Tips for taking better care of our positive mental health

It is just as healthy to laugh and be happy when good things are happening as it is to cry and be sad when problems arise.

Dr. María Teresa Lluch Canut

Professor of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health. Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences

Universitat de Barcelona

We are living through a historic moment since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic on March 11, 2020. Several months have passed, and the reality is that this situation is impacting all of society at every level: economic, social, physical, and emotional. Undoubtedly, it is also affecting our mental health.

At the start of this year, when we always make good resolutions and wishes , it's interesting to talk about positive mental health. What is it, and how can we cultivate it? Can it help us maintain a healthy mental balance?

The World Health Organization (WHO, 2001) established that a person enjoys positive mental health if they can develop their own abilities, cope with normal life stressors, work productively and with satisfaction, and are able to participate and contribute to the community.

What is positive mental health?

Following the WHO's definition of positive mental health, a few years ago I proposed a way to define positive mental health based on a multifactorial and interrelated model. This model helps healthcare professionals assess whether a person experiences their mental health in a positive way.

Personal satisfaction : refers to satisfaction with oneself (self-concept / self-esteem), with one's personal life and with future prospects.
Prosocial attitude: includes the person's sensitivity towards their social environment, the attitude and desire to help or support others, and the acceptance of others and of differential social facts.
Self-control: considers the person's ability to cope with stress and conflict situations, emotional balance, and tolerance to frustration, anxiety, and stress.
Autonomy: includes the ability of the person to make their own decisions applying their own criteria, self-regulating their own behavior and maintaining a good level of personal safety.
Problem-solving and self-actualization: refers to a person's ability to make decisions and solve the problems that life entails, as well as the ability to adapt to changes, developing a flexible attitude and continuous personal growth.
Interpersonal relationship skills: include the ability of the person to communicate and establish harmonious interpersonal relationships with their environment and the ability to communicate feelings and give and receive affection.

How can we tell if we're doing well?

Things you can do to feel better

The Multifactorial Model of Positive Mental Health is based on the following:

Positive mental health is a dynamic and fluctuating state: some days we are more cheerful and feel better, and other days we are more tired and feel more discouraged.
Positive mental health encompasses both positive and negative feelings, thoughts, and behaviors. In this sense, it is just as healthy to laugh and feel happy when good things are happening as it is to cry and be sad when problems, losses, or disappointments arise.
Positive mental health has limits that must be managed. All emotional reactions, thoughts, and behaviors are healthy because human beings are "built" with an emotional system prepared to experience all kinds of emotions and generate all kinds of interpretations and cognitive processes. But be careful! All emotional states have limits that, if exceeded (whether too little or too much), can lead to pathology. These positive, healthy, or normal limits are not well understood. Furthermore, there is the difficulty of defining what is normal and what is abnormal. However, it is important to be aware of some criteria that we can all identify, which can help us recognize when it is necessary to seek help.
The general criteria that can help determine whether a reaction, feeling, thought, or behavior is mentally healthy or whether a mental health professional should be consulted for help are:

Duration. When a reaction or feeling, especially one that is negative and blocking, lasts for a long time, it may suggest that something is wrong.
Intensity. When the intensity of the response leads to a loss of control over one's emotional reactions, it indicates that something is wrong.
A change in a person's usual response pattern. When a person's reaction or emotional response is very different from their usual way of responding, it may indicate that something is wrong. On the other hand, sometimes emotional responses or behaviors that might surprise most people have occurred before and are part of their "usual" response pattern. In that case, they can help interpret that, although the reaction may seem strange, everything seems to be fine.
Inability. If the emotional reaction prevents us from continuing to function in our daily lives, something is wrong.
The consequences. When a person's emotional response or behavior can have negative consequences for themselves and/or others, it's important to consider that something might be wrong.

From this perspective, positive mental health is broadly defined as "a dynamic and fluctuating state in which a person tries to feel and be as well as possible within their circumstances." More specifically, it is defined as "a state in which a person is able to maintain a certain level of personal satisfaction with themselves and their life, a certain capacity to accept others and their differences, a certain degree of emotional self-control and autonomy, is able to resolve problems as they arise while maintaining a growth mindset, and is able to establish and maintain satisfying interpersonal relationships."