Mental Health

“[Positive mental health refers to] the capacity of each and all of us to feel, think, act in ways that enhance our ability to enjoy life and deal with the challenges we face. It is a positive sense of emotional and spiritual well-being that respects the importance of culture, equity, social justice, interconnections and personal dignity.” 

- Public Health Agency of Canada (website modified 2014)

Additional Perspectives on Mental Health

“The basic view of Taoism and Confucianism on mental health is to eliminate or transform individual desires, and the specific way to eliminate or transform individual desires is to promote the unity of man with nature or society.”

- Wang K. (2022). The Yin-Yang Definition Model of Mental Health: The Mental Health Definition in Chinese Culture. Frontiers in psychology, 13, 832076. doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.832076

“In North America, Indigenous peoples belonging to the Algonquian language family use the term mino-pimatisiwin, which could be loosely translated as “living the good life”, to describe a state of harmony, well-being, and comprehensive health based on relationships, cultural identity, and connection to the land.”

- Landry, V., Asselin, H., & Lévesque, C. (2019). Link to the Land and Mino-Pimatisiwin (Comprehensive Health) of Indigenous People Living in Urban Areas in Eastern Canada. International journal of environmental research and public health, 16(23), 4782. doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16234782

Some qualities of mental health:

  • purpose and meaning in life
  • realistic self-worth
  • capacity for self-sacrificing love, empathy, and sensitivity
  • an accurate view of reality
  • strong internal standards
  • the ability to accept what is unchangeable
  • a sense of freedom to enjoy oneself
  • physical, emotional, and intellectual needs in balance
  • forgiveness
  • community
  • hope

- Moes, P., & Tellinghuisen, D. J. (2023). Exploring psychology and Christian faith: An introductory guide (2nd ed.). Baker Books.

Health According to Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT)

“The image of health offered by attachment science… is an individual who is balanced emotionally, mentally open, flexible in terms of action, deeply engaged and alive, and above all, able to learn and grow.”

Johnson, S. M. (2019). Attachment theory in practice: Emotionally focused therapy (EFT) with individuals, couples, and families. Guilford Press.

“EFIT is an approach to growing and expanding the self and its capacities grounded in attachment science and the power of transforming core emotional experience. Core chaotic, foreign, or denied emotional experience is evoked, ordered, and regulated to shape emotional balance and integration in each client. Clients move from chaos to order, reactivity to balance, from self-abnegation to self-acceptance, from helplessness to agency.”

- Johnson, S.M., & Campbell, T.L. (2021). A Primer for Emotionally Focused Individual Therapy (EFIT): Cultivating Fitness and Growth in Every Client. Routledge.