The importance of Emotional Self-Care in times of stress

An expression that we use when we want to refer to the current era is "in the current times". And how ironic, right? The routines of the 21st century take us from here to there at a trot; the demands and needs of our relatives, friends and co-workers are demanding and immediate. Ours too: we are not tolerant of uncomfortable emotions or unpleasant thoughts, and it takes us a few seconds to replace the discomfort with intense and fleeting gratifications, such as watching something on television or consuming networks social. In addition, despite the fact that contemporary society tends towards comfort and less effort, many successful values ​​still persist.

The new packaging chains are the apps that draw us in, showing us perfect lives and advice on how to be more efficient, productive or happy. It is common that in a world characterized by this multiplicity of stimuli, many turn out to be highly aversive, and why not, stressful.

However, since we mentioned them, just as there is content on social networks that can be harmful to our well-being, you can also make good use of them. There are many sites or accounts that disclose information about how to take care of ourselves responsibly and rigorously, emphasizing the importance of self-care. One of the forms of self-care is

emotional self-care, a concept that we will develop in this article as it is of vital importance in times where stress cousin.

• Related article: "Emotional management: 10 keys to master your emotions"

Stress: is it always bad?

Before addressing the importance of emotional self-care, we consider it necessary to clarify that stress itself itself, it is a normal reaction of an organism to a stimulus that is considered aversive or stressful. and we say normal while having the ability to experience stress, however unpleasant it may be, implies an adaptive quality.

Stress allows us to ensure survival at a biological level; but it also gives us the possibility to change, to give new creative responses to the challenges that life presents us; In short, making decisions according to what is important to us and the context that surrounds us.

The circumstances that generate stress force us to mobilize. The problem is when the adaptation mechanisms that we put into play are not enough to put an end to stressful situations; in other words, that over time we are not able to deal with what we perceive as a threat. Prolonging the stressful situation can have unwanted physical and cognitive effects on a person, but it can also lead to behavioral changes.

• You may be interested in: "Mental health: definition and characteristics according to psychology"

Emotional self-care: why is it important?

Taking into account the assumption that in the current times we find ourselves increasingly exposed to stimuli that could stress us out, we could argue that the Self-care is an extremely useful practice to respond to the daily challenges that we often face. overwhelm. Taking care of ourselves allows us to pursue a better quality of life, strengthen bonds more that surround us and commit to them, in order to achieve an improvement in physical health and mental.

In this last plane, at a psychological level, specifying self-care practices contributes to a person experience greater emotional well-being even when faced with events that affect him or her in a way negative. This does not mean that through self-care practices we can eliminate stressful situations. In fact, in some cases it would be counterproductive to avoid events that cause us stress. For example, an oral exam could be an event that easily generates unpleasant emotional states such as fear, stress, or anxiety.

However, avoiding the exam could take us away from something valuable to us (finishing our studies), so the important thing is not to remove stress, but to be able to deal with it. This is the purpose of emotional self-care practices: to give ourselves a moment to be with ourselves, with how we feel before a certain situation, being able to identify the physical signs of discomfort or emotional exhaustion.

Carrying them out, in addition, could provide us with some clarity or perspective so that it is easier for us to establish limits between work and emotional life. Self-care strategies allow greater emotional regulation, knowing how to recognize one's own needs and showing when we should ask for help.

• Related article: "10 daily habits that improve your emotional balance"

Some emotional self-care practices.

In general, there are many emotional self-care practices that can help us feel less overwhelmed by everyday stress and give more conscious responses to the challenges of the world around us. Many of them are based on reducing exposure times to stressful situations that are unnecessary, while others aim to be able to be carried out in practice in the face of current situations of stress.

Here are some examples of emotional self-care practices that could be useful in different contexts or scenarios. There may be some activity that is outside of these suggestions and that even so implies a self-care practice; so don't let these ideas limit you. The important thing is that you choose the one that best suits your daily routine so that you can put emotional self-care into practice.

• Keep a journal or do journaling, to exercise a greater state of consciousness about one's own thoughts and emotional states.
• Reduce screen time, in addition to bringing many benefits, to prevent us from using it as an avoidance strategy in important but difficult situations
• Diaphragmatic breathing techniques such as box breathing or box breathing (inspire, retain, exhale and retain; each step for 4 seconds) before dealing with stressful situations such as a difficult conversation
• Meditation or practices mindfulness, while they increase our attentional field and allow us to link ourselves to the experience with greater awareness of the present moment. It can be useful before dealing with a complex situation.

• Doing physical activity or practicing a sport, which among its many benefits, connects us with our body and relieves intense emotional states.
• Take a relaxing immersion bath or shower to be present before going to an event that we consider stressful or difficult.