Eating healthy foods and working out at the gym is only one part of being healthy. Being healthy also involves how you feel emotionally, how you think about situations that arise, and how you respond to your feelings and others around you. This area of your life is known as social emotional health. It encompasses all your skills and behaviors around handling feelings, relationships, self-control, and daily stressors. It can even determine how you cope during difficult times, how you recover from setbacks, and your overall feelings about yourself.
If your social emotional health is lacking, it will show. You may act out or mistreat others, feel angry for no reason, lash out at someone who annoyed you, or struggle to pay attention. But improving your social emotional skills is possible. You can learn how to better cope with your feelings and handle daily stress just like you were taught to read, ride a bike, or cook.
Check out these five activities to improve your social emotional health.
1. Practice Daily Emotional Check-Ins
Life can be hectic. Most people tend to rush from one activity to the next without taking a moment to pause and ask how they are really feeling. Stress can build up from constantly being busy. Maybe you’re holding onto sadness from a previous situation that you never got the chance to process. Or you’re harboring anxiety about a big test or event that’s weeks away. Stress, worries, and frustrations can accumulate until you snap at a friend or family member for no reason.
That’s why practicing daily emotional check-ins are so important. Checking in with your emotions encourages you to take a few minutes out of your day to ask yourself questions like:
How am I feeling?
Why could I be feeling this way?
What do I need right now to feel better?
This practice can be done in the morning or evening before bed. There’s no need to write your thoughts down if you don’t want to (journaling your thoughts is great but not necessary). Simply sitting with your emotions and naming them out loud can help your mind become more grounded.
One study done by UCLA even showed that naming your emotions actually lessens their ability to control your reactions. When you identify with “I am feeling sad/angry/frustrated”, you allow your brain to move from emotional response to logical processing, which aligns with research on affect labeling.
Daily emotional check-ins encourage you to stop neglecting your emotions and start identifying what you’re feeling. Once you know why you’re feeling a certain way, you’re less likely to act emotionally, obsess over your thoughts, or shut down completely.
Read also: 8 Signs You Are an Emotional Person
2. Learn How to Set Healthy Boundaries
Some people mistake being kind with people as saying yes to everything. They feel guilty when they decline plans or try to please everyone else at the expense of their own well-being. But when you people-please, you rarely ever say no to others….you just say no to yourself.
Setting healthy boundaries means understanding your limits and learning to say no when you need to. Whether that looks like telling your sibling you need 10 minutes alone or setting boundaries with people who consistently hurt you, boundary setting is healthy for your emotional well-being.
This activity will help you become more emotionally strong because it forces you to realize that you are important, too. Your time, energy, and feelings are valuable. When you learn to set boundaries with others, you’ll experience less stress and invite more safe, healthy relationships into your life.
It also forces you to trust yourself. You’ll learn you have the power to speak up when you need to and provide for your emotional needs without feeling guilty. Setting boundaries doesn’t make you rude or push people away. Boundaries open the door to letting the right people in.
As described by the American Psychological Association, clear boundaries can decrease stress and help people feel more in control. When you set healthy boundaries, big or small, you protect your peace and teach others how you will be treated.
Read also: How to Make Boundaries – 10 Steps
3. Build a Self-Compassion Habit
Most people give themselves a hard time. Your inner critic loves to chant, “You’re lazy” when you pause on your treadmill. “You’re stupid” when you answered a question incorrectly on a test. Sure, this voice may believe it’s helping you improve or get things done, but it’s not.
Your inner critic actually hurts your self-esteem, causes you stress, and prevents you from moving forward. That’s where self-compassion comes in.
Self-compassion involves treating yourself with the same kindness you would offer a good friend. You encourage yourself through mistakes, allow yourself to feel sadness, and listen to your needs. Saying things like “I messed up” becomes “I made a mistake, but that doesn’t make me a failure” or “This is really hard for me right now and I’m doing my best.”
When you practice self-compassion, you recover faster from setbacks, don’t get distracted by negative self-talk, and have the strength to try again. Self-compassion is not self pity or making excuses. It’s the practice of uplifting yourself without being harsh.
In fact, research by Dr. Kristin Neff has shown self-compassion can help you feel less shame, anxiety, and depression. Practicing self-compassion may feel weird at first. If you’ve spent years criticizing yourself, showing yourself kindness may feel awkward or silly. But the more you practice kindness towards yourself, the more your inner voice will change. Your inner dialogue becomes a safe place you can tap into when facing challenges.
Read also: 7 Daily Self-Motivation Habits
4. Strengthen Empathy
Empathy is the ability to understand someone else’s feelings without having experienced the exact same situation. It’s not about fixing them or giving advice (unless they ask). Empathy is showing someone that their feelings are valid and you understand where they’re coming from.
Practicing empathy is an important emotional skill because it allows you to connect with others on a deeper level. Not only will others feel safe around you when you listen without judgment, but you’ll also start changing how you view the world. Empathy allows you to see there are other people just trying to get by. They have stress, dreams, and problems just like you.
Empathizing with others can be simple. It can look like giving someone your full attention when they’re speaking, saying “I understand” when someone is frustrated, or asking someone “How can I help you?” instead of trying to take control of the situation.
Many experts believe empathy can help build stronger communities, decrease fighting, and improve work environments and communication. When you give others empathy, you’re sure to receive it in return. Empathy is contagious.
The more you grow your empathy skills, the more emotionally aware you become with others and yourself.
5. Practice Mindful Breathing/Pauses
Breathing is something your body does automatically, but what happens when you pay attention to your breath? Becoming mindful of your breathing allows you to slow down and tune into how your breath feels as it enters your body and exits.
Mindful breathing isn’t about shallow or deep breaths. This practice is about being aware of what is going on within you and using your breath to center yourself. Need to calm down? Take slow, deep breaths and watch your heart rate slow down. Feeling distracted? Take three mindful breaths and find yourself back in the moment.
Take one minute to focus on your breath each day and you’ll notice a decrease in anxiety and clearer thinking. Research has shown that using breathing techniques can help with mood control, attention, and regulating emotions, which is also supported by NHS guidance on breathing exercises for stress. Using your breath as a tool can help you pause during moments of stress and cope with what you’re feeling.
This skill is free, easy to practice, and can be done anywhere. You don’t need to download an app or sit in silence. Simply close your eyes or soften your gaze and focus on each breath that enters your body. In a world where everything goes a million miles per hour, this mindful act can help you find peace.
Final Thoughts
You don’t have to have your life together to care about your social emotional health. All it takes is for you to want to improve and give these five activities a chance. They won’t solve all your problems, but they can help you build emotional resilience that will carry you when life gets hard.
Improving your social emotional health gives you the tools you need to better face real-world situations. You’ll learn how to cope with conflict, form authentic friendships, stay motivated, and love who you are a little more. You’ll recover from heartbreak and disappointments without losing faith in yourself.
Building your social emotional health is a continuous practice. There will be good days and bad days. But the more you visit these exercises, the easier it becomes to respond to life with more calm, care, and strength.
You deserve to feel your best. Take care of you.
FAQ
What is social emotional health?
Social emotional health involves how you handle feelings, relationships, self-control, and daily stressors, and how you cope during difficult times.
Do I have to journal to do emotional check-ins?
No. There’s no need to write your thoughts down if you don’t want to. Simply sitting with your emotions and naming them out loud can help.
Does setting boundaries make me rude?
Setting boundaries doesn’t make you rude or push people away. Boundaries open the door to letting the right people in.
What if self-compassion feels awkward at first?
It may feel weird at first, especially if you’ve spent years criticizing yourself, but the more you practice kindness toward yourself, the more your inner voice can change.
Can mindful breathing be done anywhere?
Yes. It can be done anywhere, and you don’t need an app or silence—just a moment to focus on your breath.
Save the pin for later
