Wellbeing often brings to mind a sense of feeling good, but it’s more than just a pleasant state. Wellbeing is a dynamic condition, continuously tested by life’s ups and downs.
To achieve a positive sense of wellbeing, our mental, physical, and emotional environments must align at healthy levels. However, life’s surprises can disrupt this balance, directly impacting our mental health and emotional stability, and compelling us to find effective ways to maintain this equilibrium. Each time we overcome a challenge, we not only learn new strategies but also increase and reinforce our inner resources, which in turn boosts our resilience, making it easier to handle the next difficult situation.
The Art of Bouncing Back
Ever wondered why some people bounce back from challenges more effectively than others? Robert Cummins, a prominent researcher in quality of life, suggests that our wellbeing has a ‘set-point’—a default level or comfort zone of happiness we return to after life’s fluctuations. Mild challenges might shake us a bit, but major ones can knock us out of this zone. This emphasizes the importance of building resilience to return to our baseline.
The Basics: What Really Sustains Wellbeing?
Wellbeing involves more than the absence of problems. It’s linked to specific activities — such as making healthy choices, exercising and spending quality time with loved ones — that stimulate our brain’s reward pathways, releasing feel-good chemicals like dopamine and serotonin. Common knowledge suggests that wellbeing requires:
- Emotional Resilience: This helps us recover from adversity and grow stronger.
- Physical Health: Essential for our mental and emotional health.
- Social Connectivity: Creates good moments and supports our emotional resilience against life’s stresses.
- Cognitive Engagement: Keeps our brains active and engaged, which not only sharpens them but also enriches our life experience, supporting healthy self-esteem and enhancing our mental health.
- Healthy Eating: A balanced diet supports both mind and body, laying the foundation for good mental and physical health.
All of this is of course important, but there’s more to the story to create a successful wellbeing experience.
First Things First: Building the Foundations of Wellbeing
True wellbeing starts with simple, yet essential, foundational actions that require deeper introspection and proactive steps. Engaging in activities without understanding why we do them or if we even enjoy them, just because others recommend them, will not automatically increase our wellbeing. Therefore, to complement the previously mentioned strategies and ensure that your efforts result in lasting and fulfilling outcomes:
- Identify what matters: Know your values. What is most important to you in all aspects of your life?
- Notice: Be aware when you are “off track”. Is your current path aligning with those values? If not, it is time to act.
- Understand: Do you understand what is misaligned and what is causing it? Do you have the tools to bring it back on track?
- Adjust: If you already have the necessary tools, put them into action and make the necessary adjustments to realign with your values. This is about applying what you already know and can do.
- Identify Needs: If you find you are lacking the necessary tools or skills, take a step back to identify what these are. This could involve recognizing areas where you need more knowledge, training, or specific skills like interpersonal communication, technical skills, or self-management. Once identified, you can look for ways to develop these areas.
- Skill development: Learn how you can acquire the tools needed to keep your wellbeing in balance. If you find gaps in your abilities that are difficult to bridge on your own, do not hesitate to look for external support. This could include seeking out workshops, courses, professional advice, or even therapy, depending on your needs. Engaging with experts can provide you with tailored guidance and accelerate your personal development.
- Commitment to act and growth: Actively embrace both personal and emotional growth as part of your everyday life to continuously enhance your wellbeing. Appropriate Action is Key!
To Help You Get Started:
Taking the first step towards improving your wellbeing can be challenging. To assist you in this process, begin with a self-assessment and action planning:
- Self-Assessment: Reflect on your current state of wellbeing. Are there specific areas such as physical health, emotional balance, social connections, or mental focus that feel neglected or could be improved? This awareness is key to achieve meaningful change.
- Actionable Steps: Based on your self-assessment, identify small, manageable actions you can take right now. For instance, if you feel physically inactive, consider what you can do to increase your activity levels. If emotional stress is a concern, try learning emotion regulation tools and putting them into practice.
Small steps can gradually lead to significant improvements in your overall wellbeing.
In conclusion, remember, as the saying goes, “Investing in our wellbeing is essential, not optional.” We create a fulfilling life through a balanced approach that nurtures the mind, body, and spirit.
I hope you found this useful!
Do you want to know more?
- Dodge, R., Daly, A., Huyton, J., & Sanders, L. (2012). The challenge of defining wellbeing. International Journal of Wellbeing, 2(3), 222-235. doi:10.5502/ijw.v2i3.4
- Topp, C.W., Østergaard, S.D., Søndergaard, S., & Bech, P. (2015). The WHO-5 Well-Being Index: A Systematic Review of the Literature. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 84, 167-176.
- Young, S.N. (2007). How to increase serotonin in the human brain without drugs. J Psychiatry Neurosci., 32(6):394-399. PMID: 18043762; PMCID: PMC2077351.
- WHO (1998). Wellbeing Measures in Primary Health Care/The Depcare Project. WHO Regional Office for Europe: Copenhagen.
Need a Helping Hand?
If you’re looking for personalized support using evidence-based strategies to help increase your mental health and overall wellbeing, please don’t hesitate to reach out. I’m here, to help.
Olga-Lucía from EQness