It’s important that you choose to be happy, healthy and at peace!
Health is defined as the overall mental, emotional and physical state of a person; the absence of disease and ailment. On the other hand, wellness or well-being refers to the state of being in optimal mental and physical health.
But wellness is more than optimal mental, emotional and physical health. It’s about living a life in harmony, full of personal responsibility and taking proactive steps for one’s entire well-being. Thus, a person living life very well controls risk factors that can harm them. Risk factors are different types of actions or conditions that increase a person’s chances for illness or injury.
Psychosocial (mental, emotional, social, and spiritual) health and wellness
“The secret of a better and more successful life is to cast out those old dead unhealthy thoughts.” Dr. Norman Vincent Peale
Psychosocial health includes four important components of well-being. It means being mentally, emotionally, socially, and spiritually sound which fortunately is no longer lost on traditional modern medicine. There’s plenty of proof that a healthy mind, content heart and grateful attitude are just as important for the prevention of diseases and therapeutic treatment. Therefore, this concept of psychosocial health, a state of mental, emotional, social, and spiritual well-being, deserves much attention and additional research.
Basic Traits of Psychosocial Health
“The greatest revolution of our generation is the discovery that human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives.” William James
Individuals who are deemed to be psychosocially healthy aren’t completely devoid of problems. Actually, it’s not the quantity or quality of a problem, which makes someone sound in this respect. It’s the way people view themselves and how they view and response to stressful situations that sets psychosocially healthy people apart from those who are not. Here are just a few traits shared by these robust individuals. They:
- Like themselves
- Accept their mistakes
- Take care of themselves
- Have empathy for others
- Control their anger, hate, tension, and anxiety
- Are optimistic
- Can work alone and with others equally well
Mental Health
“To make your mind healthy, you must feed it nourishing, wholesome thoughts.” Dr. Norman Vincent Peale
The thinking portion of psychosocial health is known as mental health. Your beliefs and values in life, as well as how you relate to others and respond to situations in your life, are a reflection of mental health, which overlaps with the other aspect of health.
When something happens to you that you don’t like and you respond in a positive manner by accepting your mistake and looking forward to its correction, then that’s good. But if you show up late for work regularly, get fired, and then blame anyone but yourself, then that may be an indicator of less than ideal mental and emotional health.
Emotional Health
The feeling part of psychosocial health is called emotional health. This includes things like anger, love, hate, and happiness. Oftentimes, emotional and mental health overlap a great deal in some situations. Going back to our example of getting fired from work because you came in late multiple time, if you feel a bit down, but still have high hopes for the future, that’s a positive thing. But if you lash out in a blinding rage against your boss, sulk when you go home, and avoid everyone thereafter, then that may point to improper emotional health.
Furthermore, it’s not unexpected even for an emotionally healthy person to experience some sadness and grief after getting fired; that by itself isn’t conclusive of poor emotional health. Everyone, even the most optimistic people, have their ups and downs. But an emotionally healthy person is one that responds to a situation in a manner that is controllable, in proportion, and with understanding.
Emotional intelligence is an ability to understand and manage your emotions and those of others. It can be broken up into five main parts:
- Know your emotions: Are you able to quickly recognize your feelings?
- Manage your emotions: Can you express those feelings appropriately? Are you able to cope with them well?
- Motivate yourself: The more you can do this independently in order to achieve more in your life, the higher your emotional intelligence.
- Recognize the emotions of others: The more you can empathize with others, the better.
- Handle your relationships: The better you are at navigating conflict in life and building a good social network, the higher your emotional intelligence.
Social Health
Having healthy relationships is a good way to also introduce social health, the ability to create and maintain healthy relationships with others. I’m sure you can already appreciate how much this is related to the concepts we went over in emotional health. Everything here is related because they are all part of the one overarching concept – psychosocial health.
Social health goes beyond having appropriate emotional health and intelligence. A person with good social health:
- Recognizes the importance of social engagement. We’re pack animals after all! We’re not supposed to live alone!
- A person with good social health is able to support their friends in a time of need and ask for their help when they need it themselves.
- They aren’t biased, prejudiced, racist, or sexist.
- Listens to others well, expresses their feelings just as well, and acts in a responsible manner around others.
An example of a person with good social health is someone who has close friends. They enjoy listening to and feels close enough to share important feelings with. The contrast is a curmudgeon who is bad-tempered and discourages close personal relationships.
Spiritual Health
When you enhance your spirituality, you form a relationship built on inner peace, love, faith and security.
Spiritual health is about having “something more” in your life. In practical terms, we’re talking about getting to know yourself—getting to know what you’re feeling, what you’re thinking, what you’re intending, what your fears are, and what your loves are, according to Gary Zukav author of Seat of the Soul.
Relationships can transform into a spiritual connection and partnership. If we use our relationships with ourselves, others and God (or an entity that is transcendent) to make us wiser, kinder, peaceful, grateful and more compassionate, we can actually change how the relationships work for us. We can have and enjoy the relationships and lives we’ve always dreamed of.
Higher levels of spirituality have also been linked to increased compassion, strengthened relationships, and improved self-esteem. “Our findings show that spirituality is significantly associated with better mental health and well-being and may add to an individual’s overall wisdom,” explains Dilip Jeste, senior associate dean for the Center of Healthy Aging and a professor of psychiatry and neuroscience at the UC San Diego School of Medicine. “Spirituality does not require religious faith but is characterized by humility and ever-present connectedness to oneself or to others or to an entity that is transcendent, such as Mother Nature or God or the soul. It helps reduce stress in many people and allows them to be more at peace, happier, and healthier.”
References:
- https://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-psychosocial-health-definition-components-traits.html
- https://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/forging-a-spiritual-relationship/all
- https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-athletes-way/202010/how-spirituality-wisdom-and-mental-health-are-intertwined
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/amymorin/2016/06/15/this-is-how-your-thoughts-become-your-reality/?sh=1dd1728528a0
Background:
Physical wellness: This means we exercise, eat well, practice safe sex, don’t do any dangerous activities like jumping off of buildings, and so on. Physical fitness increases physical wellness. By being physically fit and well, you are better able to take care of yourself and others, especially in a time of need. You are also better able to prevent illness and disease.
Intellectual wellness: Critical thinking, being curious, and always learning new things. Developing intellectual wellness is critical not only to help a person grow in school and do better at work, but it actually prevents the onset of disease. It’s been shown that people who regularly learn new things and challenge their mind can stave off many mental health problems.
Emotional wellness: Being confident, having a solid self-esteem, building trust, and being able to understand another’s feelings. A person who is emotionally well is aware of their feelings and is able to properly cope with them. Emotional wellness also implies a person can deal well with stressful situations.
Social wellness: Having good communication skills, the ability to establish good and healthy long-term relationships, and having good relationships with family and friends. Interpersonal relationships are very important in order to maintain a good emotional and physical state of being. We are, of course, ‘pack animals,’ so to speak, that depend on one another to survive and live well.
Spiritual wellness: The path to a spiritual wellness and relationship depends upon you because how you relate to yourself determines how spiritual you are toward others, according to Deepak Chopra. Developing compassion, forgiveness, being caring, having a sense of purpose and meaning in life. Spiritual wellness doesn’t automatically imply the need for religion in a person’s life. But, it does imply a personal relationship with God or committing to something higher. This personal relationship or commitment to something higher can be developed and found through things like nature, meditation, volunteer work, and family.
Mahatma Gandhi:
- You must be the change you wish to see in the world.
- Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.
- Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.
- Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words. Keep your words positive because your words become your behavior. Keep your behavior positive because your behavior becomes your habits. Keep your habits positive because your habits become your values. Keep your values positive because your values become your destiny.
References:
David Bach is a financial expert and bestselling financial author. He has written ten consecutive New York Times bestsellers with more than seven million books in print, translated in over 19 languages.