Emotional Well-Being
1 Eat a balanced diet and drink sensibly
Improving your diet can protect against feelings of anxiety and depression. A balance diet can help you reduce stress and enjoy life. Remember to drink plenty of water.
2 Maintain friendships
Just listening and talking to friends who are feeling down can make a huge difference. So make sure your devote time to maintaining your friendships both for their sake and your own.
3 Maintain close friendships
Close relationships affect how we feel - so nurture them and if there is a problem within a relationship, try and resolve it – if you take them for granted, they may not be there to share life’s joys and sorrows.
4 Take exercise
The effects of exercise on mood are immediate. Whether it is a workout in the gym or a simple walk or bike ride, it can be uplifting. Exercise can also be great fun socially.
5 Sleep
Sleep has both physical and mental benefits. Physically it is the time when the body can renew its energy store but sleep also helps us to rebuild our mental energy.
6 Laugh
A good laugh does wonders for the mind and soul.
7 Cry
It is good to cry. Even though it may feel terrible at the time, a good cry can release pent up feelings, and people often feel better afterwards.
8 Ask for help when you need it
The longer you leave a problem, the worse it will get. Don't be scared to ask for help from a family member, friend or professional. Sharing a problem, in particular with those who have had similar experiences, may help you find a solution and will make you feel less isolated.
9 Make time for you
Do you sometimes feel like you have no time for yourself? Make time for your hobbies and interests.
10 Remember, work isn't everything
Ninety one million working days a year are lost to mental ill-health in the UK so take it easy.
Five Ways to Well-being
Foresight’s Mental Capital and Wellbeing Project has drawn on state-of-the-art research from across the world to consider how to improve everyone’s mental capacity and mental well-being through life.
Evidence suggests that a small improvement in wellbeing can help to decrease some mental health problems and also help people to flourish.
The nef (new economics foundation) Centre for Well-being has developed a set of five evidence-based actions for a major new government report into well-being that, if practiced regularly, can improve personal well-being. In the midst of the credit crunch, growing economic uncertainty and accelerating climate change, the recommended actions, based on extensive research compiled by nef for the Government’s Foresight project on Mental Capital and Well-being, show that well-being does not depend on spending money or consuming more.
To show some of the actions that you can take in order to develop and maintain your emotional well-being, nef has produced these postcards:
For more information visit nef’s website at www.newecononics.org
You may also find the following documents helpful. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view these files.
1Well-being Booklist - 193k
2Adult New Version Well-being - 893k
3How to look after your mental-health - 430k