Making the Internet My Accountability Partner

Featured Photo by Mitch on Unsplash

For all intents and purposes, when we talk about mental health, we mean both mental and emotional health. Unsurprisingly, mental health focuses on the thought process and emotional health focuses on the emotions; the two are heavily intertwined. So why clarify? Because knowing the differences and their interaction is crucial to appropriate care. When we go looking for mental health care because we are depressed (mood/emotion) and we receive the advice of positive affirmations (thought process) we can initially write it off as irrelevant or naive. We can come away thinking “I told them I’m struggling with depression and their advice was ‘be happy’?”

The reason positive affirmations are so commonly advised is because of the role that thought process plays in our emotions. Our emotions aren’t something we can force, instead, we only have two routes we can use to influence our emotions: our thoughts and our physical body. If our thoughts are a constant loop of negativity and self-deprecation we are more frequently going to feel depressed. However, if we have a balance of negative, positive, and neutral thoughts we open ourselves to more positive experiences.

Meditation is similarly a frequently mentioned coping skill because it provides an opportunity for us to notice how we feel in our body and relieve any emotions we may carry. Slowing and steadying our heart rate, deepening our breathing, and relaxing our muscles encourage our emotions to align with our body, calming and centering us. Similarly exercising can help us feel energized and motivated by temporarily elevating our heart rate, engaging our muscles, and increasing our oxygen intake. 

So as we explore our mental health journeys it is important to check in not just with our moods and emotions, but also with our thought processes. We all have our own histories we bring to our present circumstances. Understanding the lenses through which we view the world can be incredibly important for improving our mental and emotional well-being. We’ll explore some unhelpful thought patterns and ways to find more balance in the next post.