According to the definition of the World Health Organization (WHO), mental health is a state of well-being in which a person is able to realize his own potential, overcome daily stresses, work productively and fruitfully, and contribute to the life of his community.
Well, psychological well-being is closely related to mental health. That is why it is important to support it: to feel positive emotions, joy and happiness, to develop oneself and one's capabilities, to have control over one's own life, a sense of purpose and to establish constructive relationships with others.
Під час зйомок відео "Психологічне благополуччя"
And also, I want to add that people with a high level of well-being:
− are healthier and live longer;
− have better relationships;
− more productive;
− more successful at work;
− more creative;
− more durable.
Speaking about psychological well-being, I rely on the works of Martin Seligman, an American psychologist, one of the founders of positive psychology [2; 3]. In his model, M. Seligman singles out five components of psychological well-being:
P - Positive emotions – positive emotions;
E - Engagement – involvement;
R - Relationships - relationships;
M - Meaning & purpose – meaning and purpose;
A - Achievement.
1. Positive emotions are the main indicator of prosperity, however, this does not mean that you need to suppress negative emotions. One should accept all emotional experiences, but facilitate the emergence of situations where positive emotions will appear in a natural way.
To increase positive emotions, you can:
- Spend time with people you care about.
- Engage in hobbies or creativity that you like.
- Listen to cheerful and inspiring music.
- Think and write down a list of "What am I grateful for?" and reflect on the things that are going well in life.
- Look for positive aspects even in unpleasant situations.
2. Involvement is similar to the feeling of flow,and means losing self-awareness and being completely absorbed in the activity. Flow is a mental state in which a person is fully involved in what he is doing, it is a feeling of focus, concentration and success during the activity [1].
To increase the feeling of involvement, you should:
- Participate in activities that you really like and with which you lose track of time.
− Practice presence during everyday tasks or routine tasks. That is, practicing meditation and mindfulness allows you to calm down and concentrate on yourself and your inner state, focus attention on really important things and increase the ability to cope with stress, constructively experience emotions.
- Spend time in nature: look, listen and observe.
- Determine your strengths and do what works best.
3. Relationships encompass all of a person's interactions with partners, friends, family members, and society in general. This part of the model deals with feeling supported, loved, and valued by others.
What should be done to improve the relationship?
- Join a group of people with similar interests.
- Ask questions to people you don't know well to learn more about them.
- Deepen friendships with people you already know.
- Be sincere and show care.
- To restore contacts with people with whom we have not communicated for a long time.
- Practice non-violent communication. This is a method that allows you to realize and express your own emotions and needs in an ecological way. His main goal is not to achieve his goals by any means, but to establish relationships based on honesty and empathy.
4. Meaning is defined as belongingand serving something greater than the individual. Having a higher purpose helps you focus on what's really important and deal effectively with stress, challenges, and difficulties.
- Join a cause or organization that contributes to something that is important to you.
- Try new, creative activities to find something close.
- Think about how you can use your hobbies to help others.
- Choose goals based on your values and move towards them.
5. Achievement is a feeling of completion, when a person masters something, achieves goals or sees tangible progress on the way to them. Achievements contribute to well-being because they allow you to look at life with a sense of pride.
- Set SMART goals: specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound.
- Break big goals into stages and mark your progress.
- Write down past successes and celebrate small victories.
- Look for creative ways to celebrate your achievements. In addition to the main five components of the feeling of well-being and happiness, other important elements can also influence:
Optimism is the belief that there will be more good, positive outcomes in life than bad and unpleasant ones. To develop optimism, it is necessary to systematically work with negative thoughts and cognitive distortions.
·Know your resource occupations – analyze and formulate a recalculation of your favorite occupations, potentially resource activities that cause a sense of involvement and happiness, loss of time, etc. This allows you to focus on activities that you really like, and with the regular implementation of such activities in life, a person will feel an elevated mood, will be filled with positive, pleasant emotions. This, in turn, will contribute to the formation of a positive emotional background, which will allow you to effectively cope with stress and life's challenges.
Also, in order to maintain psychological well-being at a sustainable high level, it is important to know ecological ways of coping with stress. There are six modalities (according to the BASIC Ph multidimensional stress coping model) to constructively overcome stress:
1. B – Belief – faith, beliefs, values, philosophy of life. It is life full of meaning, which is a support resource in critical situations.
2. A - Affect - expression of emotions and feelings. Awareness, expression, control and redirection of feelings.
3. S - Socialization is our social component, emotional inclusion of other people, joint activity, social support, communication, sense of self-worth as part of a whole.
4. I – Imagination – imagination, dreams, memories, creativity. Using imagination, a non-standard approach to analyzing situations, humor, doing art, writing letters, drawing.
5. C – Cognition – mind, cognition, cognitive strategies. An intellectual approach to solving problems, volitional regulation and self-control, self-reporting, gathering information and drawing up a clear plan for solving the problem.
6. Ph – Physical – physical activity, bodily resources. Concentration on physical activity and physiological sensations from dynamic, sensory and relaxation activities.
You need to identify your dominant stress coping channels and make a to-do list: "What can I do when I feel stressed?", based on your own previous modalities.
Here is a link to the test to determine your advanced modalities of coping with stress
Working with a psychologist can be useful for those who do not yet have a clear understanding of the structure of the problem situation.
Під час зйомок відео "Психологічне благополуччя"
A psychologist can help with:
- awareness of the emotional state;
- formation of a list of resource types of activities;
– rethinking needs and values;
– analysis, modification and correction of life scenarios;
– modeling life goals and priorities;
– support in overcoming destructive forms of behavior;
- satisfaction of needs for understanding, support, respect, cooperation and mutual assistance.
Basic self-support and a healthy lifestyle:
Healthy sleep – It is recommended to get seven to nine hours of quality sleep at the same time every night. Lifestyle changes – avoiding caffeine, nicotine and alcohol, being physically active, reducing screen time, using the bedroom only for sleep and sex – can improve sleep quality.
Physical activity and balanced nutrition. It is important to keep the body in good shape, providing yourself with a full-fledged diet, sufficient nutrition, to have regular physical activity, because sports generate dopamine, and a full-fledged diet increases the body's resistance.
So, it can be concluded that in order to maintain psychological well-being, one should both develop each of the components of psychological well-being (positive emotions, relationships, involvement, meaning and achievements), as well as adhere to the basic principles of a healthy lifestyle, strive for awareness, understanding the circle of one's own influence, find environment of resourcefulness and realize your perceived dominance over the course of your own life.
P.S.: one's own level of psychological well-being can be measured using the PERMA-Profiler test. It is on M. Seligman's website in English, but I have a Ukrainian translation. So you can contact me. Also, if you have questions or comments or you want to make an appointment with me for a consultation, my contacts are on the website.
When writing the article, I relied on the results of my master's research "The influence of psychological well-being on Internet addiction in early adulthood" and:
List of used sources and literature
1. Csikszentmihalyi M. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. Bargain Price, 2008. 336 p.
2. Seligman M. Authentic happiness: Using the new positive psychology to realize your potential for lasting fulfillment. New York: Free Press, 2002. 336 p.
3. Seligman M. Learned optimism. New York: Knopf, 1991. 319 p.
Useful links:
Martin Seligman's site Authentic Happiness:
https://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/
https://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/
Positive Psychology Courses on Coursera (in English):
https://www.coursera.org/specializations/positivepsychology
https://www.coursera.org/specializations/positivepsychology
The International Positive Psychology Association (IPPA):
https://ippanetwork.org/
https://ippanetwork.org/
Author: psychologist, specialist in mental health - Anna Pavlenko.