What is the meaning of physical and mental well-being?

Mental and physical health is fundamentally linked. There are multiple associations between mental health and chronic physical conditions that significantly impact people’s quality of life, demands on health care and other publicly funded services, and generate consequences to society.  The World Health Organization (WHO) defines: health as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.   The WHO states that “there is no health without mental health.”1

Nowhere is the relationship between mental and physical health more evident than in the area of chronic conditions. The associations between mental and physical health are:

1. Poor mental health is a risk factor for chronic physical conditions.
2. People with serious mental health conditions are at high risk of experiencing chronic physical conditions.
3. People with chronic physical conditions are at risk of developing poor mental health.

The social determinants of health impact both chronic physical conditions and mental health. Key aspects of prevention include increasing physical activity, access to nutritious foods, ensuring adequate income and fostering social inclusion and social support. This creates opportunities to enhance protective factors and reduce risk factors related to aspects of mental and physical health.

Understanding the links between mind and body is the first step in developing strategies to reduce the incidence of co-existing conditions and support those already living with mental illnesses and chronic physical conditions.

[1] Promoting mental health : concepts, emerging evidence, practice : summary report / a report from the World Health Organization, Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse in collaboration with the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (VicHealth) and the University of Melbourne. (2004).

Mental wellbeing is an integral part of our overall health. Society often thinks of health as something biological and physical: the condition of our bodies, how healthy we eat, the physical exercise we do. A key component of health is missing from this, though. It’s mental wellbeing, which encompasses our inner workings and the way we describe how we are in our lives.

Mental wellbeing, in general, is the state of thriving in various areas of life, such as in relationships, at work, play, and more, despite ups and downs. It’s the knowledge that we are separate from our problems and the belief that we can handle those problems.

Before examining what mental wellbeing is, it’s important to understand what mental wellbeing is not. It is not

• The absence of mental illness
• The lack of problems, challenges, and adversity

In fact, it is often adversity, including facing mental illness, that shapes and hones mental health and wellbeing. Just as a broken bone is stronger after healing itself, so, too, can be your mental wellbeing each time you face and deal with difficulties.

So what, exactly is this idea of mental wellbeing?

Defining Mental Wellbeing

Mental wellbeing is how we respond to life’s ups and downs. In this simple mental wellbeing definition lies deeper meaning and implication for our lives. It includes how a person thinks, handles emotion (emotional wellness), and acts.

This important part of who we are has multiple meanings. These traits—which are all actually skills we can practice and develop—are all part of mental wellbeing:

• Self-acceptance
• Sense of self as part of something greater
• Sense of self as independent rather than dependent on others for identity or happiness
• Knowing and using our unique character strengths
• Accurate perception of reality, knowing that we can’t mind-read and that our thoughts aren’t always true
• Desire for continued growth
• Thriving in the face of adversity (emotional resilience)
• Having and pursuing interests
• Knowing and remaining true to values
• Maintaining emotionally healthy relationships
• Optimism (hope—the mindset that things can improve)
• Happiness that comes from within rather than being dependent on external conditions
• Determination
• Action (in contrast to a passive mindset and lifestyle, waiting for things to get better)

People who develop and experience wellbeing also have what psychological researcher, Angela Duckworth, calls grit. Grit is comprised of passions and perseverance and means showing up for life. It’s a never-give-up attitude. Grit doesn’t mean never failing, for failure is part of success and life itself. Grit means getting back up when you fall.

Together, all of this defines mental wellbeing. It’s purposely moving ever forward with determination and direction.

Examples of Mental Wellbeing

Wellbeing exists in myriad ways. These mental wellbeing examples are but a handful of ways people can be mentally healthy:

• The man who loses his job and uses his love of learning to take some classes to start a new career path that better matches his passions
• The woman who makes it a point to attend or visit concerts, plays, and museums because she feels joy and inspiration when she does
• The teen athlete who is cut from a team so, with determination and grit, trains hard to make the team next season
• The woman who once experienced a period of homelessness and now gives back by volunteering in the organizations that helped her in the past
• The man whose wife had an affair lets go of bitterness and resentment by forgiving her and divorcing her civilly and then moves on with his life
• The human being with anxiety and depression who gets out of bed every single day, creates a goal for the day, and takes small steps toward it and acknowledging the bravery and progress at the end of the day

The components of mental wellbeing are within reach of everyone, and it has nothing at all to do with the presence or absence of illness.

Someone living with a mental illness can achieve mental wellbeing; likewise, someone who has neither mental nor physical illnesses could have a poor state of mental wellbeing.

Mental wellbeing and all that it encompasses are vital life components in their own right. They’re not something that exists as solely the absence of problems. Happily, they’re also not something that occurs by luck or chance or that we either have or lack and can’t change.

Mental health and wellbeing are traits and skills that we continually develop and hone as we live a tumultuous and quality life.

article references

APA Reference
Peterson, T. (2021, December 26). What Is Mental Wellbeing? Definition and Examples, HealthyPlace. Retrieved on 2022, August 21 from https://www.healthyplace.com/self-help/self-help-information/what-mental-wellbeing-definition-and-examples

Concepts in mental health

Mental health is a state of mental well-being that enables people to cope with the stresses of life, realize their abilities, learn well and work well, and contribute to their community. It is an integral component of health and well-being that underpins our individual and collective abilities to make decisions, build relationships and shape the world we live in. Mental health is a basic human right. And it is crucial to personal, community and socio-economic development.

Mental health is more than the absence of mental disorders. It exists on a complex continuum, which is experienced differently from one person to the next, with varying degrees of difficulty and distress and potentially very different social and clinical outcomes.

Mental health conditions include mental disorders and psychosocial disabilities as well as other mental states associated with significant distress, impairment in functioning, or risk of self-harm. People with mental health conditions are more likely to experience lower levels of mental well-being, but this is not always or necessarily the case.

Determinants of mental health

Throughout our lives, multiple individual, social and structural determinants may combine to protect or undermine our mental health and shift our position on the mental health continuum.

Individual psychological and biological factors such as emotional skills, substance use and genetics can make people more vulnerable to mental health problems.

Exposure to unfavourable social, economic, geopolitical and environmental circumstances – including poverty, violence, inequality and environmental deprivation – also increases people’s risk of experiencing mental health conditions.

Risks can manifest themselves at all stages of life, but those that occur during developmentally sensitive periods, especially early childhood, are particularly detrimental. For example, harsh parenting and physical punishment is known to undermine child health and bullying is a leading risk factor for mental health conditions.

Protective factors similarly occur throughout our lives and serve to strengthen resilience. They include our individual social and emotional skills and attributes as well as positive social interactions, quality education, decent work, safe neighbourhoods and community cohesion, among others.

Mental health risks and protective factors can be found in society at different scales. Local threats heighten risk for individuals, families and communities. Global threats heighten risk for whole populations and include economic downturns, disease outbreaks, humanitarian emergencies and forced displacement and the growing climate crisis.

Each single risk and protective factor has only limited predictive strength. Most people do not develop a mental health condition despite exposure to a risk factor and many people with no known risk factor still develop a mental health condition. Nonetheless, the interacting determinants of mental health serve to enhance or undermine mental health.

Mental health promotion and prevention

Promotion and prevention interventions work by identifying the individual, social and structural determinants of mental health, and then intervening to reduce risks, build resilience and establish supportive environments for mental health. Interventions can be designed for individuals, specific groups or whole populations.

Reshaping the determinants of mental health often requires action beyond the health sector and so promotion and prevention programmes should involve the education, labour, justice, transport, environment, housing, and welfare sectors. The health sector can contribute significantly by embedding promotion and prevention efforts within health services; and by advocating, initiating and, where appropriate, facilitating multisectoral collaboration and coordination.

Suicide prevention is a global priority and included in the Sustainable Development Goals. Much progress can be achieved by limiting access to means, responsible media reporting, social and emotional learning for adolescents and early intervention. Banning highly hazardous pesticides is a particularly inexpensive and cost–effective intervention for reducing suicide rates.

Promoting child and adolescent mental health is another priority and can be achieved by policies and laws that promote and protect mental health, supporting caregivers to provide nurturing care, implementing school-based programmes and improving the quality of community and online environments. School-based social and emotional learning programmes are among the most effective promotion strategies for countries at all income levels.

Promoting and protecting mental health at work is a growing area of interest and can be supported through legislation and regulation, organizational strategies, manager training and interventions for workers.

Mental health care and treatment

In the context of national efforts to strengthen mental health, it is vital to not only protect and promote the mental well-being of all, but also to address the needs of people with mental health conditions.

This should be done through community-based mental health care, which is more accessible and acceptable than institutional care, helps prevent human rights violations and delivers better recovery outcomes for people with mental health conditions. Community-based mental health care should be provided through a network of interrelated services that comprise:

• mental health services that are integrated in general health care, typically in general hospitals and through task-sharing with non-specialist care providers in primary health care;
• community mental health services that may involve community mental health centers and teams, psychosocial rehabilitation, peer support services and supported living services; and
• services that deliver mental health care in social services and non-health settings, such as child protection, school health services, and prisons.

The vast care gap for common mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety means countries must also find innovative ways to diversify and scale up care for these conditions, for example through non-specialist psychological counselling or digital self-help.

WHO response

All WHO Member States are committed to implementing the “Comprehensive mental health action plan 2013–2030", which aims to improve mental health by strengthening effective leadership and governance, providing comprehensive, integrated and responsive community-based care, implementing promotion and prevention strategies, and strengthening information systems, evidence and research. In 2020, WHO’s “Mental health atlas 2020” analysis of country performance against the action plan showed insufficient advances against the targets of the agreed action plan.

WHO’s “World mental health report: transforming mental health for all” calls on all countries to accelerate implementation of the action plan. It argues that all countries can achieve meaningful progress towards better mental health for their populations by focusing on three “paths to transformation”:

• deepen the value given to mental health by individuals, communities and governments; and matching that value with commitment, engagement and investment by all stakeholders, across all sectors;
• reshape the physical, social and economic characteristics of environments – in homes, schools, workplaces and the wider community – to better protect mental health and prevent mental health conditions; and
• strengthen mental health care so that the full spectrum of mental health needs is met through a community-based network of accessible, affordable and quality services and supports.

WHO gives particular emphasis to protecting and promoting human rights, empowering people with lived experience and ensuring a multisectoral and multistakeholder approach.

WHO continues to work nationally and internationally – including in humanitarian settings – to provide governments and partners with the strategic leadership, evidence, tools and technical support to strengthen a collective response to mental health and enable a transformation towards better mental health for all.