Wellbeing is multi-faceted and there are many ways to define wellbeing, here are a couple of definitions of wellbeing:

 

Oxford English Dictionary - “the state of being comfortable, healthy, or happy.” 

 

World Health Organisation - “wellbeing is where each individual realises his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community”.

 

Many think of wellbeing as just being our physical or mental health, but there is more to wellbeing than just focussing on these two areas.  It is a way of life incorporating how we treat ourselves, what our relationships are with others, how we grow, understanding our purpose, achieving our goals and being the best version of ourselves.

 

Wellbeing is a choice and a journey with no end point and we need to continually focus on ourselves and our wellbeing to ensure that we can reach our potential.

 

Five ways to wellbeing is a common and simple model to outline fives areas that can focus on to help boost our mental health and wellbeing, these are:

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1. Connect - Feeling close to people and feeling connected is a basic human need and by having positive relationships is a great way to promote positive wellbeing and our increase our happiness. 

 

2. Take Notice - Taking notice is all about living in the moment, embracing the here and now and being aware of our feelings to help us appreciate what really matter to us.

 

3. Keep learning - learning can help to enhance our self esteem and the proactive of setting goals can help us to have higher levels of wellbeing.

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4. Be Active - being active is not only great for our physical health, it also improves our mental health by raising our self esteem, producing endorphins which can positively impact our mood, improve our sleep and boost our immune system.

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5. Give - those that report a greater interest in helping others are more likely to rate themselves as happy and research into actions for promoting happiness has shown that a committing to an act of kindness once a week over a six week period is associated with an increase in wellbeing. 

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We have put together some information for you to support your health and wellbeing as well as areas such as managing yourself through change, achieving a more positive mindset, building resilience and a number of useful resources for organisations you can reach out to for further help.