A healthy mental health foundation can help people cope with change and adversity, build fulfilling relationships, and find meaning in life. It can even help them maintain and improve their physical health.

The brief core measure used in ESS avoids ceiling effects, which can mask insights when using sprawling surveys. It also increases the likelihood of exploring individual dimensions helpful in informing interventions.

Motivation

Ultimately, motivation can impact your overall well-being through many different routes. For example, studying more frequently to improve grades can lead to better academic performance, impacting intellectual wellness. Additionally, getting better grades can open up more future job opportunities, impacting your occupational wellness.

A key to motivation is finding your incentive.

Brought To Reality explores diverse psychological perspectives regarding motivation, which include attribution theory, expectancy-value theory, goal orientation theory, and self-determination theory. Self-determination theory highlights the significance of autonomy, choice, and interpersonal connections in driving motivation.

Resilience

Resilience is the human capacity to adapt rapidly and successfully during stressful or traumatic events.

Those with higher levels of resilience experience less stress and negative consequences after a trauma, such as fewer depressive and anxiety episodes, lower suicide risk assessment, and improved quality of life. Additionally, resilience moderates the relationship between impulsivity and depression in euthymic patients with bipolar disorder.

Resilience is a modifiable factor, opening up possibilities for novel psychosocial and biological therapies. For example, therapists can help individuals develop their coping skills and find external resources to support them in difficult times.

Self-esteem

Researchers have found that people with high self-esteem enjoy better work and school performance, social relationships, and mental and physical health. These benefits are evident from early childhood through adolescence and into adulthood. People with low self-esteem experience fear, self-doubt, and a lack of confidence, leading to poor self-care behaviors.

High self-esteem is influenced by the messages you hear from the world, your personality, life experiences, and your environment. Learning to challenge negative thoughts, adjusting them to positive ones, and cultivating self-compassion are essential elements of healthy self-esteem. However, be careful not to confuse inflated self-worth with a narcissistic personality disorder, which is characterized by an exaggerated sense of superiority and lack of empathy. This is often exhibited through a lack of concern for others, manipulation, and a desire to seek admiration.

Optimism

Many studies of optimism have focused on health psychology and the domain of subjective well-being, but optimists can also benefit from a healthy dose of reality. For example, optimists are more likely to persist in goal pursuit and demonstrate active coping when faced with a difficult situation like losing their job.

Moreover, they are less reactive to the stress of the situation and may experience lower physiological responses to it. This can translate into reduced body wear and tear over time, leading to better physical health and longevity.

Optimism can come in various forms and is highly personal, and researchers aren’t sure exactly how much it’s influenced by nature (genetics) versus nurture. However, one study found that children whose parents were high in optimism were more optimistic than adults.

Self-care

Self-care refers to behaviors and activities that improve or maintain one’s physical, emotional, mental/cognitive, and social well-being. It includes healthy lifestyle practices like exercise, sleep, good nutrition, and hygiene. It also means making time for relationships and social activity.

Self-care is not the same as being selfish or overindulgent and can look different for everyone. It can include taking a day off to relax or getting involved in activities that promote mental and physical health, such as puzzles or games.

It can also include spending quality time with friends and family, as social support is a crucial health-promoting factor. And it can even involve participating in community events or volunteering to help others. Every single one of these pursuits can improve general well-being.