Title: The Hidden Root of Mental Health: Why Emotional Health Matters First
As October began and Mental Health Awareness Month arrived, I found myself pausing and questioning something I hadn’t fully realised before. Everywhere I looked, conversations centred around mental health, which, of course, is important, but a thought struck me: what about emotional health?
Being someone who believes deeply in breaking cycles and nurturing true well-being, I asked myself why not shift the focus?
Why not replace “mental health” with “emotional health” in our conversations, our awareness, our celebrations?
After all, emotional intelligence and well-being have always been at the core of what I advocate.
Why Emotional Health is Often Overlooked
It’s interesting, isn’t it, how something so central to our well-being can often go unnoticed?
Emotional health is subtle, quiet, and deeply personal, and maybe that’s why it slips under the radar.
Many of us have been conditioned to push feelings aside, to tell ourselves “I shouldn’t feel this way” or “I need to be strong, no matter what.”
We distract ourselves with tasks, apps, schedules, or even social media, thinking we’re coping but really, we’re just skimming the surface.
Feelings that are left unrecognised or invalidated quietly accumulate, shaping our thoughts, our reactions, and even our relationships.
From my perspective, the challenge isn’t just about understanding emotions, it’s about giving ourselves permission to feel, to pause, and to explore what’s really going on inside. That, I believe, is where the true foundation of mental well-being begins.
Emotional Health as the Foundation: Looking Deeper Than Symptoms
As much as we focus on mental health, an important truth often gets overlooked: symptoms and diagnoses only show the surface; they tell us what is happening, but rarely why it is happening and the real work begins when we look beneath the symptoms.
Much of what we experience today is shaped by what we have absorbed growing up.
Many of us, especially women, have observed role models our mothers, grandmothers, aunts who quietly denied their own emotions, doubted themselves for feeling deeply, or were consistently invalidated by family and society.
These early experiences teach us, often unconsciously, that our feelings are inconvenient, inappropriate, or weak.
When emotional experiences are ignored, dismissed, or judged, they don’t disappear they get buried, influencing our thought patterns, coping mechanisms, and responses to stress.
An expert might say this conditioning creates patterns that subtly, yet profoundly, affect mental well-being over time.
This is why it’s so important to look beyond the visible signs of mental strain or anxiety. Instead of reacting only to symptoms, we must explore the root the emotional experiences, the messages we internalised, and the unacknowledged feelings we carry. By understanding these, we can start breaking cycles, validating our experiences, and nurturing genuine resilience and mental well-being from the inside out.
Childhood Experiences and Long-Term Mental Health
When we talk about emotional health, we cannot ignore childhood—the stage where so much of our emotional blueprint is formed. What we see, hear, and feel as children leaves an imprint that often lasts a lifetime. The way our emotions are acknowledged—or dismissed—shapes how we understand ourselves and relate to others.
Many of us, especially women, grew up watching important female figures in our lives doubt their feelings, hide their struggles, or apologise for simply being emotional.
This early modelling teaches us subtle lessons: that vulnerability is weakness, that feelings are inconvenient, or that self-expression must always be controlled.
Over time, these lessons can silently influence our self-esteem, coping strategies, and even our mental health.
Aaliya Masoodi- Interview with Radio Olive Qatar
Experts agree that childhood emotional experiences are foundational. Emotional invalidation, lack of nurturing, or overexposure to stress can manifest later as anxiety, low resilience, or difficulty managing emotions.
For me, understanding this has been a personal journey.
Breaking these cycles, noticing inherited patterns, and creating spaces where emotional experiences are validated, not judged, is not just a practice; it’s a conscious choice to build a stronger mental and emotional foundation for ourselves and the next generation.
What Parents and Educators Can Do Today
If emotional well-being is the foundation of mental health, then as parents and educators, it becomes our responsibility to nurture it consciously, often even before academics. While academic skills prepare children to earn a living, emotional intelligence equips them to live truly, navigating life with resilience, empathy, and self-awareness.
The first step is a shift in mindset. Success should not be measured solely by grades or achievements, but by the emotional health and inner strength we cultivate in ourselves and the children around us. Unhealed parents or educators cannot raise an emotionally resilient generation. By focusing on our own emotional healing, we naturally create an environment where children feel safe to explore, express, and understand their emotions.
Practical steps can start small but make a profound difference:
- Active listening: Give children your full attention, letting them know their feelings matter.
- Validating feelings: Acknowledge emotions without judgment, helping them recognise that all feelings are valid.
- Teaching coping strategies: Equip children with tools to manage stress, frustration, and sadness in healthy ways.
- Modelling self-care: Children learn by observing. Show them how to prioritise emotional well-being in daily life.
On a broader scale, schools and communities can play a pivotal role. Integrating social-emotional learning into the curriculum alongside academic subjects helps children develop emotional intelligence from an early age.
Workshops, activity clubs, and programs focused on emotional well-being provide safe spaces for children to practice self-awareness, empathy, and collaboration.
Ultimately, it’s not grand gestures but small, consistent actions that create lasting impact. A moment of listening, a word of validation, a mindful activity, these plant seeds of emotional resilience that grow into lifelong mental and emotional strength.
By making emotional well-being a priority, we are not just preparing children for exams or careerswe are preparing them for life.
Reframing the Conversation
For generations, we were taught to hide our feelings, to stay composed even when breaking inside, to believe that strength meant silence. But that era is ending, and it must. We are the generation choosing to break those cycles. We are rejecting the old belief that emotions are weaknesses, and instead, we are learning that emotional awareness is strength, and healing is courage.
It’s time to reframe how we see mental health. Instead of waiting for breakdowns, we can focus on prevention, on building emotional awareness, and nurturing well-being from the inside out. True mental health begins when we teach ourselves and our children to understand what they feel, to express without fear, and to create spaces where emotions are not judged but embraced.
Remember, emotional well-being is not an extra piece of life, it is life. When we nurture it consciously, we raise a generation that knows how to live with empathy, balance, and strength.
Because when we learn to feel, we learn to heal. And when we heal, we break the cycle—for ourselves, and for those who come after us.