Five Steps to Mental Wellbeing

Emotional health and well-being is about how you’re feeling and how well you are able to deal with day-to-day challenges. Evidence suggests there are five steps we can take to improve our mental health and well-being. Trying these things could help you feel more positive and able to get the most out of life.

Be Active

Evidence shows that improvements in your physical health can help improve your mental health. They don’t take up much time and they don’t have to cost anything either.

Try to find an activity that you enjoy such as walking, swimming, cycling or dancing.

It could be something as simple as getting off the bus one stop earlier, using the stairs instead of the lift or kicking a ball around with the grandkids.

Here are a few more tips:

Take up Yoga, Pilates or Tai Chi
Download the Couch to 5k app
Join a walking group
Go for a walk at lunchtime
Do some ‘easy exercise’, like stretching, in the morning
Walk to someone’s desk instead of calling or emailing
House work is a good calorie burner
Dust off your bike and enjoy the north Wales countryside
Take the stairs instead of the lift

Connect

Being around other people can help boost our mood and help us feel connected to the wider world.

Putting aside some time to develop relationships with friends, family, neighbours and colleagues can help you feel connected.

Being connected can mean many things to people. As well as meeting up with other people it could also be:

Connecting with yourself and having a quiet moment alone
Connecting with nature, animals and pets
Connecting in a religious or spiritual sense

Here are a few ideas:

Pick up the phone instead of sending an email
Speak to someone new
Arrange a face to face catch up with a friend
Join a club or take up a social activity
Give a colleague a lift to work or share the journey home with them
Volunteer in the community or at a local charity shop
Run an errand for a neighbour or friend

Give

Helping others, saying thank you, or just giving someone a smile can help to improve your self-esteem and your emotional health.

They don’t take up much time and they don’t have to cost anything either.

Research shows that carrying out acts of kindness can increase your feeling of personal wellbeing and happiness.

Giving to others and co-operating with them can stimulate the reward areas in the brain, creating positive feelings.

Helping and working with others can also give us a sense of purpose and feelings of self-worth.

Giving can take lots of different forms, from small everyday acts to larger longer term commitments.

Volunteer in your local community, such as helping out at a local cafe, hospital or care home
Sign up to a mentoring project, in which you give time and support to someone who will benefit from it
Offer to lend a hand if you see a stranger struggling with bags or a pushchair
Offer to help a relative with DIY or a colleague with a work project
Say thank you to someone, for something they’ve done for you
Phone a relative or friend who needs support or company
Ask a colleague how they are and really listen to the answer
Arrange a day out for you and a friend or relative

Keep Learning

Learning new skills can boost confidence and give you a sense of achievement.

They don’t take up much time and they don’t have to cost anything either.

This doesn’t have to be in a formal classroom setting or be about getting a qualification or grade.

It could be anything from picking up a book, doing a crossword or researching something you’re curious about.

Here are a few ideas to get you started:

Sign up for a course you’ve been meaning to do at a local night school. You might learn a new language, or try something practical, such as plumbing
Take on a new responsibility at work, such as learning to use an IT system or understanding the monthly reports
Carry out those repairs that you might have been putting off – maybe fix that broken bike or garden gate
Rediscover an old hobby; it could be making model aeroplanes, writing stories, sewing or knitting
Visit a gallery or museum and learn about a person or period in history that interests you
Learn to cook a favourite dish that you’ve never eaten at home
Help out with your children’s homework
Learn an instrument
Take an online course

Take Notice

Taking Notice is about making time to appreciate the world around us.

Being aware of the present moment and your own feelings and thoughts, can help you to positively change how you’re feeling about life. This is also known as mindfulness and it can really help you to be calm and more able to deal with what life might throw at you.

It can be as simple as taking five minutes out of your day to appreciate something new or noticing the seasons changing.

Here are a few quick and easy ideas to help take notice of the world, and the people, around you.

Get creative and take some photos of the world around you. Focus on capturing what’s in front of you
Have a ‘clear the clutter’ day
Take a different route on your journey to or from work
Visit a new place for lunch
Ask someone how they are feeling and really listen to what they say
Explore your local neighbourhood
Listen to a new piece of music and think about how it makes you feel
Be curious
Get a plant for your workspace
Take notice of beautiful and unusual things
Notice when the seasons change
Try meditating
Enjoy the moment

Finding out a little more...

Support and information from our partners for your mental well-being