The 5 most common misconceptions about mental wellbeing.
1. Mental health= Mental illness.
A lot of people associate mental health with mental illness but they are completely different things. Comparing the two is like comparing someone who has pneumonia with someone who is slightly unfit. Mental health is not equal to mental illness, you could be the fittest person and still contract pneumonia. Working on your mental health is just like working on your physical health, it’s not about trying to stop or prevent mental illness but trying to strengthen your mind and improve your wellbeing.
Mental health shouldn’t have these negative connotations, yes you can have mental health problems, but you can also have really good mental health- but this is something much less talked about. Removing the stigma around mental health means talking about mental health in all its forms good and bad, celebrating strong mental health is something that should be normalised as it is just as admirable as a psychical strength (and requires just as much work.)
2. It’s a ‘quick fix’
Too many people see working on your mental health as just a matter of ‘getting to zero’. Where zero is that point where you’re just ok, you can manage. So people only turn to wellbeing when there’s a problem when they’re below zero, and stop as soon as the ‘problem’ goes away. But our mental health isn’t just a series of problems that go away with a few meditation sessions, it is something that can be worked on and improved. Working on our mental wellbeing consistently gives us the chance to actually improve rather than just manage our mental health. Again, just like our physical health, if we stop exercising we won’t stay fit. If we stop working on our mental health, the mind doesn’t just stay in that healthy state — we have to work for it.
3. To be ‘good’ at well-being is to be happy all the time.
People see the aim as wellbeing as just to happy all the time but this isn’t the case, sad and difficult things happen to everyone and someone who is always happy in these situations, we would think they’re pretty weird right?
Wellbeing isn’t just about feeling only positive emotions and eliminating the negative ones, it’s about how we deal with those emotions. We all feel sad or resentful or angry and that’s a completely natural way of processing bad things that happened to us, it how we then respond to those emotions, whether we let those emotions define or whether we deal with them and are able to move forward.
If you’ve done anything to do with wellbeing before you’ve most likely heard the word ‘resilience’, it means to be able to bounce back from setbacks. But a lot of people misunderstand this word, bouncing back isn’t the same as just pretending the setback never happened, it’s allowing yourself to have that low point but ultimately coming back from it stronger than before.
4. Mental and physical wellbeing are separate.
People often put their wellbeing into lots of separate compartments, their mental wellbeing is completely separate to their physical wellbeing but this is not the case. The mind and the body aren’t separate, there is a connection between the two. When we exercise we release endorphins which improve our mental wellbeing and there is more and more evidence that strong mental health has physical benefits such as a stronger immune system.
So the two don’t have to be seen separately and don’t have to be practised separately. It is much more productive to see wellbeing as one whole thing, rather than just lots of different parts. When you do a yoga class, for example, it doesn’t just have to be about working on your physical health it’s about your overall wellbeing.
Not to toot our own horn or anything, but this is the idea we’re getting at with Livitay. Having all of your wellbeing needs concentrated in one app promotes a more holistic approach to wellbeing that recognises that we are not divided into the mental and physical and that wellbeing should reflect that.
(our website if you want to find out more👉https://www.livitay.com/)
5. You have to meditate and practice yoga.
I personally love a good yoga class, but it’s not for everyone and I know a lot of people are put off working on their wellbeing because they find yoga or meditation ‘boring’ or just don’t like it. As we’ve said before wellbeing isn’t a ‘one size fits all’ solution it’s about finding what works for you. A 30-minute high-intensity workout sounds like hell to me, but for someone else, it could be a great way to focus and sharpened their mind as well as exercise.
There is no right way to do wellbeing, it’s just about taking the time to look after yourself and this starts with finding things that make you feel good and that you want to spend time doing. Wellbeing is all about you so make it your own :)
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