Building and Maintaining Emotional Well-being

Here is the benchmark: Healthy Christian Leaders Maintain Emotional Well-being.

What does that look like?

It’s living life with vigour and vim, not just keeping one’s head above water, but swimming with strength and ability sufficient to rescue others.

One of the great keys to building emotional well-being is self-reflection which builds self-awareness. Another outcome of building self-reflection is self-moderation.

Where is the maintenance of emotional well-being actioned?

It is in ensuring adequate replenishment through calendar adjustments and tasks. Do you make adjustments to these things to increase your well-being?

As a father of three young children, involved in church planting and studying a Doctorate of Ministry, I often finished the day feeling exhausted. Arriving home from my office in the evening, I found it easy to flop on the lounge and disappear into a brainless TV programme.

However, my children needed my time and focus, and my wife needed to tell me about her day. Yes, my head was just above the water, but I was far from ready to make a difference to those who matter most to me.

Making Changes

I realised changes needed to be made; firstly, to reprioritise who/what is most important in my life. I concluded that I needed to come home from work ready to make a difference in my family, to be engaging and present, bringing fun and life.

Yes, there is a need to rest and replenish, and home and family life is one of the great places this can happen.

So, after making changes to my mindset, I made calendar and appointment changes. This ensured I finished the day with fuel in the tank to give to my family.

Are you ready to make a difference in others?

The point I am making is to maintain healthy emotional well-being to a high level where you are ready to make a difference in others.

I liken it to the high-level maintenance of an aeroplane so that the plane is able to safely carry people to their destination.