Are You Emotionally Healthy?

Your emotional health is something of great importance. And knowing the condition of your emotional health is just as important, if not more important, as knowing the condition of your physical health. Why I say this is because, many illnesses have now been proven and documented to be as a result of a specific negative emotion or a combination of negative emotions that have been experienced over a period of time and/or have been suppressed for a long time.  
 
Most of us go for a yearly check up to see how we are doing physically and, yet, never stop to evaluate how we are doing emotionally. I was in the same boat. I lived a life overflowing with emotions, many of which I supressed, and, yet, I never stopped to look logically at my emotional health either.

   

Throughout the seventeen years of a loveless marriage, I was under the impression that all the hurt and pain in the marriage must be because my husband’s heart was hard toward me. And because I viewed it that way, I blamed him and did not take any responsibility for my own life. I saw myself as the offended party, the victim so to speak. I could not imagine that the pain I was experiencing had to do with anything that might be wrong with me. I was emotionally healthy, wasn’t I? Or did I have wounds I was not aware of? Had those wounds caused me to be attracted to someone who could not love me, who could not accept me for who I was, and who was disappointed with almost everything I did?

   

Everyone needs to be curious about his/her emotional health. And not only be curious about it, but understand it and take steps to improve it. To point you in that direction, the following two questions are a good place to start. Ask yourself from a place of honesty:

1. How do I deal with people and relationships?
2. How do I handle problems and opportunities I face on a daily basis?

Those questions started me thinking, but then I realized that I could make a good case for how healthy or unhealthy I was, depending upon how my day was going or had gone. So the two questions, although a good start, needed a standard against which I could measure them. I discovered that The Traits and Qualities of A Little Child is an incredible standard for doing just that.

It was only after I measured my emotional health using the standard of The Traits and Qualities of A Little Child that I understood how emotionally unhealthy I was. This made me realize that it was the condition of my emotional health that had been responsible for how I had lived my life, who I attracted in my life, and how I had allowed others in my life to treat me. If you want a clearer understanding of your emotional health, you may want to evaluate yourself by them too.   

The Traits and Qualities of A Little Child is a comprehensive standard of measurement for one’s emotional health. They are the traits and qualities that are innate in a little child when it is born. Christ referred to these traits and qualities in Matthew 18:3 when He said,

“Except ye be converted and become as little children,
ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.”

I used to wonder what it meant to become as a little child and even more so, what it mean to be converted. In English, the words be converted mean to be changed and transformed. However, in the original Greek the word, which was translated as converted, is strepho and has a little different meaning. Strepho means: 

to turn, turn around, to turn one’s self
(i.e. to turn the back to one),
to turn one’s self from one’s course of conduct
(i.e. to change one’s mind)¹

With that definition, a clearer rendition of Matthew might be: “Unless you change your course of conduct, turn around, and turn back to the way you were as little children . .” And in reading it like this, Christ is not telling us to revert to the foolish ways or immature behaviors of a child, but to regain the qualities and traits of a little child. To return to the heart and soul we had as a little child. He is telling each adult to regain the purity of heart we once had as a child that unspoiled nature of innocence. As an adult, we need knowledge and wisdom, to be educated and have a mature mind to live successful in this world. And as important as those things are, it is even more important to change your course of conduct, turn around, and turn back to the heart and soul you had as a little child.

The following seventeen traits and qualities of a little child are listed, not necessarily in the order of importance, but alphabetically.

Affectionate
Courageous
Curious with a sense of wonder
Emotionally responsive
Flexible and resilient
Hopeful
Humble
Imaginaitive
Innocent and naive
Kindhearted
Loving and lovable
Open and honest
Optimistic
Playful and spontaneous
Trusting
Unique
Vulnerable

After each trait is an explanation of that trait. Following the explanation is a description of the two ways a person may respond in regards to that trait: an emotionally healthy response or an emotionally unhealthy response.

To gain an understanding of your emotional health, read the explanation of each trait and quality of a little child. Then read each response; the emotionally healthy response and the emotionally unhealthy response. And as you read each one, ask the following two questions regarding that trait and quality:

1. Which way do I deal with people and relationships the majority of the time?
2. Which way do I handle problems and opportunities I face on a daily basis the majority of the time?

Next, check the box next to the response that best describes how you act and/or react the majority of the time.

Emotionally healthy response:
My response the majority of the time.............................. A

                                OR

Emotionally unhealthy response:

My response the majority of the time.............................. B

If you are honest with yourself—and only if you are honest with yourself—examining your self with this set of TRAITS and QUALITIES of a LITTLE CHILD will allow you to gain a thorough and in-depth analysis of your emotional health.