Emotional Hygiene

If you get a cut or scrape you may reach for a bandage. A bump on the head leads to an ice pack. It is common to care for and treat these and other types of physical injuries. On the other hand, what do you do when your feelings get hurt? When you are let down or experience everyday hurts? These psychological injuries need recovery solutions just as physical injuries do. 

 Why is our physical health so much more important to us than our psychological health? According to Guy Winch Ph.D. Emotional hygiene refers to being mindful of our psychological health and adopting brief habits to monitor and address psychological wounds when we have them. His suggestion is to treat psychological wounds with emotional first aid-techniques, such as: 

• Practice positive self-talk and avoid negative self-talk. 
• Stop ruminating. This type of repetitive thinking is not problem solving, but over focusing on distressing issues.  
• Recognize cycles that make the pain worse. Failure can lead to a lack of confidence that only makes you more likely to fail again in the future. 

Don’t ignore emotional pain as only by treating the hurt can we close the gap between physical and psychological health.