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Emotional Health and External Stimuli  

Fun fact about me is that I love to read. Reading is one of my favorite self care techniques but it also allows my mind to drift away from things that may be stuck in the cycle of my chaotic brain. Right now I am reading a book and its crazy the emotions that it has brought up. Its a story about bank robber, that is not a good bank robber, that creates a hostage situation but its not really a good hostage situation since the bank robber becomes friends with everyone. Intermingled in the story is so many personal issues that each of the characters are facing. I have really been surprised at how my emotions have been impacted. I have been moody, I have not been sleeping as well and I have been more short tempered. Its crazy how external things can impact our internal process. 

I say all of this because it brings up a question: do you recognize when external stressors are impacting your internal responses. We normally function as humans who are more focused on ourselves but when something goes wacky we look for the external factors to blame. We may not like to admit this, but human nature leads us to blame others over ourselves. What if we were to stop and think about the external stimuli that are leading us to feel, think or blame? Such as the book I am reading. My moodiness has nothing to do with anything going on in my daily life, it has a lot to do with the book impacting my thinking. But this is what external stressors do to our emotional health. It could be music, it could be a person, it could be what your wearing, it could even be something you heard on the news- all of this impacts our emotional health. 

In order to take care of our emotional health, we must be aware of things that shift our mood or attitude. Once you acknowledge what shifts your mood, then give yourself a boundary with what shifts your mood. So for me, I choose to only read this book at a particular time of the day where I can have time to decompress after I read. Setting personal boundaries can be empowering because you are choosing to put yourself first. Once you set that boundary, stick to it. Allow yourself to be firm in your own boundaries. If you cannot be firm in your own personal boundaries then others will run over the boundaries you set for them. Lastly, remind yourself of this external trigger so your able to break the cycle. 

This can be a trying experience, but just because something is difficult does not mean its not worth it. 


You got this, good people! 😊

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