Incorporating Techniques of Emotional Healing

Other excellent techniques to promote emotional healing are to incorporate art, create a healthy emotional environment, and engage in meditation. While creative individuals may naturally feel drawn to these concepts, people who are not creative by nature can easily achieve just as much, if not more, help from engaging in these activities.

Art therapy has long been established as having a tremendous value. Many counselors specialize in this type of therapy; but even if your counselor does not (or you choose not to see a counselor), engaging in creating and enjoying art can be therapeutic all by itself. Creating an emotionally healthy environment, in practical terms, is easily intertwined with art therapy. The overall concept is that engaging in activities where you express yourself creatively and surround yourself with expressions of who you are, and how you feel, can have tremendous healing impact.

When you first begin creating art, painting is a natural, inexpensive, and easy expression. You don't have to have fancy paints, or even real canvases; craft paint and recycled paper, wood, and even cardboard will suffice. The most important thing is that you just start doing it. Don't worry about how it looks, or if it is coming together in a visually pleasing way; the idea behind art therapy is that you are expressing your feelings, even the painful ones, as you create art. Focus on your feelings and on the physical act of creation, rather than on the results. You can continue to do this as much as you want, even focusing on different emotions with different paintings.

The more you do, the better it will start to look, and you eventually may find that you want to keep some of your artwork. Your own art therapy might serve as the first step toward creating a healing environment. Research has shown that children in school performed better when their physical environment was visually pleasing; people in all walks of life have found the same to be true. Just as it is usually easier to keep clean a home that is well decorated, it is easier to keep emotionally healthy in an environment that pleases you visually.

While your own art therapy may be a good place to start, there are many other things you can do to promote the quality of your physical environment. If you find that you are creative (or more creative than you thought), consider making other art, or engaging in do-it-yourself projects. It is a different kind of art therapy to create items and art to be in your home; rather than expressing your feelings during these projects, you will instead focus on how good it feels to create and invest in something that is for your own pleasure. Then, after you have created it, you will get to enjoy and delight in the beauty of your environment on a daily basis.

Interested in learning more? Why not take an online Emotional Healing course?

If you aren't sure where to start, sit down in the place where you spend the majority of your time. Imagine what you would like that place to look like. Is your style minimalist, modern, bohemian, or something else? What colors are pleasing to you? Are there certain objects -- like lamps, vases, books or something else that make you happy just to look at them? What would the interior of your room or home look like if money were no object? Once you can establish what pleases you, begin identifying what you can do yourself to create the environment you want.

Meditation, while a very different activity than creating art, taps into the same feelings and purposes of creating a visually stimulating environment. When we meditate, the goal is to clear our minds, rather than focus on what our feelings have been. In this way, it is a very crucial counterpart to the other emotional healing techniques where we focus on our emotional trauma. Some people feel uncomfortable first trying meditation; this is actually a good thing, as it demonstrates there are few other processes that we're familiar with that can create the same results within us.

Meditation itself consists of taking a period of time (which can be brief), isolating ourselves, and trying to clear our mind. Sometimes it is helpful during meditation to visualize your mind emptying out all of those feelings, anxieties, and thoughts you have that keep you distracted or deterred from being emotionally healthy. Once your mind is empty, begin to focus on the emptiness. As your mind clears, you should begin experiencing a level of calm and peace. If you find this difficult, just keep working at it. It takes time to create a meditative state. But if you keep at it, you're likely to discover that your emotional well-being is only one aspect of your life that will benefit from meditation. Physiological problems, such as high blood pressure, chronic pain, and other conditions can be improved through regular meditation. Best of all, through meditation, all of this can be achieved for free.

If you continue having difficulty with meditation, you may want to invest in some resources that can help. Visit your local library or book shop to find videos, audio CDs, or books that may be able to help you create a meditative state. If sitting still is difficult for you, keep working at it -- people who have difficulty sitting still for long periods of time are often the ones who can benefit from meditation the most. But if you have invested the time and find that you're still struggling, you may want to try physical activities that incorporate meditation. Tai Chi and yoga are excellent activities that promote meditation while engaging in gentle exercise.

Emotional Healing Techniques – Socializing and Volunteering

One of the many ways that you can promote emotional healing within yourself or someone else is to encourage a social life and activities that are positive. Unfortunately, many people find that while experiencing emotional trauma or loss, they have (to varying degrees) abandoned much of their social life. Sometimes it is all that we can do to get up in the morning when we're struggling emotionally; supportive friends and family will understand our absence. But as we are achieving more and more emotional healing, it is important to start reintegrating ourselves into society. Volunteering or engaging in positive activities that impact other people has proven to be a tremendously healing technique.

When you begin socializing after a lack of doing so, you may find that some of the people in your life have been hurt emotionally by your absence.This is a natural and not uncommon experience; after all, they have likely experienced difficult or challenging situations where you were not present to be supportive. While there is no guilt or shame in having to withdraw socially in order to take care of ourselves emotionally, we also have to understand that there may be consequences to such a withdrawal. Friends and family may have been hurt by your absence alone; they also may have been hurt by things you may have said or done, without realizing it, while you were struggling.They may understand the reasons behind a lack of support from you, but it nevertheless may still have hurt their feelings, or hurt your relationship with them.

When this occurs, it is often helpful to communicate with the person that you acknowledge their feelings and are prepared to demonstrate your love and support for them. In many cases, simply listening to how they feel, and how they have been hurt by you, is enough. It can further help rebuild the damaged relationship if you share with them some of what you have been going through (bearing in mind that you don't need to share too deeply or go into much detail if you don't want to), and telling them you want to hear about what they have been going through. As they share their struggles, you will have an opportunity to demonstrate your support and love for them.

Sometimes, unfortunately, the relationships in our lives become seriously damaged while we're focusing on ourselves. When this occurs, the first thing to do is to make an honest assessment about how important this relationship is. In general terms, if this is a spousal, parental, or other major type of relationship, it may be worth the time and effort you will need to put into repairing the relationship. If the relationship is with a friend, or even a family member, where it does not matter tremendously to you or has been emotionally unhealthy for you, you may decide not to repair the relationship. This can be a very difficult decision to make and is best made after initial overtures are rejected.

For those relationships that are worth the extra effort, ask the people involved what kind of activities or things that you can do that they may desire or find supportive. Identifying concrete tasks that would help repair the relationship can be tremendously helpful. If there are no easily defined methods, pursue opportunities to make yourself available or helpful to them. Many times, a relationship can be repaired quickly when they see that you truly are invested. For very close relationships, such as your relationship with your parents, spouse, or children, you may find that family or group counseling may help you repair the damage.

One of the things you can do that incorporates socializing, but is not contingent upon other people's feelings, is volunteering. It has been clearly established that becoming active and involved in something that benefits other people can aid in our own emotional healing. If you like, you can volunteer for something that is related to the emotional trauma or loss that you endured; for example, a woman who has suffered a miscarriage may work with a local hospital to provide care packages for other women who go through the same thing. If you would prefer, or think that it is better for your emotional health to volunteer in a related capacity, do so. There is nothing wrong with wanting to leave our emotional troubles aside while we give to others.

There are numerous ways to volunteer, numerous types of organizations you can work with, and you can invest as little or as much time as you would want or have available. Although you can volunteer online, to get the most out of your volunteer experience while healing emotionally, volunteer in an in-person capacity. Working with other volunteers can promote healthy socialization and may generate new friendships and positive, life-affirming relationships. Working with the people you are serving directly can also be very beneficial. Seeing the struggles of others can help us identify with people we thought were different, put our struggles into a new perspective, and incorporate positive communication between ourselves and others. In fact, there are many professionals who believe that acts of service are the single best technique to promote emotional healing within ourselves.

Whether by volunteering or returning to our own social life, interacting with other people in positive ways is a vital step toward achieving emotional health. It can sometimes be a bumpy ride, but the potential for obtaining and maintaining your emotional health makes this an excellent technique to adopt.