How to manage your well-being: The six factors that make up your psychological well-being

(approx 3 minute read)

If you’re looking for a way to assess, monitor and manage your well-being,  Dr Carol Ryff’s six dimensions of psychological well-being could be a useful mental health check.

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What is well-being?

The Oxford English Dictionary defines wellbeing as “the state of being comfortable, healthy, or happy.”

Bit general, right?

Carol Ryff, a distinguished psychologist, has done her bit over the years to try and provide a framework for understanding the various facets that contribute to an individual's overall sense of well-being. 

Central to her theory are the six dimensions of psychological well-being.

Men’s Mental Fitness has summarised them below.

The Six Dimensions of Psychological Well-being

1. Self-Acceptance: Do you have a positive attitude towards yourself? Do you respect yourself or have a sense of self-worth? Are you self-aware? Individuals high in self-acceptance are comfortable with who they are and exhibit a healthy level of self-esteem.

2. Positive Relations with Others: This dimension is all about having social connections and meaningful relationships. Do you have the ability to form and maintain relationships (friends, family or lovers)? 

3. Autonomy: Can you make independent decisions without feeling influenced by others. Do you have personal goals and values that you pursue / live by?

4. Environmental Mastery: Can you adapt to your environment? Are you a rigid thinker or are you open to new ways of doing things? How do you navigate the crap and inevitable challenges of day to day life to achieve things you want to achieve?

5. Purpose in Life: Purpose is a bit of buzzword at present, especially in the corporate world. But it relates to you as well as a corporation. Do you have a sense of meaning, direction, and fulfilment derived from the things you do? Work? Love? Friends? Etc. Do you have a clear sense of purpose, values, and beliefs that provide a sense of direction and motivation?

6. Personal Growth: Are you happy with who you are? If so, great. But there’s always room for self-improvement, right? Do you have a willingness to learn, grow, and adapt, as well as to pursue new experiences, challenges and opportunities?

What do I do now?

Firstly, if you’ve got to the end of this article and think, great, ‘I’m nailing it’, then brilliant. But if you’ve got to the end of this article and think, shit, ‘I’m failing in all these areas’, stop it.  

On reading Ryff’s six dimension, Men’s Mental Fitness used this as an opportunity to self-reflect and give our own sense of well-being a framework.

This is what I did

I sat with a pen and paper and wrote down under each dimension a mind dump using the questions as prompts. I highlighted positives (things I’d like to do more of / keep doing) and then things I could try to / want to improve or, do less of.

I then scored each area out of 10 to help me then look at which areas I could focus on to help with my overall well-being.

It’s proved really useful. Every few months, I sit down and look at the six factors and score myself. Then I either crack on, make small adjustments or consider bigger changes if things are really out of kilter. 

Perhaps you could try the same and score yourself?