Not suffering from some form of mental illness is a good start towards mental wellness, but there is more to it. General mental wellbeing refers more to a spiritual state, where your mind is healthy and functioning well. Those who are enjoying good mental wellness are able to think, reason, create, experiment and problem solve. They are not easily overwhelmed by problems, instead turning them into opportunities to work though something and learn important lessons. This does not mean that you have to find life easy in order to be classed as having good mental wellness: in the contrary, those who struggle through something but emerge on the other side having learned an important lesson about themselves or about the world are more likely to have improved their mental health than those who breeze through life without coming across difficult situations or without experiencing much depth of feeling.
Keeping in touch with your feelings is, in fact, very healthy – both feeling and expressing negative emotions, such as anger, frustration and upset can help you keep in tune with your mental health.
Working towards goals is a sign that you are in good mental health. You should have enough self-belief to recognise your own talents and skills and believe that you have what it takes to work towards what you want in life.
You should also be able to relax and socialise, taking please in the company of others and recognising that you have a valuable contribution to make to society. Through this, you should be able to form and keep important relationships and recognise the value of these in your life.
If all of the above things seem to apply to you, you are likely experiencing good metal wellness. If, however, there are areas to be worked on, don’t despair. Like everything else in life, there is a curve, and as long as you are somewhere on it, you can certainly work towards a greater degree of success.