What is good mental health? Some psychologists theorized that before we can focus on improving our mental health, our basic needs must first be met. Abraham Mazlow created his hierarchy of needs, represented below with a pyramid. On the bottom, biggest level, are the purely physiological needs. The next step are the safety needs. These are considered to be basic needs for the human body to survive.
After these basic needs, come psychological needs – social health and the feelings of love and belonging, and emotional/intellectual needs like self-esteem, achievement of goals, confidence, and respect of other people. At the very top is self-actualization, which is realizing one’s full potential.
This model is visually shown as a pyramid, but Maslow has written that people do not climb this pyramid by meeting one need at a time. People move between different needs and work on different areas of their needs when needed. Maslow also worked with the Blackfoot Nation, which helped to inform some of his work. Some of the beliefs of the Blackfoot indigenous people is that above meeting individual needs are the needs of the community and that these are all interrelated such that people work for the benefit of community. https://barbarabray.net/2019/03/10/maslows-hierarchy-of-needs-and-blackfoot-nation-beliefs/
A person who is exhibiting positive mental health can get along with others, feels good about herself, is open to new ideas, and is able to cope with stress and negative emotions. Read more here https://www.mentalhealth.gov/basics/what-is-mental-health and here https://www.cdc.gov/mentalhealth/learn/index.htm.
As with other dimensions of wellness, mental health exists on a continuum. On the one side is positive mental health, and on the other side is ill mental health or mental illness.
