A Case Study on Holistic Wellbeing

The One Liner

ACase Study on Holistic Wellbeing

Sridevi Kulkarni
December 10, 2022. 10 minutes Read

The meaning of wellbeing

You can perceive wellbeing as being comfortable, healthy, and, most importantly, happy. It is not just the absence of any disease or illness but an integrated combination of physical, mental, and social health.

We all want to live a positive life worth living with sound problems and too many great memories in life. A holistic wellbeing is an approach that includes multidimensional factors such as physical, social, mental, and spiritual wellbeing. It has almost every category you can think of, in general. That’s why we call it holistic well-being.

Mental health and wellbeing

We can’t control what is happening around us, but we can control our minds and react to situations well. We agree that mental health is the least talked about subject around. But it is high time we start valuing our mental health and its importance.

Individuals’ mental health includes emotional, psychological, and social well-being, dramatically affecting how we think, feel, and act. Individuals’ mental health is essential at every stage of life, from childhood and adolescence through adulthood. Mindfulness helps improve the mental health and well-being of an individual. It helps us become more aware of our thoughts and feelings so that, instead of being overwhelmed by emotions, we can manage them better. It also helps us determine how we work in stressful situations, handle stress, make choices, and relate to others.

Expression of Anger is of Three Types

Aggressive
Passive
Assertive

Anger is expressed in three ways;

Passive Aggression

The first one is Passive Aggression, where sometimes a person doesn’t admit that they are angry but are annoyed and expresses their Anger in silence, sulking, or by pretending that “everything is okay.”

Open Aggression

The second type is Open Aggression, where a person expresses Anger and rage and may lash out at other people. They can be physically or verbally aggressive.

Assertive Anger

The third type is Assertive Anger which is a healthy way of dealing with Anger where a person communicates their feelings without hurting themselves and keeping others’ feelings in mind. They will be open to talking, listening, and finding solutions.

Did you know better mental health has various benefits?

How can we maintain positive mental health?

Always try to connect with people around you.
Get professional help if required.
Stay positive
Be more active physically.
Develop coping skills.
Get enough rest and sleep.
Help others around you.

It helps a lot.

Types of Wellbeing

Physical Wellbeing

What we don't know about Physical well-being is the ability to maintain a good and healthy quality of life, allowing us to get through most daily activities without physical stress or undue fatigue. It is not just the absence of diseases. Still, it includes an individual's lifestyle and behavioral choices to ensure good health, avoid preventable diseases and other conditions, and live in a balanced state of mind, body, and spirit. Individuals' physical well-being has an impact on conditions like anxiety and depression, as well as on stress tolerance and cognitive ability.

Social Wellbeing

Well, how would you rate yourself when it comes to social well-being? Social Well Being is people's ability to be free of basic needs and coexist peacefully within communities with opportunities for advancement. Individuals' social well-being and wellness refer to the relationship between one another and how they interact with others. Social well-being is a sense of belonging to a community and contributing to society. Keeping regular contact with your friends and spending quality time with your loved ones is one of the best ways to maintain one's social well-being.

Emotional Wellbeing

When it comes to emotional well-being, it is the ability of an individual to understand emotions in themselves and others, how they handle emotions, adapt to change, and face challenging situations. It is essential to consider an individual's emotional health as it allows them to work productively and cope with the stresses of everyday life.

And you can do these five things to improve your mental and emotional wellbeing:

1. Be more active,

2. Connect with people

3.Take notice of others

4. Keep learning, and

5. Learn how to give.

Spiritual Well being

"We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves."
Dalai Lama

Spiritual wellbeing is the ability of an individual to connect with oneself and find the meaning and purpose of life. It can include our relation and connection with our community, culture, or religion. It also consists of the values, beliefs, and ethics we hold. Spiritual well being helps an individual to gain a sense of inner peace and self-fulfillment. It also helps reduce psychological distress and increases the quality of life.

An individual's well-being integrates both the mind and body, which is mental and physical health that results in a more holistic approach to disease prevention and health promotion.
It results in better immune system functioning, which helps with a speedy recovery and increased longevity.
An increase in the level of wellbeing is associated with a decreased risk of heart disease.
Generally, individuals with high levels of wellbeing are more productive at work and are more likely to contribute to their communities

Psychological benefits of well-being:

It increases self-esteem
It promotes prosocial and altruistic behavior.
It develops a sense of personal competence.
It leads to an increase in interpersonal skills
It also leads to higher satisfaction with the quality of one's relationships.

Types of Wellbeing:

How to measure wellbeing?

As well being is subjective, we usually have self-reported data. Many wellbeing instruments are available to measure self-reported wellbeing in different ways, depending on whether one counts their wellbeing as a clinical outcome, a population health outcome, or for other purposes.

For example, wellbeing measures can either be psychologically-based or utility-based. The use of these self-reported measures is different from using the objective criteria, which can assess well-being.

Financial wellbeing

Financial wellbeing is an ability of a person to fulfill financial obligations and feel secure about their financial future. Financial stress can often lead to the choice of unhealthy behaviors such as smoking, drinking, gambling, etc. Hence, For an individual to achieve holistic health, it is essential that they also focus on financial wellness.

Five fundamentals of financial well-being are

1.Budgeting your money
2.Prioritizing savings for emergencies
3.Seeking financial guidance
4.Planning for retirement
5.Keeping track and maintaining the credit score.

Digital health and wellness

In today's technology-driven world, one must consider Digital well-being as the pursuit of an intentional and healthy relationship with technology in both work and personal life. Technology has pros and cons; if we don't know how to use it appropriately, it can do more harm than good.

You can enhance your digital well-being by conscious and mindful usage of your phone, laptop, and other gadgets. You can set daily limits to use your devices.

Digital health and wellness are essential and consider every aspect of our health. Individuals with poor digital health can also experience the same effects in other areas of their health.

Nature and wellbeing

One must spend more time in open and green spaces and bring nature into everyday life, which can benefit our mental and physical well-being. Studies show that nature can generate healthy emotions such as happiness, joy, peace, etc.

Walking on the grass or driving around a luscious dark green forest always makes us feel better emotionally and contributes to physical wellness. It reduces blood pressure, reduces muscle tension, and it regulates the heart rate and production of stress hormones.

You can spend time in gardens with animals and explore your surroundings to build your connection with nature.

Corporate wellbeing/Employee wellbeing

Corporate wellbeing is the same as employee wellbeing.

Often corporates spend more time on office premises than at home. So every corporate company must focus on employee well-being. Be it by helping your employees to improve their skills or be it by helping how to enhance their leadership skills. The subject, Employee wellbeing is essential.

Corporate well-being is an employer-sponsored program designed to promote long-term physical, mental, and emotional wellness among employees and reduce spending on things like insurance, paid vacation days, and turnover.

The employee's well-being is important because many factors, such as pay, work relationships, and workload, affect an individual's well-being. These factors cause stress as employees work over 40 hours a week.

Companies must start focusing on well-being.

It has various benefits, such as:

1.Focus on well-being at the workplace can help to reduce stress,

2.Focus on well-being at the workplace can help increase productivity at work, and

3.Corporate well-being programs can also improve an individual's focus

Employee wellness programs

It is essential to protect the employees' well-being. The most holistic approach to managing wellness and mental health in the workplace is the holistic approach. According to the CIPD's health and well-being at work survey, more workplaces are prioritizing mental health. They are doing more to improve corporate wellbeing and reduce work-related stress. A few things the employer can initiate to improve corporate wellness are:

1. Activity:

Our wellness is primarily affected by the total amount of physical activity. Exercise leads to an increase in endorphins, which reduces stress and anxiety. Employers generally encourage their employees to be active and may also track their activity status. Corporations can promote employees' physical activities by providing facilities such as an in-house gym, annual gym/fitness center memberships, etc.

2.Mental health:

Our mental health affects our ability to be more productive, make better choices, react to situations, and form relationships. Employers must care about their employees' mental wellbeing by providing easy access to mental health professionals, individual developmental workshops, etc. Thus, the employer can encourage the employees to understand their mood and mental health status, as it is an important way of identifying a decline in performance.

3.Number of Sleeping hours

Sleep is one of the essential aspects of an individual's well-being. An individual needs at least 7-9 hours of sleep at night to have a healthy mind and body. Corporations can introduce employees to sleeping pods to promote a healthy lifestyle and work culture. The employer might encourage the employee to get more sleep to improve their wellbeing.

4.Community:

Providing a comfortable community/work environment within the workspace encourages the employee to engage with others and want to be at work.

Student wellbeing and wellbeing in schools

A student's well being comprises the overall health of the student, including their social, mental, physical, and emotional health. A student's wellbeing is the way they perceive themselves and their life. Their wellbeing is essential because their wellness and academic excellence are intertwined.

The following are some ways schools can follow to better the wellbeing of their students.

1.Make students participate in events and activities that are more significant to them.

2.Reward them and push them to achieve success.

3.Make sure you surround children with positivity and positive connections.

4.Help them possess emotional control.

5.Make sure they experience a sense of belonging to their community.

The teacher's wellbeing

Teachers are generally known to juggle many competing demands, and, as a result, they might put other people's mental health and wellbeing needs ahead of their own. Hence, teachers must prioritize their mental health and wellbeing, for their benefit and the whole school community. Teachers must also indulge in some mental health and wellness activities like catching up with friends, physical activity, and setting boundaries around work that can support teachers to improve and maintain their health and wellbeing. In conclusion, one needs to look after one's mental, physical, and emotional health and wellbeing as it is the key to successfully overcoming difficulties and achieving what one wants out of life.

Final Thoughts

Well-being is not just an absence of disease but a holistic approach to enhancing an individual’s health, happiness, and personal and social life. Well-being is the interconnection between joy, physical and mental health, financial growth, social life, and spirituality. Even if one aspect is affected, it can also affect the other elements, leading to poor well-being and quality of life. Hence it’s vital to prioritize well-being and consciously work towards it.

Shreedevi Kulkarni is a counseling psychologist with expertise in adolescent counseling, child counseling, and skills training. She has experience as a Psychology lecturer and believes in empowering her students through experiential learning.