Taking Care Of Your Emotional Health

by proformadmin · Published October 12, 2020 · Updated February 15, 2021

As a company that focuses on health and fitness, we understand that health starts on the inside and everything else is an added benefit. As ProForm and iFit® created a platform to bring together those who want to invest in themselves, we believe it’s important to highlight the benefit of not only tending to your physical needs but also creating balance with caring for your emotional health as well.

What Is Emotional Health

By definition, an emotionally healthy person is capable of overcoming challenges and difficulty while having control over their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Although this doesn’t mean that a person is happy all of the time, it means a person is aware of their emotions and knows how to manage them in a healthy manner.

Examples Of An Emotionally Healthy Person

Let’s go over some examples of an emotionally healthy person, so you can have a better understanding if you’re tending to your emotional health already or if there are areas you would like to work on:

Acknowledging upsetting emotions when they first arise and dealing with them in a healthy manner
Practicing self-love and compassion instead of criticism and negative self-talk
Embracing the curiosity of your own thoughts, behaviors, and feelings

How Emotional Health Relates To Physical Health

Emotional health has a way of affecting your physical health as well. In fact, research tells us that an optimistic outlook early in life can predict better health and a lower rate of death during follow-up periods of 15 to 40 years.

To support this concept, one study in particular was conducted on a total of 2,262 persons aged 92 or 93 over a 12-year period. The study held an in-person interview with a comprehensive questionnaire with each participant and asked whether they had an optimistic, neutral, or pessimistic outlook for their future––their physical and current health were also taken into account.

Results proved that those participants who were optimistic held lower risk of death compared to neutral participants and concluded overall that having an optimistic outlook appears to be a significant predictor of survival, though more research needs to be conducted.

Ways To Care For Your Emotional Health

As Positive Psychology states, “Overall health includes physical, emotional, intellectual, social, and spiritual aspects. When they are in balance and alignment, human beings thrive. Each of these areas of life will influence the others.”

Here are ways that will help you work on strengthening your emotional health, which will in turn enhance your physical health:

Manage Stress

Research shows that physical disease may well result from emotional distress by negatively affecting your immune response, particularly making a person more susceptible to viral infections and cardiovascular disease.

Ways for you to manage stress may be:

Exercise
Relax your muscles (stretch, massage, and hot bath or shower)
Practice breathing exercises
Meditation
Eat well
Make time for things you love
Communicate your feelings
Eliminate stress triggers

Exercise Regularly

Emotional Health And Mindfulness – ProForm Blog

Regular exercise is a natural mood booster and may help increase the production of your brain’s feel-good neurotransmitters called endorphins, which are tiny neurochemicals released by your body to reduce pain and boost the feeling of pleasure.

iFit has created a Mindfulness & Self-Compassion Series that can be enjoyed by all who are looking to work on their emotional health. As you will learn science-based practices of mindfulness and self-compassion, your iFit guide, Dr. Shauna Shapiro––a clinical psychologist, professor and scientist, who has spent the last 20 years studying and teaching the powerful effects of mindfulness––will lead you through six mindful walks that focus on specific practices that aim to improve your sleep, increase your body positivity and self-esteem, and cultivate greater coping tools to manage your stress.

If you prefer more of a HIIT workout while you focus on strengthening your mind, check out the iFit Motivational HIIT Series with iFit trainer, Dewayne Montgomery. Dewayne focuses on high-intensity intervals while also giving you the opportunity to stay low impact when training on inclines in some of the most beautiful locations in Sedona, Arizona.

Think Before You Act

Practice pausing in a situation before reacting right away. This will give you the opportunity to evaluate your emotions and the situation, allowing you to react responsibly.

Connect With Others

Connecting with others can have a powerful impact on your physical and emotional health. Foster your connections with a meeting or phone conversation. Better yet, connect with like-minded individuals in the comfort of your own home with people who are also on the same path to bettering themselves in the iFit Community.

Express Your Feelings Responsibly

Suppressing your feelings and keeping them inside yourself can lead to an increase in physical stress on your body.

A 2013 study conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health and the University of Rochester showed that people who suppressed their emotions may have increased their chance of premature death from all causes by more than 30% as well as increasing their risk of cancer by 70%.

Explore iFit’s Mind of an Athlete Series on your ProForm treadmill, elliptical, or incline treadmill. Sports psychologist, Dr. Jarrod Spencer, takes you through a 6-part series explaining various mental health issues, like anxiety, depression, anger, confidence, vision, hurdles, and energy. He will share tools that can help you conquer these feelings while telling stories about specific famous athletes who have had their own challenges.

Sleep

Did you know that shorter sleep duration can actually elevate your negative thinking and make you emotionally reactive? One study discovered that fewer hours of sleep at night correlated with slower overall ability to disengage from negative perspectives after viewing negative images.

To help combat the sacrifice of your sleep and better understand how to peacefully transition into a healing rest state, iFit has created the Sweet Dreams Sleep Series. Your iFit Guide, Jason Stephenson, will help you overcome the loud subconscious thoughts, calm your mind, and enter a deep state of tranquility.

Conclusion

As we continue to be your main health and fitness source, we strive to bring you the most effective techniques and information that will help you find balance in your life, physically and mentally.

As life throws obstacles at you from time to time, we will aim to help you navigate back to the center of yourself and remind you to care for your emotional health by managing your stress, exercising regularly, evaluating your emotions and reacting responsibility, connecting with others, and making time for your body to regenerate itself with sleep. Don’t just be careful––take care!

DISCLAIMER: This blog post is not intended to replace the advice of a medical professional. The above information should not be used to diagnose, treat, or prevent any disease or medical condition. Please consult your doctor before making any changes to your diet, sleep methods, daily activity, or fitness routine. ProForm assumes no responsibility for any personal injury or damage sustained by any recommendations, opinions, or advice given in this article. Always follow the safety precautions included in the owner’s manual of your fitness equipment.

IFIT DISCLAIMER: iFit requires an internet connection and Wi-Fi to function.  You will be required to provide your credit card information upon sign-up for iFit. Your Commitment Period may be month-to-month or twelve (12), eighteen (18), or thirty-six (36) months, depending on your agreement. Terms shall apply to your iFit use and subscription during your Commitment Period and any subsequent Renewal Term. Unless you cancel your account or notify us at least twenty four (24) hours prior to the expiration of your commitment period that you do not wish to renew your subscription, your iFit subscription will automatically renew for an additional month, one (1) year, or two (2) year period, as applicable, for the same duration as your initial commitment period (“The Renewal Term”), and you authorize us to bill the then-applicable membership fee and any taxes to the payment method we have on record for you.