Cultivating an awareness of your feelings is crucial not only for your mental well-being, but your physical health. Studies show that stress can take a toll on your body and unmanaged anger puts excess pressure on your heart and blood pressure.

That's where emotional security comes in.

Emotional security can best be described as "the ability to identify, label and express what you're feeling," according to Kendra Campbell, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. In other words, you know how to address your emotions in a healthy way.

1. You embrace the negative.
Life is a series of peaks and valleys. By not only recognizing that there will be negative events or challenges, but being open to them, you're setting yourself up for a healthy relationship with those types of emotions.

"Emotions are natural and universal -- we all experience them," Campbell told The Huffington Post. "No one is immune from experiencing them, even the negative ones."

2. You look at the bigger picture.
This self-distancing technique can do a lot for a person's mood. Instead over reliving a painful experience in order to process the emotions behind it (think replaying that breakup in your mind over and over again), it might be better to look at a negative event as if you're viewing it from afar. Researchers from the University of Michigan have found that those who look at a situation from an "outsider's perspective," so to speak, may experience a lower risk for depressive symptoms.

Read the full article "10 Signs You're In Touch With Your Emotions" at The Huffington Post.