What is Wellbeing?
We are all familiar with the term wellbeing, but do you know what it actually means? Here you can find out useful definitions, assess your own wellbeing levels and then consider how you might use the information to boost your own levels. All the information on this page comes from scientific psychological research, so you know that it can be trusted.
Why would you want to increase your wellbeing?
Research shows that those who consider themselves to have high levels of personal wellbeing are healthier, happier, feel supported, are more resilient to stress and perform well academically.
What is the difference between mental illness and mental wellbeing?
These are two terms that often get confused. Mental illness refers to mental health conditions that a person may be diagnosed with, for example clinical depression or anxiety disorder. Mental Wellbeing however refers to how you are feeling on a day-to-day basis, think of is as “doing well and feeling well”. Mental wellbeing consists of a combination of emotional states, thinking processes and behaviours.
Wellbeing is not just about eating healthily, exercising, and sleeping well, although these are important factors. Psychologists have created different models of wellbeing, and these can help us to understand what actions we can take to increase it.
PERMA model of wellbeing
One model of wellbeing is called the PERMA and was developed by Martin Seligman. This model suggests that to have good wellbeing a person must experience positive emotions, feel a sense of engagement, have good relationships, feel that their life is meaningful and experience accomplishment in their day-to-day life.
Another model of wellbeing is known as “The 5 ways to Wellbeing” – you might be familiar with this from school. You can find out more about what the 5 ways are in this video
We are all familiar with the term wellbeing, but do you know what it actually means? Here you can find out useful definitions, assess your own wellbeing levels and then consider how you might use the information to boost your own levels. All the information on this page comes from scientific psychological research, so you know that it can be trusted.
Why would you want to increase your wellbeing?
Research shows that those who consider themselves to have high levels of personal wellbeing are healthier, happier, feel supported, are more resilient to stress and perform well academically.
What is the difference between mental illness and mental wellbeing?
These are two terms that often get confused. Mental illness refers to mental health conditions that a person may be diagnosed with, for example clinical depression or anxiety disorder. Mental Wellbeing however refers to how you are feeling on a day-to-day basis, think of is as “doing well and feeling well”. Mental wellbeing consists of a combination of emotional states, thinking processes and behaviours.
Wellbeing is not just about eating healthily, exercising, and sleeping well, although these are important factors. Psychologists have created different models of wellbeing, and these can help us to understand what actions we can take to increase it.
Use the pie chart to colour in each segment so that it represents your level of each element of wellbeing. For example, if you feel that you experience a lot of positive emotion in your day-to-day life, go ahead and colour in the whole segment. If you feel that you would like to experience or tune into your positive emotions more frequently than perhaps just shade in half of the segment.
Once you have finished this, sit back and reflect on your wellbeing. Which area of wellbeing has the most colour, and which has the least? Can you think of one way in which you could increase your wellbeing for each segment? Below are some suggestions. Remember that even small changes to our day-to-day routine can lead to big improvements in our feelings of wellbeing.
