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Giving you the time and space to explore the concept of wellbeing

What is wellbeing? Is it important?

Five Ways to Wellbeing Framework Activities with parents

What will we be doing today?

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Think of something positive that has happened over the past 7 days…what one word best describes how it made you feel?

Icebreaker 1

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Imagine that you are stranded on a desert island with a wellington boot…

Icebreaker 2

“It's time we admitted that there's more to life than money, and it's time we focused not just on GDP but on GWB - general wellbeing” David Cameron

Public Health White Paper

People’s wellbeing is at the heart/Prevention is central.

Source: Ingram Pinn, Financial Times

• World Health Organisation Has predicted that by 2020 depression will be the biggest single disease burden, costly to individuals, families, communities and the economy as a whole through lowered productivity, absenteeism and unemployment.

National Context

• The Chief Medical Officer (CMO, 2013) reports that emotional, conduct and hyperkinetic disorders among children aged 5–15 in the UK are estimated to be £1.58 billion and the long-term costs £2.35 billion.

• 75% of adult mental health problems begin before age 18. CMO 2013

• Good Childhood Report 2015- new international study report that Children in England ranked 14th out of 15 Countries for satisfaction with life as a whole, Children in England are among the most unhappy with their school life in the world

Young People

A worthwhile goal in itself and leads to better outcomes:• reduces prevalence of mental illness

• physical health: mortality/morbidity

• health behaviour

• employability, productivity, earnings

• educational performance

• crime / violence reduction

• pro-social behaviour/social integration/relationships

• quality of life (DH 2011)

Benefits of improving wellbeing

Wellbeing…

• Feeling Good • Functioning Well

Circumstances 10%

Set Point50%

IntentionalActivity

40%

Lyubomirsky, S., Sheldon, K. M., & Schkade, D. (2005). Pursuing happiness: The architecture of sustainable change. Review of General Psychology, 9, 111-131.

What determines happiness?

What Keeps Us at Our Set Point?

1. The negativity bias

2. Habituation/Adaptation

3. Social comparison

The Hedonic Treadmill

…. And is it OK to be unhappy?

Nozick’s Experience MachineSuppose there was an experience

machine that would give you any experience you desired. Super-duper neuropsychologists could stimulate your brain so that you would think and feel you were writing a great novel, or making a friend, or reading an interesting book. All the time you would be floating in a tank, with electrodes attached to your brain. Should you plug into this machine for life, preprogramming your life experiences? [...] Of course, while in the tank you won't know that you're there; you'll think that it's all actually happening [...] Would you plug in?

Personal Wellbeing

• How much time do you invest in your own wellbeing?

• What things do you do on a regular basis?

• When are you most likely to consider your own wellbeing?

• Who's wellbeing are you likely to consider first- your own? Or others?

Five Ways to Wellbeing

Commissioned by the Foresight Project to summarise the evidence from the Mental Capital and Wellbeing Project into 5 key messages

Intentional activity

Go for a walk or run. Step outside. Cycle. Play a game. Garden. Dance. Exercising makes you feel good. Most importantly, discover a physical activity you enjoy and one that suits your level of mobility and fitness.

Connect with the people around you. With family, friends, colleagues and neighbours. At home, work, school or in your local community. Think of these as the cornerstones of your life and invest time in developing them. Building these connections will

support and enrich you every day.

Do something nice for a friend, or a stranger. Thank someone. Smile. Volunteer your time. Join a community group. Look out, as well as in. Seeing yourself, and your happiness, linked to the wider community can be incredibly rewarding and creates connections with the people around you.

Connect

Be Active

Give

Take Notice Be curious. Catch sight of the beautiful. Remark on the unusual. Notice the changing seasons. Savour the moment, whether you are walking to work, eating lunch or talking to friends. Be aware of the world around you and what you are feeling. Reflecting on your experiences will help you appreciate what matters to you.

Keep Learning

Try something new. Rediscover an old interest. Sign up for that course. Take on a different responsibility at work. Fix a bike. Learn to play an instrument or how to cook your favourite food. Set a challenge you will enjoy achieving. Learning new things will make you more confident as well as being fun.

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Activity

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Happy- on the card write something that you enjoy doing and happy to do more of.

Hesitant- something you would like to do, but feel hesitant about.

Connect Friendship is one of the highest positive correlations with self-happiness

(Lyubomirsky, S. King and Diener E (2005). The benefits of frequent positive affect: Does happiness lead to success?)

50% increased likelihood of survival from conditions such as coronary vascular disease and cancer with those with stronger relationships

(Holt-Lunstad.J, Smith.T, Layton B (2010) Social Relationships and Morality Risk)

Why promote the Five Ways to wellbeing ?

Connect – Martin Seligman Every night for the next week, set aside ten minutes before you go to sleep. Write down three things that went well today and why they went well …The three things need not be earthshaking in importance (“My husband picked up my favorite ice cream for dessert on the way home from work today”), but they can be important (“My sister just gave birth to a healthy baby boy”). Next to each positive event, answer the question “Why did this happen?” For example, if you wrote that your husband picked up ice cream, write “because my husband is really thoughtful sometimes”

Why promote the Five Ways to wellbeing ?

Be ActiveRegular activity results in a greater sense of wellbeing, stress reduction and lower risks of anxiety, protective factor against depression

(Biddle JH, Ekkekakis P (2005)- physically active lifestyles and wellbeing)

Why promote the Five Ways to wellbeing ?

GiveSupporting others is shown to be associated with reduced mortality rates(Huppert F (2008) Psychological well-being: evidence regarding its causes and consequences)

Keep LearningAdult learning has been correlated with positive effects on well-being and reports of life satisfaction, optimism and self-efficacy.(Feinstein L, Vorhaus J, Sabates R (2008) Learning through life challenge report)

Why promote the Five Ways to wellbeing ?

Malteser Activity

Describe a malteserClose your eyes, take a few minutes to hold/feel, smell, taste, explore the texture

Take Notice

Evaluation/ Self-assessment tools

www.viacharacter.org/www/The-SurveyExplore your character strengths

On a scale of 1-5 rate each of your five ways activities:1= very little activity 5= lots of activity

Set yourself a goal and monitor activity.

Research shows that goals that motivate and inspire us are more likely to be achieved than goals that are not (Lybomirsky, 2007)

Resources

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire County Council, can prov provide you with:

Five Ways pens, leaflets, Young Persons toolkit, banners and training slides.

Further information and flyers can be downloaded from Herts Direct:

http://www.hertsdirect.org/your-council/hcc/partnerwork/hwb/5ways2well/

Evaluation- 3 words on the post-it

Questions?Thank you for your

time!