What comes to mind when you hear Emotional Wealth?

FOR some, you may think of yourself or someone else experiencing an overwhelming number of good or happy emotions at once. A positive emotion overload of sorts.

While there is research that shows our everyday lives are “profoundly emotional” as we experience “at least one emotion 90% of time,” and we also experience both “positive and negative emotions simultaneously relatively frequently,” this is not how Jaunteur defines emotional wealth.

When we look at the the more common emotional well-being or emotional wellness, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) define them as follows:

• CDC: positive emotional well-being is when people manage emotions well and have a sense of meaning, purpose, and supportive relationships.

• NIH: emotional wellness is the ability to handle life’s stresses and adapt to change and difficult times.

In general, our emotional health exists on a spectrum of how well we are managing, expressing, and processing our emotions through any of life’s experiences and challenges.

What is the definition of Emotional Wealth?

First, let’s break down emotional wealth in the context of Whole Life Wealth.

There are nine interconnected Whole Life Wealth pillars, grouped into three groups of three across Mind, Body, and Soul. Emotional Wealth is one of the three Mind pillars (the others are financial wealth, and intellectual wealth).

• Emotional Wealth: having an abundance of needed tools and resources (people, places, things) in your toolkit to appropriately manage the emotions of life’s experiences and challenges, allowing you to maintain harmony within your interconnected whole life wealth pillars

Now that you know what it is, how do you maintain emotional wealth?

Short answer: your emotional wealth toolkit.

Nuanced answer: it depends on the individualistic state of your emotional well-being, the tools and resources (people, places, things) in your emotional wealth toolkit, and ultimately what you choose to deal with.

Pro Tip: The three steps to maintaining emotional wealth:

1. Clarify your emotional wealth story (this helps you understand your decisions, choices, and behaviors, and what to work on)

2. Utilize your emotional wealth toolkit

3. Regularly assess and edit steps one and two (this ensures you have the tools & resources for any experience or phase of life)

Now that you understand what emotional wealth is, grab your journal and spend some time clarifying what your emotional wealth story is today, and what you want it to be going forward, and note what tools and resources are currently in your emotional wealth toolkit and decide if there are any you need to remove or add.

If you think you need professional support please explore your options sooner rather than later. 988 is the US national help line for free and confidential conversations (988lifeline.org). You may also want to check with your employer’s health/medical plan or their EAP (employee assistance program) which typically offers an initial set of sessions free. Your local city or state may have options as well.

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