Are you taking care of your emotional health?
By Anticipate Joy
As a Texan, you may have been physically, financially, and emotionally challenged by the recent weather storm. As physicians, you likely have the added stress of the care of your patients during this challenging time. So this month we felt the need to focus on your emotional health. Are you taking care of your emotional health?
Let’s take a short quiz to find out by honestly answering the questions below:
- When someone asks you how you are doing, do you often respond by saying “I’m so tired” or “I’m so busy”?
- Do you get less than seven hours of sleep each night or find yourself crashing in your recliner as soon as you get home from work?
- Do you wish you could have more time to simply be present – to be a listening ear and not a fixer, a savior, a creator, or a supporter for someone else?
- Have you become easily irritated in the last two weeks (i.e. experienced mood swings, grown angry in traffic, or allowed what should have been an anthill to turn into an avalanche)?
- Do you keep burning the midnight oil when you should be unplugging, unwinding, relaxing, and enjoying?
If you answered yes to three or more of the questions above, you need to take your emotional health into serious consideration.
Emotional health is a journey and Mental Health America has suggested a few things you can start doing today to get going in the right direction for a healthier you:
Track gratitude and achievement with a journal. Include three things you were grateful for and three things you were able to accomplish each day.
Start your day with a cup of coffee. Coffee consumption is linked to lower rates of depression. If you can’t drink coffee because of the caffeine, try another good-for-you drink like green tea.
Set up a getaway. It could be camping with friends or a trip to the tropics. The act of planning a vacation and having something to look forward to can boost your overall happiness for up to eight weeks!
Take 30 minutes to go for a walk in nature – You could take a stroll through a park or a hike in the woods. Research shows that being in nature can increase energy levels, reduce depression, and boost well-being.
Boost brainpower by treating yourself to a couple pieces of dark chocolate every few days. The flavanoids, caffeine, and theobromine in chocolate are thought to work together to improve alertness and mental skills.
As we continue to recover from the emotional effects of the recent winter disaster and the COVID pandemic, we want to remind you that TAFP values your emotional health and they have invested in online professional counseling with Anticipate Joy so that you can have easy access to licensed professional therapists in the convenience of your own home and on your own schedule. Access TAFP’s special discounts here: https://bit.ly/35OQGqD
Anticipate Joy is also sponsoring free therapy sessions for victims of the Texas Winter Weather Disaster, and we are encouraging our community to join us by sponsoring a free session for a person in need during these challenging times. If you would like to learn more about how you can sponsor a session go to AnticipateJoy.com. Also if you have a patient who has suffered emotionally from the Texas Winter Disaster and they are in need of extra emotional support, have them email us at info@anticipatejoy.com.