Health&Wellness Magazine March 2014 | Page 40

40 & March 2014 | Read this issue and more at www.healthandwellnessmagazine.net | Like us @healthykentucky Recognizing Emotionally Healthy People By Dr. Tom Miller, Staff Writer When you engage a person who is relaxed in life, has an open mind and shares that life with others, you may well have found a person who might be described as an emotionally healthy person. Emotional health may best be measured by self-esteem and an ability to be resilient. Emotional health and wellness involves a continuum of flowing energy that peaks with gifts of the heart, the mind and the spirit. Abraham Maslow shared his thoughts on this through his concept of self-actualization. Emotional wellness is the state one experiences and enjoys as a person moves closer and closer to being self-actualized. Self-actualizing people tend to focus on problems outside themselves, have a clear sense of what is right and good, are spontaneous and creative; and are not bound by social conventions including social media. Maslow suggests that self-actualized individuals have a better insight of reality, accept themselves for who they are, and face many of life’s challenges with confidence and resilience. According to Maslow, self-actualizing people share the following qualities that include goodness, benevolence, honesty, interconnectedness, simplicity, resilience, organization, structure, order, and synergy. Maslow based his theory partially on his own assumptions about human potential and partially on his case studies of historical figures whom he believed to be self-actualized. One’s emotional health refers to that overall psychological wellbeing. People who are emotionally healt B