Dr. Maymunah Yusuf Kadiri 
If your mind were a house, emotional hygiene would be the daily sweeping, mopping, and window cleaning that keeps it fresh and livable. Negativity, like dust, doesn’t always arrive in storms, it drifts in quietly through open doors, unfiltered conversations, or even your own unguarded thoughts.
We take baths to keep our bodies clean, brush our teeth to protect against decay, and wash our clothes to smell fresh. Yet many people neglect the most important kind of hygiene, the one that protects the mind from being cluttered, contaminated, or consumed by negativity.
What Is Emotional Energy Hygiene?
Emotional energy hygiene is the conscious practice of maintaining a clean, healthy mental space by filtering what you allow in through your senses, your environment, and your relationships and intentionally releasing what drains you.
Just like germs can make the body sick, toxic thoughts, environments, and people can infect your emotional wellbeing. Without regular cleansing, these emotional “germs” can build up, leading to anxiety, irritability, and burnout.
The Invisible Negativity in Our Daily Lives
In the world, negativity can slip into your mind through many small doors:
• Conversations soaked in gossip that plant seeds of mistrust.
• Endless bad news cycles that feed fear and helplessness.
• Energy-draining relationships that leave you feeling used instead of uplifted.
• Your own self-talk that repeats old failures instead of new possibilities.
It’s not just what happens to you, it’s what you allow to take root inside you.
Why Emotional Hygiene Matters for Mental Health
Negativity activates the brain’s stress response, releasing cortisol and adrenaline. While useful in emergencies, chronic exposure leaves you mentally exhausted, physically drained, and emotionally reactive.
Studies show that persistent negative thinking can weaken immunity, disturb sleep, and even reduce lifespan. On the other hand, protecting your mental energy increases focus, resilience, and overall happiness.
Five Daily Practices for Emotional Energy Hygiene
1. Curate Your Inputs
Guard what you consume mentally the way you guard what you eat physically. Limit exposure to toxic news, unhelpful social media feeds, and conversations that leave you heavy. Replace them with uplifting books, educational podcasts, and inspiring stories.
2. Set Healthy Boundaries
Not every phone call needs to be answered, and not every argument deserves your participation. Learn to say “no” without apology when protecting your peace.
3. Mindful Emotional Check-Ins
At least twice a day, pause and ask yourself: What am I feeling right now? Is this feeling helping or hurting me? Awareness is the first step in cleaning your mental space.
4. Release and Reset
Journaling, prayer, deep breathing, or a quick walk outside can help you release built-up emotional tension. Let it out before it festers.
5. Surround Yourself with Uplifters
Spend time with people whose words and presence leave you lighter, inspired, and empowered. Emotional hygiene thrives in healthy company.
The Nigerian Context – Guarding Against Cultural Energy Drains
In our society, where community and extended family ties run deep, emotional hygiene doesn’t mean cutting people off, it means learning to interact without absorbing every frustration, complaint, or criticism thrown your way.
For example:
• When visiting relatives, listen with empathy but don’t carry their worries as your own.
• In the workplace, learn to address issues without taking every harsh word personally.
• In friendships, notice when support becomes one-sided and draining.
The Spiritual Side of Emotional Hygiene
Faith traditions across Nigeria speak about guarding the heart and mind. The Bible says, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” (Proverbs 4:23). In Islam, believers are encouraged to avoid backbiting and fill their hearts with remembrance of Allah.
These principles align with emotional hygiene, keeping the inner self free from pollution so that your thoughts, words, and actions remain pure.
We clean our homes because we know dirt builds up. The same is true for our emotional lives—negativity accumulates silently, but its effects are loud.
Practicing emotional energy hygiene is not selfish, it’s self-preservation. It allows you to show up to your work, family, and community from a place of clarity and strength, not from the exhaustion of carrying unfiltered negativity.
Think of it this way: you can’t pour clean water from a dirty jug. Keep your mental space clean, and everything you give to the world will be fresher, kinder, and more powerful.
Dr. MAYMUNAH YUSUF KADIRI (aka DR. MAY) popularly referred to as “The Celebrity Shrink,” is a multiple award winning Mental Health Physician, Advocate & Coach. She is the convener of “The Mental Health Conference” and the Medical Director and Psychiatrist-In-Chief at Pinnacle Medical Services, Dr. Kadiri is a dynamic Consultant Neuro-Psychiatrist and a Fellow of the National Post Graduate Medical College of Nigeria (FMCPsych) with almost 20 years’ experience as a practicing Physician.