎
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