Musings | Mental Health Week
“Your intellect may be confused, but your emotions will never lie to you”
It’s Mental Health Week, and the theme this year is understanding our emotions. Mental Health Week’s primary objective is to promote mental health as something we can protect and nurture, not just something that can be lost. The ability to recognize, label, and accept our feelings plays a crucial role in protecting and promoting good mental health for all of us. This message is perhaps particularly poignant in a year where we have all experienced a myriad of emotions. It has been a roller coaster ride, to be sure.
Drawing on the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) expertise, we review some basics about emotions and our mental health.
First, there are some universal struggles right now
40% of Canadians report that their mental health has deteriorated in the last year due to the pandemic.
The chronic stress associated with Covid is having a negative impact on our cognition and motivation. The good news is that our brains will reset as we ease back into more normal circumstances.
Emotions
When we are emotionally literate, we can recognize how we feel, understand our feelings, label and express them.
Sometimes emotions can be hard to put into words, even though we can “feel” them.
Our emotions can be triggered automatically and result in changes in our facial expressions, voice tone, heart rate, and perspiration.
“I feel . . “
When we can put our feelings into words, we help ourselves make sense of our emotions. This is called affect labelling.
Affect labelling is like putting the brakes on when you are in your car; when you can label how you feel you are essentially put the brakes on your emotional response to a situation.
When we label our emotions and write about them, we may experience improved mental and physical health, a reduction in stress, and a relief of negative states of mind.
Naming our emotions helps us regulate them. This action decreases rumination (obsessive thinking), eases anxiety, and limits our anger and fear responses.
When we express emotions such as anxiety, fear, and sadness, we increase support from others and create opportunities to build trust in our relationships.
Remember, mental health is something we can protect and promote, not just something that can be lost. To protect your mental health and the mental health of those around you, talk about your emotions and name them. Recognize that in doing so, you are regulating your emotions and creating opportunities to connect and share with others.