PROMOTE EMOTIONAL WELL-BEING

RICA BIANCA M. SANTOS

“Emotional sickness is avoiding reality at any cost. Emotional health is facing reality at any cost.”— M. Scott Peck

As indicated in Abraham Maslow’s (1943) hierarchy of needs, emotional well-being is considered a psychological needs desirable in achieving the full potential of an individual. Emotional wellness advocates self-awareness. It allows an individual to manage his/ her feelings and behaviors which is an essential life skill. Being emotionally well builds resilience in coping with difficulties such as internal conflicts and relational issues, and helps in forming healthy relationships and positive outlook in life.

According to Maslow, there are nine emotional needs: security, volition, attention, emotional connection, connection to the community, privacy, a sense of status, a sense of achievement and meaning. Therefore, it is necessary to meet these needs of a person, particularly the youths of our generation, that they may reach maximize their inherent capabilities.

Families significantly affects the attainment of the children. Nowadays, there are several cases of conflicts concerning families. As a result, children may face challenges or history of stressful and traumatic events commonly known as Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) that greatly affects their behavior towards himself and towards other people. Therefore, parents as expected to form supportive and interdependent relationship among family members, employing a sense of love and care in practical ways. Instead of focusing on what is wrong with the child, try reflecting on what emotional needs are not being met? Undeniably, having a strong family means better emotional wellbeing.

Moreover, school is a model avenue to support the social and emotional well-being of students. School opens doors of opportunities to acquire and nurture mental health skills to attain life fulfillment. There will be an apparent decline of students’behavioral challenges and decrease in disciplinary issues when the school promotes and supports the emotional well-being of the students. Hence, framework should be established within the school to achieve positive behavioral and learning outcomes. Students are earnestly in need of opportunity where their voices would be heard and their feelings would matter.

Teachers play a crucial role in this plight. There are various ways of implementing and cultivating friendly learning environment that advocates emotional healthiness. Incorporating learner-sensitive school policies and practices will ensure appropriate response to their needs. Utilizing positive behavioral interventions in classroom management and reinforcing learning by inculcating values to learners through drawing out essential life lessons based on students’significant human experiences would create an atmosphere of belongingness thus, engages learners to express themselves better. These practices can be translated to progressive academic outcomes and improved emotional health.

This significant part of personal development brings about equilibrium in areas of life such as identity, relationship, perspective and environment. Hence, making one happily effective and productive.

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The author is a graduate of BS Psychology at the University of Assumption