What do I have to do to achieve awesome emotional health?

50 ways to awesome emotional health. It’s challenging but definitely do-able, if you give yourself a lifetime to master it!

1. welcome constructive criticism
2. ask for negative feedback
3. apologise when you’ve done something wrong
4. forgive others
5. forgive yourself
6. soothe yourself when you’re upset
7. develop a healthy self-confidence and self-respect
8. generate your own self-approval
9. don’t be crushed by failure and set-backs
10. have the courage to do what you know is right
11. have the courage to say the hard, scary, nice things to to others
12. identify your fears and make yourself overcome them so you don’t live a life ruled by irrational fear.
13. control your obsessions and addictions and “neediness”
14. laugh at yourself and your misfortunes
15. handle trauma and major setbacks well
16. be light-hearted and sunny most of the time
17. be optimisticabout the future and give others the benefit of the doubt
18. display a growth rather than a fixed mindset about learning
19. have spare capacity to be aware of and to care for others
20. learn to listen to others in a “being fully present” way
21.  be genuinely pleased for other people’s good fortune and success
22.  be free from the common faulty thinking errors
23. be tolerant and understanding of others and their short-comings
24. be empathic towards others
25. be tactful and senstive regarding other people’s feelings
26. be assertive and stand up for  your rights
27. be self-aware — accurtely know your strengths and your weaknesses
28. stretch yourself — realistically keep tetsting  your capabilities
29. maximise your self-efficacy i.e. your belief in what you’re capable of doing
30. develop your perseverance muscle – your ability to keep going in the face of boredom,  difficulty or loss of enthusiasm
31. to give love and to receive it
32. to recognise your feelings and to share them with others
33. embrace change that promises progress
34.  think for yourself and ignore popular thinking if you think it’s wrong 
35. turn your good ideas into action  — to be a able to “pull the trigger” 
36. finish what you start (if it’s worth finishing)
37. dare to dream big and have the courage to pursue your dreams
38. support other people’s dreams
39. spend lots of time doing the things that are important to you
40. add value to other people’s lives and to the world in general
41. experience the positive emotions often: bliss, exuberance, passion, love, rapture, uncontrollable laughter, supreme satisfaction from a job well done, etc.
42. ability to knock  yourself out of the negative emotions of depression, anxiety,anger and ennui
43. achieve a healthy balance in life, making sure all the important things get enough attention
44. don’t fuss about the trivial stuff
45. turn off your own toxic voices in your head and control the negative influence of toxic people in your life who sap your vital forces
46. deliberately seek out inspiring people who model the person you’d like to become — in real life, books, films, wise quotes,etc
47. actively look for the beauty in others and yourself
48. spend time defining who you’d like to become; make this a work in progress where you keep adding to it as new inspiration comes in
49. keep learning: open your mind to new ideas, try ideas out, learn new skills, have a go at things like dancing and art and novel-writing and sposrts just for the experience, not necessarily to be good at be good at them
50. aim to “live” each day rather than just exist.      

Emotional health in a nutshell: some wise and pithy quotes