The 4 Pillars of Wellbeing - Part 1
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If you’ve been tuned into our ‘Wellbeing Wednesday’ hashtag here at Mayflower you’ve probably come across one of us mentioning ‘The 4 Pillars of Wellbeing’, or #toppingup before. We use these terms to focus our intent to support the mental health and wellbeing of both pupils and staff. The principles behind them both though are just as relatable to our parents, the local community, and…well…anyone really. It’s about recognising that to be ‘well beings’, we need to ensure we’re looking after each of these 4 areas:
· Psychological Health,
· Physical Health,
· Emotional Health, and
· Relational Health
So, for the next 4 weeks I’m going to take some time to help explain what each of these pillars really means, and how we can all look after them all.
Psychological Health
Now, there is no hierarchy to these pillars. They are all part of our wellbeing needs (and more importantly our human needs). The order I’m bringing them to you in is completely arbitrary. But for me, at the start of any period away from work, my psychological health is the one area I need to pay particular attention to. Not for the reasons you might automatically jump to though. But we’ll look at this in more detail in just a minute. First of all, for all 4 of these pillars it’s important that you understand what we mean by #toppingup.
#toppingup is something you’ll see on many of the staff tweets at Mayflower. At first it might seem like it’s just our way of showing you what we do in our free time. We even have a section on our school website that’s dedicated to it. Seriously. Check it out by clicking here – ‘Topping Up’
But it’s more than just talking about how we have fun. It’s our way of making sure we keep all of our wellbeing energies ‘topped up’. By sharing this with others we’re validating the importance of self-care. We’re making it a priority. We’re reminding others to reflect on whether they need to take some ‘me time’, and letting them know it’s ok to do so.
Topping Up Explained
I’ve explained the principle of ‘topping up’ in a few different ways before, but I think this is one of the easiest to follow.
Try to picture a beautiful (but thirsty) flower (that’s your wellbeing). Above it is a hanging bottle full of water, with tiny holes in it to water the plant (that’s one of your pillars of wellbeing). When the bottle is full, the flower is happy and healthy. But as the water runs out, the flower begins to wither away...unless you keep topping up the bottle with water that is.
Subtle as a sledgehammer right? Keep each of your pillars of wellbeing topped up or your flower’s going to wither! We need all of these pillars to be working together to be truly well beings, and preferably keeping them topped up from multiple sources.
If one’s out of sync it effects our whole being.
Imagine your body as a waiter’s tray with 4 drinks, one in each corner. When all of the glasses are filled to the right level the tray is balanced, but if one starts to become too empty the whole tray is off balance and comes crashing down. Ok, enough with the metaphors for today.
So, back to me needing psychological help!
When we think of our psychological health most people jump straight to ‘depression’, or ‘anxiety’, or other typical ‘mental health’ conditions. But there’s another aspect to this that is just as important and often overlooked. Our minds are like children. They like to play, to work, to rest. And, just like children, no two minds are the same. Looking after our psychological health can be as simple as understanding what kind of child your brain is. Is it one that likes lots of play but then tires itself out and falls asleep in the car on the way home?
Mine’s not like that, my brain would’ve been cast as the stereotypical nerdy kid in a cheesy American high school movie. My brain likes to work. Preferably on multiple things at once. The reason it’s important to know this right now, and why I’m tackling this pillar first, is because of the summer holidays.
I often dread the long summer break. Without exception, every single friend and colleague that saw me on the last day of term wished me a good holiday, and told me to enjoy the rest. Absolutely lovely, well-intentioned, thoughtful wishes. Also, absolutely the wrong thing for my nerdy, braces-wearing geek of a brain! My brain doesn’t switch off, I’m just wired that way. If I’m forced to put my brain to sleep and ‘rest’ for too long I can feel the pesky little thing tapping away on the inside of my head, just begging to be let out! If I’m forced to rest in the way other people see rest? That’s when I can see those ‘typical’ mental health conditions walking down the garden path to see if they can come in and stay for a while.
The point of all this is to encourage you to get to know you. Work out what works for you, not what Conventional Norm (great ideas for a comic book character there!) tells you to do. Find what helps, and what hinders your psychological health and have the self-confidence to know that whatever that is, it’s OK.
If you need to rest and do nothing but watch Sharknado movies or Love Island this summer, (or the kids’ need a cartoon marathon to reset!) that’s fine.
If you need to register for an OU course or two, or the little ones want to get a jump start on next year’s lessons…well that’s fine too.
Me? Well I’m only 4 days in at the time of writing this and already I’ve finished my Portfolio of Evidence for Uni, planned a bunch of training videos to create, and signed-up for a 4-week self-study course. Oh, and apparently I've started a weekly wellbeing blog!!
Why not get in touch and let me know how you support your psychological health? Share your ideas with me on Twitter, and use the hashtag #toppingup