Mental Health Matters: The Importance of Emotional Well-Being In our pursuit of overall health, it's essential to recognize that there's no health without mental health. Here are some key insights from a recent session with Totto Learning, a preschool that empowers parents and facilitates home learning. Takeaway 1: Every emotion is valid and important, both yours and your child's. Our collective journey should involve learning and teaching how to be with our emotions, experience them, and express them in a healthy and safe manner. Takeaway 2: When you or your child is experiencing intense, unregulated emotions, it's important to understand that reasoning may not be effective at that moment. An unregulated person, child, or adult, is unable to relate and process reasoning. Validate the emotion, even if you don't agree with the actions. There's no right or wrong with emotions; if you feel it, it's real. Avoid making your child's emotions your own. Takeaway 3: Just as we talk about physical hygiene, we should encourage conversations about emotional hygiene. This means discussing anxieties, sadness, and anger, and providing the vocabulary for your child to express these emotions. Children often learn to talk about their feelings through imitation. Takeaway 4: Implementing routines and basic structure into the day can provide both you and your child with a sense of control, reducing anxiety. Anxiety often arises from a feeling of losing control or fearing that you're ill-equipped to handle a situation, make a mistake, or face judgment. While flexibility is important, having no plan at all can lead to chaos. Takeaway 5: Seeking help is an act of responsibility, not a sign of weakness. The pandemic has presented unprecedented challenges, and it's perfectly okay to ask for support when needed. Show your child that asking for help is a healthy response to difficulties. Takeaway 6: Authenticity and emotional attachments are fundamental survival needs. Suppressing a child's authentic emotional expression can lay the foundation for future dis-ease and disorder. Embrace authenticity and nurture emotional connections. Takeaway 7: Be aware of your journey and take ownership of it. Acknowledge your experiences, emotions, and the path you're on. Your awareness is a crucial step toward positive change. #MentalHealth #EmotionalWellBeing #Parenting #EmotionalHygiene #Support #Authenticity #Awareness
