We talk more about our mental health than ever before, and that’s a good thing, right? Talking more freely about how we feel, what problems impact our daily lives, and how best to support those in ‘trouble’ has never been more important.
At Bounce Forward we want another conversation to be given as much airtime: psychological fitness, what it is and why it matters.
It’s a term that may be less familiar, but it offers a new way of thinking about what goes on in our brain and holds the key to supporting the next generation to truly thrive. What is psychological fitness; how is it different to the current world view of mental health, and why it matters; especially for children and young people.
Let’s break it down.
First, lets talk about mental health
Mental health is our emotional and psychological state – how we feel, how we cope in the world around us and relate to others. Like physical health, it exists on a spectrum and can fluctuate based on life events, trauma, stress, and biological factors.
Mostly, conversations around mental health sit within a medical model, viewed as a disease, focused on diagnoses, treatment and interventions to correct and manage ‘problems’ like anxiety, depression and stress. It’s vital work. But it is only half the picture, and from a deficit viewpoint.
It is reported that right now, 1 in 5 children and young people in England are likely to be experiencing a mental ill health disorder. That means in the average classroom, six young people are struggling with their mental health. The Centre for Mental Health report that mental ill health costs somewhere in the region of £300 billion every year. This tells us we need to do more than support after problems arise. We need to get ahead of it, to shift how we think about it.
Now Enter: Psychological Fitness
Psychological fitness is a proactive, strength-based approach to building mental resilience and emotional wellbeing. Think of it aligned with physical fitness.
We don’t go to the gym when we’ve pulled a muscle, we go to build strength, flexibility, to nurture and grow our physical capacity. It’s the same with our minds. Building our psychological fitness is not just about responding to challenges; it’s about preparing for them. It’s the proactive development of the way we think about ourselves and the world around us. It’s building a realistic, optimistic mindset through a set of skills, techniques and competencies that help people to get through challenging and uncertain times and to make the most of opportunities and be the very best version of themselves.
Psychological fitness: mental resilience and emotional wellbeing can be taught, measured and mastered and includes things like:
- Understanding emotions: when they are helpful and unhelpful
- Learning from failure: seeing problems as something to solve and grow from
- Recognising the value in different perspectives: the power in diversity
- Setting realistic goals and believing in the capacity to reach them
- Knowing our unique strengths and how to dial them up and down for best impact
- Valuing the role of positive emotion, kindness, empathy in the pursuit of personal happiness
- Taking intentional action every day
Why psychological fitness matters
Focusing on mental health as an illness is like only teaching someone to swim after they have fallen in the water – it’s reactive and potentially too little too late. Psychological fitness is being equipped with the tools before hitting the water.
When it comes to mental health, prevention is better than cure and education is better than prevention.
At Bounce Forward we are driving change to see psychological fitness lessons embedded into the education system so that we can:
- Shift how we think about mental health
- Move from crisis management for a few to education for all
- Improve personal and societal life outcomes
- Build emotionally intelligent young adults ready to take on the uncertainty of the world ahead
Final thought
Let’s be clear – mental health and psychological fitness are not opposites, they work hand in hand with mutually beneficial outcomes, equally important. But right now, the scales are tipped toward reacting, preventing, not teaching and learning.
Teachers should be afforded the space to educate, it’s what they are trained / love to do. It’s time to teach the next generation how to nurture and take care of their psychological health, just as we teach them to read, write, and stay physically healthy.
It’s simple: when young people are supported and taught the tools to thrive emotionally, every benefits – schools, families, communities, and society as a whole.
