Goal Setting for Emotional Health PDF

Goal Setting for Emotional Health One of the skills for developing positive emotional health is setting goals. Setting realistic short-term and long-term goals and working to achieve them contributes to your emotional health. You can even use this skill to help strengthen the other skills that prom...

Goal Setting for Emotional Health One of the skills for developing positive emotional health is setting goals. Setting realistic short-term and long-term goals and working to achieve them contributes to your emotional health. You can even use this skill to help strengthen the other skills that promote emotional health. For example, you could choose an emotional health skill you want to improve, set a goal around this skill, and figure out steps that will enable you to reach that goal. When you set a goal, there are certain steps you can follow and questions you can ask to help you succeed. 1. What is your goal? First, you need to decide what your goal is. What emotional health skill do you want to work on, and what is a goal related to that skill? It’s important to set a goal that is specific, realistic and measurable. Being specific means you state exactly what your goal is. For example, if you want to deal with stress better, you might set a goal to practice deep breathing for 1 minute every day for the next week. If you wanted to build a better relationship with a family member, you might set a goal to have a positive conversation with that person at least 3 times a week for 15 minutes at a time. A vague goal, such as “deal with stress better,” or “have a better relationship with my mother” is too hard to reach because you won’t know exactly what you mean or when you’ve reached it. It’s also important that your goal be realistic—something you can actually do—and measurable, so you’ll know when and if you’ve achieved it. 2. What will be the benefits of reaching your goal? It’s important to know what benefits you expect to get from reaching your goal. Looking ahead to the benefits you’ll get and noticing the benefits along the way helps keep you motivated. Having more frequent communication will help you build a better relationship, have less stress or fewer conflicts, and will give you a chance to practice and improve your communication skills. 3. Why is this goal important to you? Knowing why the goal matters to you is also important. You want to pick a goal you care about so you’ll be willing to work hard to reach it. Communicating well with your mom or another adult family member will help you understand each other better, which will mean less stress and fewer conflicts. 4. What must you do to reach this goal? The next step is to make your plan for meeting your goal. These are all the things you will need to do to reach your goal. Remembering the skills you learned for effective communication might be the first thing you need to do. Setting a regular time to talk that works for both of you will help you make sure you find time to work on the goal. Thinking of things to talk about and planning what you might say are other important steps. You might also want to develop a timeline for your goal. You might spend the first week writing down things to talk about and practicing your communication skills and what you want to say. The next week you might start by having a 5-minute conversation on 2 or 3 days. Then over the next few weeks you can increase the time you talk until you reach at least 15 minutes on at least 3 days a week. 5. How will you start? How you will begin your plan is very important. Taking that first step is sometimes the hardest, but once you get started you’re on your way. A good first step for this goal might be to ask a few friends what they talk to their parents about and write down some possible topics. 6. Who can help? Think of people who can help you reach your goal. Support from family, friends and others can keep you motivated and moving toward your goal. The goal of building better communication with your mom is probably something you can do on your own. But you might ask another relative, your health teacher or a sibling to help you think of things to say or the best way to approach your mom to have these conversations. You could also ask a friend to text or call to check in with you about whether you’ve met your goal for the day yet. 7. What could get in the way? There are always barriers or things that can get in the way of a goal. If you think about these ahead of time as part of your plan, you’ll be better prepared to deal with them when they come up. Things that might get in the way of this goal might include either you or your mom feeling stressed or being busy or distracted. Some strategies that could help might be to remind yourself of why this goal is important to you and finding a regular time that both of you can agree on and commit to. You might also try taking a walk together so you can focus on the conversation with fewer distractions. If you sometimes feel anxious or nervous about talking, you could practice a stress-management technique such as deep breathing beforehand. 8. Need to adjust your plan? You’ll want to evaluate how things are going and make changes to your plan as you need to. As you work on your goal you’ll learn a lot about what works for you and can adjust your plan to help you succeed. For example, on a really busy day, you could text instead of talking in person or, if you find that you don’t always know what to say, you can plan some topics ahead of time or ask what your mom would like to talk about. Setting and working toward a goal to improve your emotional health can help you feel successful, more self-confident, and good about the success you achieve. It’s also a way of taking responsibility and working to improve an aspect of your life that’s within your control. Social Media and Emotional Health Understanding different influences on your emotional health can help you strengthen the positive ones and resist the negative ones. To analyze an influence, you want to think about how much of an effect it has on you and whether that effect supports or has a negative impact on these different aspects of your emotional health. Think about your day-to-day life. How many different forms of social media, games or other ways of being online do you use or interact with? Social Media and Emotional Health Traits 1.​ Accept Who You Are Positive Negative Meet like-minded friends May compare self to others. through online games. May feel pressure to look or Offers a way to express the act a certain way because things that make you unique. that’s what peers appear to be Can put your best self forward doing. through the things you post. May only share good things in Helps you discover new an attempt to be more interests. “perfect” than you are. 2. Express feelings in healthy ways Negative Positive Cant always guess someone’s Can share how you feel even if tone or true feelings from a you’re not with someone. text or online message. Can use emojis to show how Might respond with an angry you’re feeling. Can express comment before you think it difficult feelings in a safer through. environment. People may not know what you’re really feeling or believe you if they can’t see you. Writing LOL is not the same as actually laughing out loud or sharing a laugh with someone. 3. Build healthy relationships Positive Negative Can communicate with people Misunderstandings can spread. who are far away. People may say mean or Provides a way to stay in thoughtless things. touch. People spend so much time Can be a way to get to know online they don’t connect with more about someone before their families as much. you meet in person. Can make it easier to make plans with a whole group. 4. Show care and concern for others Negative Positive People may say mean things You can like and compliment online that they wouldn’t share your friends’ posts. in person. You can offer support if Cyberbullying and other forms someone texts or posts that of online harassment can they feel down. occur. You can learn about different People can be so distracted by people and what they care their phones that they ignore about. the people they’re with. Your message of concern might be misunderstood  You can easily post comments without tone or voice and about or contribute to social nonverbal cues. causes you believe. 5. Manage stress in healthy ways Negative Positive Trying to keep up with Can post about a difficult day everything everyone is posting to blow off steam. can be stressful. Can get support from friends Can add pressure around how if you’re feeling sad or upset. you look, who you know, etc. Can get advance notice of Hoaxes and other disturbing important events. content can be scary and Can use it to escape the stressful. stress of real life. 6. Deal with conflict in healthy ways Negative Positive It can be harder to work Online games can help you things out if you can’t see the learn to work with others to other person’s nonverbal solve problems. communication, such as facial You can be exposed to expression or body language. different opinions and points of view. People may say thoughtless or mean things online that cause conflicts. 7. Be optimistic. Positive Negative Positive news and personal Negative news might make you stories can make you feel good worry or feel down about about other people and what what’s going on in the world. they’re doing. Unkind or angry comments can Social media pages can offer make a situation seem more insights and tips for keeping a negative than it is. People may positive attitude. criticize others for having a positive attitude.  Building and maintaining connections with others can help you feel good. 8. Have a growth mindset Positive: Negative: You can learn from other Sometimes people use online people’s experiences through forums to criticize new or the things they post. challenging ideas. Games help you learn problem If you don’t do well playing an solving when you lose or see online game, you might give up what doesn’t work. or feel down on yourself. You can find lots of Seeing people making fun of information on topics you’re others for failures or mistakes interested in. can make you afraid to try new things. 9. Take Responsibility for Your Choices and Actions Positive: Negative: You can speak up when You can’t control what other someone is being mean or people post to your feed or say unfair to someone else online. about you on theirs. You have control over what Can use it as a distraction you post about yourself. that keeps you from getting You can make a decision to things done. never post anything mean, untrue or embarrassing about others. Sometimes people use online forums to blame others for their problems. 10. Ask for help when you need it Negative: Positive: If you post you need help and You can find resources online, nobody answers, you might feel including chat lines for getting even more alone. help with certain issues. You can’t always trust the advice you find online.  You can get support from a wide network of friends online. Social media, online gaming and other forms of technology play a role in many young people’s lives. You can use what you’ve been learning to help make sure these things contribute to your emotional health in positive ways.