Improving your mental health can sometimes feel challenging, particularly when you are living or working under pressure, navigating change, or going through significant life transitions.
In the lead-up to World Mental Health Day on Saturday 10 October, The Good Mental Health Project is encouraging you to explore what ‘good’ mental health means to you and to identify practical ways of supporting your wellbeing in everyday life.
Through our work, we help individuals discover simple, effective tools that can support positive mental health, including the Five Ways to Wellbeing, an evidence-based framework that promotes five key actions to help build resilience, strengthen wellbeing, and support good mental health. By incorporating these small, practical steps into daily life, people can feel more connected, positive, and better equipped to manage life’s challenges (New Economics Foundation, 2008).
Everyone’s mental health journey is different.
Whether someone is facing challenges themselves, seeking support for the first time, or supporting a loved one, everyone deserves to feel heard, understood and supported.
Why giving matters
Giving refers to small, meaningful acts of kindness and contribution that support connection, purpose, and compassion in our daily lives.
Giving can support wellbeing by:
- Strengthening feelings of purpose
- Building connection with others
- Supporting positive emotions and meaning
Importantly, and often overlooked, it also refers to the acts of giving back to yourself; the small ways you can remind yourself: I matter too.
Ways we can ‘Give’ to ourselves and others
Giving could involve volunteering in your community, but it does not have to be time‑consuming or energy‑heavy. It might look like:
- Offering a smile or a simple thank you
- Making someone a cup of tea
- Asking friends, family or colleagues how they are
- Offering to help someone you know
- Asking for and accepting help from others
- Speaking to yourself with compassion instead of criticism
- Respecting your limits and setting healthy boundaries
- Giving yourself permission to say no
These moments may feel small, but they are key building blocks of good wellbeing.
Remember
You cannot pour from an empty cup. By resting when you can, being kind to yourself, and accepting help, you are protecting your own wellbeing.
Caring for yourself is not separate from caring for others; it is at the core of it.
The Good Mental Health Project is funded by City of York Council Public Health and delivered by York CVS.