1848, Vienna. Diseases are transmitted through the unpleasant odors in the air, especially in poor areas, aren\u2019t they lucky that the imperial city is rich\u2026 However, the death rate is high, even among young people. A young Hungarian doctor, Ignaz Semmelweis, patiently observes the flow of activity in the large hospital where he works and comes up with a revolutionary idea: what if doctors washed their hands and disinfected their instruments with a chlorine-based solution? Semmelweis’s idea, no matter how trivial might seem to us, is met with resistance, and a few years later, in a mental asylum, the doctor dies poor and ostracized by the medical community. Of course, in the next 50 years or so, medical knowledge advanced significantly: the identification of tuberculosis bacilli, typhoid fever, the principles of vaccination, those of personal hygiene, all with clear consequences: the eradication of some deadly diseases, the increase of life expectancy, the significant drop of the mortality rate at all age levels.<\/p>\n
What if the same thing happened with emotional hygiene? What kind of changes would we witness if each of us learned, from a young age, how to take care of our own mind?<\/p>\n
WHO now considers depression to be one of the leading causes of disability. Suicide has become the fourth cause of mortality in the 15-29 age group. Specialists say that 1 in 5 people will suffer from a mental disorder in their lifetime. It’s like being at an extended family dinner and suddenly realizing that at least one person there is going to struggle with depression, anxiety, panic, etc.<\/p>\n
Can you imagine what the impact would be not only on a personal level, but also on a social level? I suppose it’s much harder to have discord, division, and conflict when you have a clear mind and aren’t unconsciously trying to resolve past wounds in inappropriate relationships and contexts.<\/p>\n
Emotional hygiene is a term proposed by Guy Winch, PhD in psychology and psychotherapist (if the name is familiar to you, know that I have mentioned it over time in this newsletter) and refers to attitudes, activities, and practices in which we choose to deliberately and regularly engage in order to maintain our mental health and well-being. Simply put, emotional hygiene is about becoming aware of your emotions and knowing what to do with them so that you\u2019ll be thriving.<\/p>\n
We have this tendency to relate to our emotional wounds as something completely secondary that can be ignored. Even more so if you’re a man – think that all the superheroes in the movies go through difficult situations without moving a muscle on their face. The message is very clear and very toxic: to be emotionally resistant is to feel nothing.<\/p>\n
Your theme of reflection is, therefore, the following: observe your mind (thoughts and emotions) and become more aware of what you are doing when you have an uncomfortable experience.<\/p>\n
What do you do when you feel insecure in your relationship? Do you check your partner’s phone, are you looking for a fight, do you withdraw?<\/p>\n
What is your first reaction you don\u2019t succeed at something? Do you start mentally listing all the failures, do you unload it on the children at home in the evening?<\/p>\n
How do you react at the end of a day when you feel harassed by the demands of those around you? Do you drive aggressively in traffic, have 2-3 glasses of alcohol to put your mind to sleep faster?<\/p>\n
How about when you feel alone and misunderstood? Do you eat uncontrollably, isolate yourself even more, become discouraged and stay in bed, or blame yourself for all the flaws in the world?<\/p>\n
None of the above behaviors will bring you peace of mind and mental clarity in the long run. Nevertheless, these are things we all do frequently. Maybe it’s time we all learned how to take care of our emotional reactions patiently and maturely, maybe it’s time for a new revolution in public health – that of emotional hygiene.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
1848, Vienna. Diseases are transmitted through the unpleasant odors in the air, especially in poor areas, aren\u2019t they lucky that the imperial city is rich\u2026 However, the death rate is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7803,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsletter-en"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n