What Is Positive Mental Health?

We often perceive mental health in a negative light in todays society. We hear of people suffering from things like depression, anxiety and PTSD, but that’s not all there is to it. We’re constantly reminded of examples of people who suffer from poor mental health outcomes (and for good reason), but we still should be hearing another side of the story…

What happens to people who demonstrate positive mental health outcomes like athletes and those at the top of their field? What does it look like, what does it feel like, and how do we get there? The reason we need to speak more about the positive side of mental health is to provide a guiding path for those that are currently suffering from poorer mental health outcomes. It’s all interrelated.

The reason we need to speak more about the positive side of mental health is to provide a guiding path for those that are currently suffering from poorer mental health outcomes.

The journey life presents to us will likely see us fall into both sides of this spectrum. In some periods of life we will feel confident, have a strong sense of purpose and we’ll be thriving and fulfilled in what we do daily. However, other periods of our life (often catalysed by external situations) we will struggle to understand our purpose and sometimes won’t understand how to fix that feeling.

Here’s where looking at examples where positive mental health outcomes exist will help greatly. Maybe you look back at a time in your life, when you yourself were feeling more fulfilled and confident, or maybe you look to a role model who demonstrates traits of positive mental health. Either option you take, there’s seeds of growth that can be drawn.

Looking at examples where positive mental health outcomes exist will help greatly.

You can ask questions like; ‘What was I doing differently last time I felt fulfilled?’ or ‘What was the most fulfilling time of my life and how can I regenerate those feelings in the future?’. The truth is, there’s answers to a lot of the challenging questions we face in life – we just have to make sure we learn from the past (whether that be from our own past or someone else’s experience).

If you ever find yourself stuck in a place and you can’t quite get out, try to engage in consistent action (as hard as it might seem) toward things that you know will likely bring you back to a positive mental health state. You need to believe that you have so much power over the outcomes of your life, I can’t overstate that enough!

What was the most fulfilling time of my life and how can I regenerate those feelings in the future? @themindconnectory

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