2024-01-29 21:00:00
A new year has arrived and already a new month. With them also comes the willingness and courage to take care of matters that we have left neglected for a long time, for different reasons. Many will agree that one of those issues is the care of mental and emotional health.
Some authors and philosophers call this practice connecting or reconnecting with oneself, which is a great ally for personal well-being. “It is part of Eastern philosophy, but in psychology it is not an isolated term,” recognizes neuropsychologist José Rivadeneira, doctor at the Institute of Neurosciences of Guayaquil.
According to the specialist, this concept encompasses three pillars. “First, have the ability to know myself, because many times we live on autopilot and that is a reality, we act instinctively and we do not sit down to reflect on what we are doing. It is about self-knowledge, knowing myself, my thoughts, my emotions, my actions.”
Another component is human relations. “In knowing myself I also know others, just as I accept my thoughts and my emotions, I come to understand and accept the emotions and thoughts of others, validating them and being fully aware of what I can control and what is “what I can’t control.” The last aspect is personal development, which is completed by the previous two. “It’s about, as much as possible, being a better human being.”
Becoming aware of these notions undoubtedly brings benefits in the short and long term. Not doing so, on the contrary, is inviting illness. “Because when a person cannot express what they feel or what they think, they get sick and psychological disorders arise associated with these emotional burdens that cannot be channeled and that also lead us to get sick on a physical level.”
For example, adds the ÁnimaEC project coordinator, pains come to the body such as disorders and somatization. “They are ways our body tells us ‘pay more attention to what’s going on in your head.’”
Actions for emotional health
Routines are important to create emotional, mental and social well-being, as these aspects go together. Sylvana Astudillo, clinical psychologist at Hospital de los Valles, proposes paying attention to our emotions and learning to recognize the way we react to certain external stimuli: work situations, family, public space.
According to Dr. José Rivadeneira, learning to organize is also required. This allows us to evaluate what types of activities our time is spent on and whether we are really investing it in an activity that provides us with well-being, such as exercising or reading, and limiting social networks.
How to take care of ourselves? Through mental health routines that begin by stopping repeating phrases like ‘I can’t’ or ‘I don’t have time’ when it comes to caring for ourselves. Indeed, we need to make time and take resources for what is good for us.
Actions we can do for our emotional health:
- Prioritize sleep. Sleep at a set time and get away from electronic devices half an hour early.
- Practice conscious and slow breathing. Inhale deeply through your nose and exhale through your mouth, repeating for three counts.
- Have a support network. It is made up of people with whom you can talk about your daily experiences and emotions.
- Identify one or several wellness spaces, where you can feel good and take those moments of breathing, talking or resting.
- Avoid the consumption of psychotropic substances, such as drugs, cigarettes or alcohol, because they are depressants of the nervous system.
- Do not neglect social relationships. Being part of groups is very important to take care of mental health. It especially helps people with depressive symptoms, try not to isolate yourself.
- You must do exercise all the days. Physical activity activates the release of dopamine, the famous “happiness hormone.”
- Don’t just focus on cardio or weights, you can also do stretches to relieve tension. Here two suggestions. First: fix your gaze on a distant point. Think about colors and textures. Take distance from the pressure or urgency. The second proposal is to loosen muscle tension. Sitting, squeeze your toes as much as you can, then release slowly. Continue with the muscles of the legs, abdomen, hands, until you reach the eyes, nose and mouth. Finish with strong breathing, inhaling through your nose and releasing the air suddenly through your mouth.
- Physical health also implies adequate nutrition, with a balanced diet that includes all food groups.
The importance of support groups
“There are those who do not have the habit of talking every day about how they feel and what happened in their day, because they do not have support and they do not like to talk, they do not know how to let go of their emotions. He accumulates them without understanding them. And he fills himself with assumptions, anticipating the circumstances, thinking that everything is going to be bad and that there is no way out,” explains Astudillo. This can turn into anxiety or depression.
Although you cannot force someone to talk about what they feel, a good exercise is to write down both good experiences and what we did not like, and different ways to respond next time.
The psychologist also recommends being attentive to signs of discomfort that sometimes go unattended, such as the feeling of emptiness, which does not have to be linked to having problems at home or at work. “I don’t want to do anything, everything bores me, I stop doing things that I used to like, it no longer brings me joy to see the people I used to hang out with. There are recurring thoughts and I see everything negative and monotonous in the future. I feel like I always do the same thing. “I feel like crying without knowing why.” Responding badly or not responding to others are attitudes that indicate that something is happening inside us.
A good way to connect with yourself and a good sign of mental health is to enjoy what we do, be it going for a walk, going to the gym, going out with friends, cultivating some of the arts “and we can add the part of spirituality.”
The support of the psychologist, to prevent
If we go to the dentist frequently, like other doctors who take care of other parts of the body, then we should also visit the specialist who helps us take care of the mind, that is, what goes around in our thoughts and emotions.
“Sometimes it is easy to disguise what happens in our mind, so we don’t pay attention to it,” warns Rivadeneira. This can lead to mental disorders and, finally, to situations that cannot be reversed, such as suicide.
That is why the expert reminds us of the importance of seeking psychological help, even as an act of prevention, as a self-care tactic. “Remember that psychologists exist to accompany people in a process of self-knowledge, problem solving, and not necessarily when there is a severe depression, generalized anxiety or post-traumatic stress. “We also work in a preventive phase to prevent that from happening.”
The medical point of view: stop being patients to take care of our own health
For the World Health Organization, self-care goes further, it is one of the strategies to face what in the future will be a shortage of workers in this area, something that requires individuals, families and communities to actively participate. in the promotion, prevention and maintenance of health, and can even learn skills to confront illness and disability. Some examples:
- Women can get tested for HPV (human papillomavirus) and help reduce mortality from cervical cancer.
- It is also possible to get a home test for sexually transmitted diseases and HIV.
- Another test that does not require medical assistance is blood pressure and glucose monitoring, once the person has learned how to do it.
- Self-injectable contraceptives can reduce unintended pregnancies.
- Health promotion can reduce personal risk factors such as a sedentary lifestyle and tobacco consumption, to avoid cardiovascular disease. (F)
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