Mental Health Toolkit - Strengths

In the world of counselling and psychotherapy “Let’s fix what’s wrong and let the strengths take care of themselves” is an unwritten rule followed by many mental health professionals. There is often a lot of emphasis on what is wrong with and little focus on the active nourishment of the strengths and resources that we can use to sustain our wellbeing.

An awareness of our strengths, qualities and inner resources can loosen the grip of negative emotions such as anxiety and depression and can help us to build resilience for the future and to make more space for gradually increasing our happiness level.

Here are 5 easy habits to practise that will help to increase your happiness and wellbeing :

• Gratitude diary - Start every day with writing down 5 or 10 things in your life you feel thanks for no matter how small e.g. ‘I am grateful for my good health, my comfy sofa, this cup of tea, the view out go the window….’ etc.

• Letter to Self - Write a letter to yourself listing what you like about yourself no matter how small e.g. ‘Dear Laura, I appreciate and love your sense of humour, your creativity, the way you….’ etc.

• Focus on what you have done already rather than just focussing on a to-do list. Write down what you have achieved today no matter how small, even if it’s ‘I emptied the dish washer’, ‘I completed a work task’ or ‘I took the dog for a walk’.

• Savour the Positive - At the end of the day write a list of what went right no matter how small e.g ‘the sun shone' today’.

• What you are good at - Write a list of what your are good at, and as many of your strengths that you can think of, and a situation you displayed this strength or talent, again no matter how small e.g. ‘Empathy - I listened to a friend’s troubles today’, or ‘Kindness - I made the checkout woman smile by giving her a compliment’.

It is very important to daily savour what is going well in life as well as giving attention to what is distressing us.