What is well-being?
Well-being is the state of being safe, healthy, comfortable and happy with who you are. Eg: When parents want to make sure their children are safe, comfortable and happy. This is an example of the parents caring about their children’s well-being.
Well-being is also defined as the experience of health, happiness and prosperity. It includes having good mental health, high life satisfaction, a sense of meaning or purpose, and the ability to manage stress. More generally, well-being is just the feeling of being well.
What are the different types of well-being?
Physical well-being, economic well-being, social well-being, development and activity, emotional and mental well-being, psychological well-being, life satisfaction and domain specific satisfaction.
All the kinds of well-being that are defined here are equally important. We are supposed to balance all of this in order to be a complete individual.
Why is well-being so important?
Feelings of well-being are fundamental to the overall health of an individual, which Is making them be successful in overcoming difficulties and to achieve what they want out of life. Past experiences, attitudes and outlook can all have a major impact on well-being. It can be physical or emotional trauma following specific incidents.
How is Mental health related to well-being?
Mental health is a positive concept which is related to the social and emotional well-being of individuals and community. This concept is influenced by culture, it mostly relates to: enjoyment of life, having the ability to deal with and bounce from stress and sadness.
So what do we know about mental well-being?
To start off with, mental well- being is a state of well-being where each individual has a certain amount of realization of his or her own potential and is able to deal with the normal stresses in life and can work productively and fruitfully, and is also able to make his/her contribution to the community.
Emotional and mental health is the main focus of overall health. People who are emotionally and mentally healthy are in control of their thoughts, feelings and behaviours. They are able to cope with life’s challenges and keep problems in perspective as well as bounce back from setbacks.
There are 6 key factors that are considered as the key elements for mental and psychological well-being is: self-acceptance, personal growth, purpose in life, environmental mastery, autonomy and positive relations with others.
If you are taking good care of your mental well-being you will be able to: feel confident in yourself and have moderate to high self-esteem, feel and express a variety of emotions, build and maintain good relationships with others, feel engaged and able to connect with the world around you, live and work productively and cope with the stresses of daily life.
What does awareness mean?
Awareness is the acceptance and understanding of something, in a part or whole. It also means learning about mental illness and being familiar with the vernacular movement. It means accepting the medical nature of it and not just asking people to get over it when the solution is much more complex.
How aware are we when it comes our own well-being? Do we know how to asses ourselves?
This is called self-awareness. Self-awareness is when you step back and observe your thoughts and feelings as they unfold. It can be quite simple as noticing your emotions that you feel when you spend time with certain people or the obsessive thoughts that run through your head when they plan to try something new.
It is very important to be self-aware. It is one of the major ways to keep yourself consciously aware of your emotions, feelings and choices. Retrospecting is another way to do this.
This whole blog is completely in a question and answer format to make it easier for you to read and understand how important it is to invest in taking care of your mental well-being. It gives you a detailed summary of what is what and how to go about things. You are not entirely responsible for your mental well-being. Your surroundings can affect you a lot more than you think it does. But, it’s you that needs to take care of yourself, and it’s you who gets to choose the right way to do it.
Here are a few general ways in which you can take care of your mental well-being. However, this may not work with everyone.
1) Eat and sleep well- food and sleep affect our emotions in a lot more ways than we think they do
2) Drink lots of water and keep yourself hydrated always
3) Avoid alcohol, smoking, etc
4) Get plenty of sunlight during the day
5) Manage stress- write a journal, write a to-do list for the day, keep small goals, meditation, yoga
6) Do something that you enjoy- painting, writing, reading, drawing, going out, gardening, cleaning
7) Keep yourself occupied so you don’t have time to think but also not too occupied where you do not have the space to breathe.
8) Try and connect with people of your kind and the people around you. Be more sociable.