Factsheet

Why Understanding and Caring for Your Wellbeing Is Important

Your wellbeing is made up of many areas:

Physical
Your overall health, including how you eat, sleep and exercise.
Mental
Your emotional and psychological wellbeing, including your mood, self-esteem and the ability to cope with stress.
Social
Your relationships with others, feeling connected and supported.
Emotional
How you understand and manage your feelings.

As you read the list, you might think about how much each of these areas touches every aspect of your life and your day, and you’d be right: your wellbeing is active and being impacted at all times.

Wellbeing isn’t fixed. It can change throughout your life based on your experiences and circumstances. In fact, it can change weekly and daily.

Some actions we take, or circumstances that occur, might change how we feel from one week to the next e.g. a holiday next week might be a well needed boost to your wellbeing. Others can impact you daily e.g. missing your daily walk because you became too busy might negatively impact your wellbeing on that specific day.

Becoming aware of this can help you make decisions to keep your wellbeing positive. Perhaps tomorrow you will choose to walk because you know it will give you a needed boost to get through the busyness of the day.

It can be useful to visualise a wellbeing continuum. At each point of the day you sit somewhere on that continuum. Your continuum can use different descriptors, but we like:

Once you become aware of the continuum, you have the power to try and move towards/keep yourself at the positive end.

If we feel ourselves moving from green towards the yellow/orange sections, it’s vital to consider what’s causing that change. You might need to change a behaviour or add a wellbeing booster, like talking to a friend or taking that daily walk. If you are moving toward the orange/red end, you might need a bigger booster like visiting the doctor or seeking support.

Why is Caring for Wellbeing Important?

Taking care of your wellbeing is important for many reasons:

Overall Health

Wellbeing is linked to better physical health, a stronger immune system and lower risk of chronic diseases.

Happiness and Life Satisfaction

Feeling good about yourself and your life leads to greater enjoyment and fulfilment.

Resilience

When you have good wellbeing, you’re better equipped to handle challenges and bounce back from setbacks.

Positive Impact on Others

When you feel good, you tend to interact more positively with others, creating a ripple effect.

Wellbeing isn’t about perfection or feeling happy all the time. It’s about taking care of yourself across different aspects of your life so you can live a healthy and fulfilling life.

Creating a Wellbeing Toolkit

A wellbeing toolkit is useful as it can help manage day-to-day life, help you cope during tough times, or pick you up when you’re feeling flat.

Take some time to consider what those tools are so you can easily access and use them when needed.

To create your own toolkit, think about things that help you in different aspects of your wellbeing. Perhaps take a moment to consider these and note down some actions for some key areas such as:

Being Active

Being active both physically and mentally is important. Small changes in your level of activity can make a big difference to how you feel.
Can you find an activity that fits your routine and that you enjoy?

Connecting

Seeking positive connections that can be with family, friends or pets to enrich how you are feeling. Try and make sure some of these interactions are in person. Don’t rely solely on technology.
Can you schedule a regular catch-up with a friend, attend a weekly community class or community group such as Lions, or schedule one night a week where the family eat together?

Keep Learning

Learning something can help us feel more satisfied and fulfilled.
Can you try a new recipe or read a book? The key is finding something that interests or challenges you.

Giving

People who enjoy giving and are open to receiving have improved wellbeing.
This can be in the form of your time, words, presence, thanks or encouragement, or even volunteering.

Taking Notice

The simple things are what gives you joy. We can all become busy, but it’s great to stop and enjoy the simple things in life.
Can you take time to achieve this as you complete the tasks above?

Nurturing Your Body

Eating healthy, drinking water, being active and getting enough sleep are great foundations for your wellbeing.

Putting Your Toolkit into Action!

To help you utilise your toolkit here are some suggestions of strategies you could use:

Record Them

E.g. make a list of what they are and put it somewhere you will regularly see it.

Prepare a Physical Toolkit

E.g. creating a box with your art materials, favourite music, photos of your family, puzzles and a list of great friends to call can make it easier to utilise one of these tools.

Create Prompts

Within your day create prompts to help you achieve certain boosters e.g. if you know reading before bed rather than scrolling your phone will help you sleep better, in the morning, pop that book on your pillow and it will be there to remind you when you go to bed. Put the dog lead on the kitchen counter, so it’s ready for your morning walk. Set an hourly reminder during the day to prompt you to drink water or a reminder it’s your dance class tomorrow. All simple but effective ways of reminding yourself to look after your wellbeing.

Wellbeing Drainers

It’s also important to note areas that drain your wellbeing, and plan to avoid or limit these.

If you feel your wellbeing feeling less positive, looking at your wellbeing toolkit list is a great way to check if you’ve been achieving the key areas and gives you reminders for ‘tools’ that can boost you back up.

You can also check out our self care for beginner’s factsheet that features a planner to help you identify wellbeing boosters. Head to our website to download it.