Psychology assignment

1​st​ semester

BS Applied Psychology

GC University Faisalabad

To: Ma’mAbida Kareem

By: Sahrish Fatima Ali, AlinaAbid, Maryam Khan, Noor Fatima and Asadur
Rehman
 Emotional Health
Introduction:
Emotional health affects the way how we feel, think and act. It also helps to determine
how we handle stress, relate to childhood and adolescence through adulthood.

Emotional health is about being happy, self-confident, self-aware and resilient.People

who are emotionally healthy are able to cope with life’s challenges and recover from setbacks
but health including mental and emotional health requires knowledge, understanding and effort
to maintain.

Emotional health can also be explained in the following four sentences:

1. A sense of contentment, zest for living and the ability to laugh and have fun.
2. The ability to deal with stress and bounce back from adversity.
3. The flexibility to learn new things and adapt to change.
4. The high level self-confidence and self-esteem.

Importance of emotional health:

A major part of your life is emotional health and wellbeing. Fulfillment in your emotional
health can contribute toleading a satisfying and successful life. Factors involved in having a
satisfying emotional wellbeing are that you should be able to handle stress, be aware of your
feelings and appreciate the talents you have.

Measurement of our emotional health:

Emotional health gives us different abilities. Thus, we can check our emotional health by
paying attention to the different abilities that are present within us.
Emotional health can be measured by rating ourselves from 1 to 10 on the following 10 abilities
that how much these abilities are present within us.

1. Ability to openly express both physical and verbal affecrion to the satisfaction.
2. The ability to empathize with others. It means to think about other people by putting
ourselves in their shoes.
3. Ability to express feeling and communicate with people.
4. Ability to complaint and confront timely in a gracious manner.
5. Ability to receive complaints, corrections without being defensive and hostile.
6. Ability to take responsibility of your behavior and to say sorry.(I was macho.)
 7. Ability to give someone who is not reciprocating. It means not to work on the principle of
TIT FOR TAT. We must help people who are in need without thinking that what they
will give us in return.
8. Ability to process anger, offenses and disappointments. The believe that you can work
through it.
9. Ability to reveal weakness without fear.
10. Ability to be joyful and faithful.

Emotional problems:
There are different emotional problems that make our life difficult and restricts us from
living a contended and a happy life.Emotions can also harm us in different ways:

● Anger fires up the heart and liver

● Shock attacks your kidney
● Stress weakens your heart and brain
● Worry weakens the stomach
● Fear affects the adrenals and kidneys
● Anxiety affects digestion
● Sadness weakens your lungs

Everyone feels sad, worried or upset from time to time but if these feelings last for a
long time or begin disrupt your life, treatment such as counseling or medicines can help get
things back to normal.

Without treatment, these problems may get worse. They can can also cause other physical
and emotional health problems or make them worse.

What causes emotional health problems?

Emotional health problems are caused by changes in brain chemicals. They are not a
character flaw and they donot mean that you are a bad or weak person or that you are going
crazy.
These types of problems can run in families and can be triggered by physical stress (such as an
illness or injury) or by emotional stress(such as the loss of a loved one).they can occur because
you have a long term chronic health problem such as diabetes cancer or chronic pain. Sometimes
they start without a clear reason.

Depression:
 Depression is a medical illness that affects how you feel, think and act. It is more than
just “the blues” or short term feelings of grief or low energy. It can have a big impact on your
life, your work, your health and the people you care about.

Depression is a very common problem of men and women of all ages. It can be mild or
severe. It may come and go or it may last for a long time a person may get depressed only once
or many times

You might be depressed if

● you feel sad or hopeless

● you feel little interest and pleasure in life
● you gain or lose a lot of weight
● you have a trouble sleeping, or you sleep too much
● you feel restless
● you feel tired all the time
● you feel worthless or very guilty
● you have a trouble with focus, memory or choices
● you think often about death or suicide

Depression usually gets better with medicines or counseling. If you are two depressed to
take care of yourself, or you have a suicidal, you may need to stay in a hospital.

Anxiety:
Everyone feels a little nervous from time to time. A little anxiety can even help you
focus. But too much anxiety or anxiety that causes problems with daily life is not normal. Some
people feel too anxious only at certain times, while other people feel anxious most of the time.
Either kind of anxiety can make you feel helpless, confused or worried.
Sometimes anxiety is a sign of another problem such as depression or too much stress. Medicines
or counseling can treat anxiety.

Anger and hostility:

Anger tells your body to get ready for a fight. This is sometimes called FIGHT OR
FLIGHT response. When you get angry hormones in your blood raise your blood pressure. Your
hearts beats faster, and you breathe harder.This is a normal reaction to stressful moments. It can
even be useful if you needto react quicklyto danger. At times it can even be okay to express your
anger. But if you feel angry often or at timeswhen there is noreason to be upset, you may have a
problem.
 Hostility is being ready for a fight all the time. Hostile people may be stubborn,
impatient, hotheaded, or have an attitude. They may get into fights or feel like hitting something
or someone. Hostility keeps you apart from other people.

Too much anger or hostility can keepyour blood pressure high and may raise your
chances of having another health problem such as depression, a heart attack or a stroke. If you
have a trouble with anger or hostility, counseling can help you learn better ways to cope with
stress, your feelings and other people.

Stress:
Stress is your body’s way of responding to any kind of demand or threat. When you feel
threatened, your nervous system responds by releasing a flood of stress hormones, including
adrenaline and cortisol which rouse the body for emergency action.

Eating disorder:

Eating disorders are a range of psychological disorders characterized by abnormal or

disturbed eating habits. There are different types of eating disorders.

How to stay emotionally healthy:

There are different tips that we must follow to have a good emotional health.

Eliminate negative people:

The first thing we must do is to eliminate the negative people from our lives. These
people are basically the nasty cancerous people who always think negatively and also make us a
pessimist. These people are the energy vampires. We must stay away from these sort of people.
We can find such people at work or school. We must try to avoid them and must not form a
strong bond with them.

Compliment others:
Secondly we must compliment others. If someone compliments us we feel incredible. We
start liking people who compliments us. So, in this way when we compliment other people they
automatically start liking us. This is an important skill that we must learn to have a good social
life.

Do something good for your body:

 We must do something good for our body every single day. We must try to be fit.
Fitness is very important for our emotional health.When faced with mental or emotional
challenges in life, exercise can help you cope in a healthy way, instead of resorting to alcohol,
drugs, or other negative behaviors that ultimately only make your symptoms worse. Regular
exercise can also help boost your immune system and reduce the impact of stress.

Exercise is one of the most dependable mood-boosters. Even a 10 minute walk can
brighten your outlook.

Develop your brain:

It is very important to develop our brain. Our brain is hungry we must feed it with
knowledge. We must make it think. It is just like a muscle, it needs work out.

Help somebody:
We must help somebody in need every day. Doing good with others let us feel good, not
because people see it or we get money through it. We feel good because we have done something
good. So let us do something good with people in different ways and in this way let us feel
awesome.

Handle stress:
People often let stress get the best of them. It is not what happens to you. Instead, it is what you
do about it. Stress can good for you, if it is managed in a positive sense. Mild stress can move
you to action and keep you alert.
The trouble is when people have toxic stress and overload. Having too many problems or
letting them get the best of you can take its toll. Worry and negative thoughts can increase stress
and make it worse.

You should deal with stress by changing the perception of the problem and of yourself.
Like the expression goes, “Don’t sweat the small stuff… it’s all small stuff.”

Acknowledge your feelings:

The principle in the philosophy for leading a well life states that you should acknowledge
your feelings, but refuse to get stuck in the negative ones. You have to take responsibility for
your own moods. Be realistic to see if you can respond differently to a different situation.

Situations usually cause emotions and feelings. You can acknowledge stress, sadness,
anger or such. You can say, “that situation makes me angry” or such. But then move on. You
should not let such negative feelings ruin your day or affect the people around you.
 Author Joan Borysenko states in her book, minding the body, mending the mind, that
learning to be aware of feelings is an essential lifetime skill that will reduce unnecessary tension
and promote healing.

Appreciate your talents:

You should look at what you have done and appreciate your talents in those
achievements. This will enhance your emotional well-being.

Don’t look at yourself as someone who needs correcting or who has missing character
traits. Rather consider yourself a work in process. You area complete person, but you’re simply
not finished improving. Thus, you seek growth and change. This changes the way you perceive
achievement and life.

Be motivated by goals that have deep meaning and dreams that need completion, rather
than trying to fulfill some deficiency in your life.

Fake it till you feel it:

Feelings follow actions. When we feel low and we deliberately act cheery, we will find
ourselves actually feeling happier. Similarly if we feel angry and we do something thoughtful,
our feelings will be soften. This strategy is really effective.

Don’t insist on the best:

There are two types of decision makers. Satisfiers and maximizers.The satisfiersmake a
decision once their criteria are met. When they find hotel or the pasta sause that has the qualities
they want, they are satisfied. Maximizers want to make the best possible decision. Even if they
see bicycle or a backpack that meets their requirements, they can’t make a decision until they
have examined every option. Satisfiers tend to be happier than maximizers. Maximizers expend
more time and energy reaching decisions, and they are often anxious about their choices.
Sometimes good enough is good enough.

Meditate:
Meditation is a method for relaxation in which a person’s mind is focused for a period of
time. Activities that promote meditation, including and extended peaceful prayer, yoga, taichai,
or spiritual reflection, actually changes an area of your brain called insula, which is involved in
your experience of empathy/understanding others. Developing your empathy muscles will lead
you lead a happier life

Cultivate optimism:
Positive thinking is an important component of self-esteem and overall life
satisfaction. Optimism also tends to make your personal and work relationships better.Optimism
is more than just positive expectations. It’s a way of interpreting everything that happens to
you. Pessimism tends to explain the world in global, unchangeable, internal terms: “Everything
sucks,” “I can’t do anything to change this,” “It’s all my fault.” Developing an optimistic outlook
means thinking about yourself and your world in limited, flexible terms.

For example, a pessimistic outlook might say, “I’m terrible at math. I’m going to fail that
test tomorrow. I might as well just watch TV.” This statement suggests that your math skills are
inherent and unchangeable, rather than a skill you can develop with work. Such an outlook could
lead you to study less because you feel like there’s no point to it -- you’re just an inherently bad
mathematics student. This isn’t helpful.

An optimistic outlook would say something like “I’m concerned about doing well on that
test tomorrow, but I’m going to study as well as I can and do my best.” Optimism doesn’t deny
the reality of challenges, but it interprets how you approach them differently.

“Blind optimism” isn’t any healthier than pessimism. To go skydiving on your own
without any preparation or training because you’re optimistic about your abilities is obviously a
bad idea that could lead you to injury. True optimism acknowledges the reality of situations and
equips you to face them.

Visualize the best possible self of your’s:

This is an exercise that will increase your feelings of happiness and wellbeing. It involves
two basic steps:

● Visualizing how the “future you” looks like when it has achieved it’s goals and now is a
successful person.

● Identifying the characteristics you need to use to get you to where you want to be.

This will not only make you feel happy but will also cause you to work hard to achieve your
goals.

Heal past traumas:

 Trauma from the past or even just painful circumstances such as the death of a loved one
or a bad break-up can cause mild to severe depression.We must try to heal all the past traumas
and this can be done in different ways:

● Counseling is an option if the resources are present.

● If there is no access to professional counseling services then in this case self-help books
can be tried.

Smile:
Science suggests that when you smile, whether you're happy or not, your mood is
elevated. This is especially true if all your facial muscles, including the ones around your eyes,
get involved.​ ​So smile whenever you can! Smiling is like a feedback loop: smiling reinforces
happiness, just as happiness causes smiling. People who smile during painful procedures
reported less pain than those who kept their facial features neutral.

Smiling releases endorphins, which are associated with pain relief, and serotonin, which
is associated with happy feelings.

Smile at others, but don’t get offended if they don’t return your gesture -- they may just
have different traditions than you do.

Treat your body like it deserves to be happy:

Assure vigorous exercise, a healthy diet, and regular sleep -- key factors in growing to be
happier and to stay that way. Achieve high levels of life satisfaction and better physical health.

People who are physically active have higher incidences of enthusiasm and
excitement.Scientists hypothesize that exercise causes the brain to release chemicals called
endorphins that elevate our mood.

Eating healthy foods fruits and vegetables, lean meats and proteins, whole grains, nuts,
and seeds gives your body and brain the energy it needs to be healthy. Research indicates that
unhealthy diets, especially those rich in processed carbohydrates, sugars, and industrial vegetable
fats, is responsible for some cell death, brain shrinkage and contributes to certain diseases like
depression and dementia.

Get enough restful sleep. Study after study confirms it: the more sleep you get, the
happier you tend to be. Getting just a single extra hour of sleep per night makes the average
person happier. Research has also showed that employees who get enough rest are more
productive and successful.So if you’re middle-aged, shoot to get at least eight hours of sleep per
night; the young and elderly should shoot for 9 to 11 hours of sleep per night.

…………………………….
Ref:

1. http://www.wikihow.com/Be-Happy
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSAeYKzFY9I&t=719s
3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ja9Fo2qqzWg&index=22&list=PLyqPLT4V7ooKeQoYoHpkG
PuuHprdS1-CZ
4. www.school-for-champions.com/life/importance_of_emotional_health.htm#.WGkVkFV97IU