Emotional or mental wellbeing is closely related to our mental health. It's all about how we deal with different situations, regulate our emotions and how resilient we are.

What is emotional wellbeing?

How you feel can affect how you cope with everyday activities, your relationships, and your overall mental health. Good emotional wellbeing means your able to focus on the positives and manage any negative feelings in a productive way.

It’s important to remember that resilience  ignoring your emotions or bottling them up. It’s knowing how

Why is emotional wellbeing important?

Good emotional wellbeing has real benefits on both your physical and mental health. It can increase your self-esteem, productivity, and performance.

Physically, it can help your blood pressure, heart rate, can reduce anxiety and feelings of depression and improves your sleep.

How can I improve my emotional wellbeing?

Research from the New Economics Foundation has identified five steps that contribute to emotional wellbeing. This theory has since been adopted by the NHS and the Australian government.

These are the five steps that can help improve your emotional wellbeing:

1. Connect with friends and family

Making time for friends and family is really important because friendship and community is a fundamental human need.

Try calling someone instead of sending them an email or text message, asking the cashier in the shop how their day’s going, or getting back in touch with an old friend. It can seem scary at first, but most people want to connect with other people too. 

2. Try to be more active

This doesn’t have to mean a run or trip to the gym - just some light stretching or a short walk with a friend can make a world of difference. If you’re living with a disability or long term condition, you can find help on getting active with a disability on the NHS website. 

3. Try to be more present (mindfulness)

Being present in the moment, or ‘mindful’ is a great way to improve your emotional wellbeing. It can help you react more constructively to more stressful situations.

Being more present can help you understand your emotions and how you cope with them better and have a positive effect on how you feel about yourself.

Read more about mindfulness

‍4. Learn something new

Learning something new can really help you keep your brain engaged, reduce your risk of dementia and build your self-confidence.

Even if you feel like you don't have much time, or you're nervous about starting something new, there are loads of different ways to start learning something new.

Some things you could try:

• learn how to cook a new recipe
• join a pottery or painting club
• take on a DIY project at home.
  

5. Give to others

Being kind to others can make you happy, and increase your self-esteem.

Giving to others doesn't always mean spending or donating money if you're struggling too. There are lots of different things you can do like make or buy a small gift, take time to listen to your friends or volunteer in your local community.