It’s been a hard, heavy week in the USA. With all the natural disasters and the recent tragedy in Las Vegas, grief and sorrow have overtaken many of us. Whether you are aware of it or not, your emotional health has most likely taken a hit this week and it’s important you take care of your soul.
For this week’s blog, we wanted to put together a list of ways to check in on your emotional well-being and process through recent events.
Talk With Someone
Tragedies are difficult to process. For many of us, even if we don’t personally know the victims or live in the impacted areas, we can still experience grief. It is normal to feel shock, anger, and sadness, as well as many other emotions. If this is you, it’s important to talk with someone. Whether it be a close family member, friend, or professional, sit down with someone and talk through how you are feeling.
Take A Break
Don’t be scared to step away for a few days. If you’re feeling waves of emotions throughout the day, struggling to sleep, or noticing a frequent loss of appetite, you need to step away and take care of yourself. Whether you need to take a sick day or can talk to your boss about having time off for personal health reasons, your emotional well-being is a priority—don’t try to “push through” or bury your feelings.
Turn Off The Media
For the sake of your emotional health, turn off the media coverage. While informative and important, we can too easily become glued to our tv and computer screens, watching the same news reports over and over again.
Get outside. Go on a run or walk the dog. Spend intentional time with the people you love. Journaling, creating art, participating in a yoga class—all of these things have been proven to help your mind sort through emotional trauma.
Donate Your Time And/Or Money
Going off the previous point, tragedies invoke A LOT of response. We all become outraged; many people take to online platforms to express opinions and condolences. While these things are not necessarily unhealthy, it’s important to respond in a tangible and meaningful way offline as well. Make a plan to either donate your time and/or money to response teams, victims, and family members of those affected. Coming together as a community and helping one another is a crucial first step in everyone’s journey towards healing.
Check In With Your Body
Finally, check in with how you feel physically. We all know that emotional and physical health coincide so don’t ignore the needs of your body in the midst of grief. Ask yourself these questions:
Taking care of your physical needs, even in the midst of emotional trauma, is crucial. In fact, many studies have shown emotional trauma can manifest itself in physical ways, so make sure you or someone else is helping you take care of your body’s needs as you navigate emotional healing.
Take care, everyone. We hope you all have a weekend spent caring for yourselves and each other, as well as spending time with the ones you love.
