Your Best Emotional Life Starts Here

Many of life's emotional stresses, shocks and challenges are out of our control. We don't know when they're going to happen, we don't want them and we'd choose differently if we could.

Then also, many of life's emotional rewards can seem too few and far between - again, feeling way too far out of our control.

Yet there are some key aspects of our emotional lives that are within our control. And the good news is, that taking charge of those things that are within our control can increase life's emotional rewards, decrease the stresses and shocks, and help us weather them more easily when they do occur.

Each of these various activities can all be summarized under the heading, "taking care of emotional ground zero."

This is the part of our emotional lives that has to do with our very BEING - in other words, our existence. To minimize the stresses and negatives in life and increase the positives, we need to focus first and foremost on strengthening and improving these aspects of our lives because they contribute to our survival.

And as we do this, we support the health and repair of the physical systems that keep us alive: our digestive, respiratory, eliminative, immunologic and circulatory systems.

For example, consider where you stand as you answer each of the following questions. Then, being informed and aware of what you need to change you can decide to make improvements where you need to:

1. Do I get enough sleep, and is it of high enough quality - deep, uninterrupted, restorative rest?

2. Do I feed myself nutritious food in sufficient amounts with high enough quality and variety while minimizing intake of fake and/or toxic substances?

3. Do I get enough air - do I breathe deeply enough, ventilate rooms adequately, do what I can to keep the air of high quality?

4.To what extend is my attitude toward myself positive, nurturing, supportive?

5. Do I give myself enough down time, so that I allow myself to be a human being instead of a human doing?

6. Do I build and encourage relationships that support my right to exist and honor my needs and feelings, while taking constructive steps to free myself from those that are abusive, critical, or downright toxic?

Paying attention to and improving these aspects of our lives that are within our control, we build a firm internal foundation that can withstand the inevitable storms and earthquakes might otherwise shatter us.