The six ingredients to wellbeing

A well-known Adelaide psychologist believes there are six core ingredients to wellbeing, and you'll find out more about them on Wednesday 12 January on the Experience Adelaide podcast.

Dr. Tom Nehmy, a clinical psychologist and director of the Healthy Minds program, goes to schools and companies around Adelaide talking about the six key ingredients in the hope of preventing mental health issues and now he has shared the ingredients on the podcast.

For now, get a sneak peak of the ingredients and stay tuned for the podcast on Wednesday where Tom shares tricks on how to get these ingredients in your life.

Number one is primary relationships. While Tom said it doesn’t sound like rocket science, it often gets missed in models of mental health.

“It’s thinking about how healthy, encouraging and supportive our relationships are – if we have that it adds to our wellbeing, if we don't, it detracts from it,” Tom said.

“You can influence somebody's wellbeing by being a good friend, by being supportive, by being a listener and building connectedness to them.”

Some people think that your body is completely separate from your mental health, but Tom doesn’t believe that.

“If we have a terrible night's sleep and we're hungry or dehydrated, we're not going to have a very high level of tolerance for strong emotions,” Tom said.

“There's some fundamental things like hydration, sleep and nutrition.”

Tom said exercise is one that we think of for our bodies, but vigorous exercise is a reliable mental health strategy.

“People tend to feel better after they exercise – it boosts your mood, it relieves stress,” he said.

“There’s very good scientific evidence to say being in nature and exercise is a wellbeing factor and we have these natural resources and gorgeous Park Lands all around the city.”

Tom calls this one the balance segment.

“This is about having fun for fun sake – having an interest outside of your work, having a social life,” Tom said.

“There’s a surprising amount of scientific evidence to say that you should be out there having fun, seeing your friends, doing interesting things.”

This is Tom’s ‘big picture’ segment.

“This is about your values, what really matters in life and if you’re living according to what really matters,” he said.

“There's been some very interesting research to say that if you have a strong sense of purpose in life, you're likely to live longer than someone who doesn't.”

One of the core skills to a healthy mind is that the most important relationship in your life if the one you have with yourself.

“There’s a thing called unhelpful perfectionism, where people set the bar pretty high for themselves and the striving becomes so intense it starts to cause problems,” Tom said.

“Even if people aren’t perfectionists, they're tough on themselves, they're self-critical, they make a mistake and they find themselves judging themselves harshly.

“So self-compassion – treating yourself with kindness, acceptance, encouragement – this helps us to dust ourselves off if we make a mistake, it helps us to give ourselves what we need when times are difficult.”

Subscribe to the Experience Adelaide podcast to ensure you get Tom's episode straight to your preferred podcast providers feed:

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