I used to be an extremely unhealthy person emotionally. I had a hard time dealing with stress, with the unknown, and with things that were “out of my control.” Anything that was thrown at me that wasn’t something I was used to caused me so much pain. I was panicky, I was anxious, and I was a huge ball of emotion waiting to explode over a small incident such as having to wait for a red light again.
I would go on and describe more of my past terrible habits, but I’ll spare those details, trusting you have an understanding of what I used to be: emotionally unhealthy.
Over the last two years, I’ve come to realize a few things about being emotionally healthy. This is all from personal experience, of course, so please understand that no person has to agree with everything I’m about to say.
1. How we as humans deal with stress is absolutely critical to our health. I used to not believe my college roommate when she told me, “it’s all in how you deal with things.” I couldn’t understand how that could possibly true–how can one person deal with things “well,” especially when in a heartbroken situation? Sure, we all have hard times and will continue to have them as long as we live, but how we cope with it is essential to our well being. Exercising to relieve stress or negative emotions is one of the best ways to channel these types of emotions. Of course, I deal with sadness best with writing it all down in a journal that I know only I can read. Every person is different, but finding a way to channel these emotions out of your body really helps your brain and your heart in the end.
2. Worrying does not help any situation, ever. I used to be a huge worrier. To some extent, I still do worry a lot, but I believe over the last two years, I’ve really improved. I had an epiphany overcome me one day, and seriously, it was a breakthrough in my life. I realized that no matter how much I worry or “what if” a situation, the outcome is already determined and will not change. Worrying will never, ever change what’s already destined to happen. Worrying will not get you anywhere but into a terribly unhealthy state.
3. There are very few things in life that are worth feeling “stressed” over. I can say that over the last two years, I have rarely felt the emotion of “stress.” It’s a strange feeling, really, having felt stressed multiple times almost daily, for so many years. I truly believe that there is nothing God allows to happen in my life that I can’t handle, nor is there anything that will happen that God will abandon me. This is hard to keep in mind, but is so true that I find myself reciting these very words in my head whenever I start to feel anxiety or stress in my life.
My old roommate in college was an emotionally healthy person who said a lot of things to me that I shrugged off back then, but now, find myself telling others quite often. Things really do always work out–no matter what–the way they are supposed to work out. It really is all how you cope with situations in your life. You don’t have much control over what happens in your life or situations that you may encounter, but you do have complete control over how you deal with them. You can get hysterical, you can worry, you can make yourself sick to the point of throwing up. Or, you can chose to not worry. You can chose to let it out in a healthy way. You can chose to believe that your mind is the most powerful weapon you will ever have in your entire life.
taylor t. graham 