ABSTRACT
Mental wellbeing is subjective which makes it difficult to precisely define and measure. Many attempts have been made to do so but each falls short of providing a neat impression of the rich tapestry that facilitates this individual experience. Four categories of keys to mental wellbeing and ten dimensions are identified here but all are acknowledged as inadequate. Despite their inadequacy they were useful in identifying that the evaluations and reflections generated from the Stiwdio Arts projects did demonstrate achievement of mental wellbeing for the participants given contemporary understanding of it.
It is acknowledged there is more to experiences than can be objectively stated and measured and this was also true for the relationship between self and mental wellbeing with personality being defined here as the interaction between an individual’s ‘felt sense’ which provides meaning through embodied relational knowing and the world in which the person lives in time and space.
Through felt sense self-recognition and acceptance of one’s self including personal vulnerability may be the first step towards self-compassion and mental wellbeing. Mental wellbeing occurs through the ability to enter a moment in time and space, a ‘soulful space’ where the person can accept themselves, in their entirety, including their vulnerability, to gain a deep sense of who they are and who they are becoming. It is through acceptance of self and others within a state of temporal and spatial dwelling mobility that people need to understand themselves and their personal present, history and future possibilities, but also how this interweaves with their sense of others and others’ history.
Dwelling mobility, soulful space and felt sense have much to offer an understanding of mental wellbeing as concepts. This approach opens the lifeworld to the full possibilities of human potential.
Therapeutic approaches such as resilience training, compassion-focused therapy, art therapy and focusing can all add to understanding and the development of mental wellbeing, but ‘presence’ would appear to be key. It entails being truly accepting and accepted, to be loved and to love and in the moment, experiencing a sense of joy and peace, acknowledging that things will change, knowing it was achieved in the past, in the now and the future is full of possibilities.
The Stiwdio Arts Group’s achievements can be understood as an integration of different psychological perspectives under an umbrella of psychological phenomenology, accepting the current philosophical thinking relating to self-acknowledgement and self-acceptance and recognising that personal experiences are contextual. This has been achieved through creative and historical engagement and facilitation of dwelling mobility. The leaders developed this therapeutic environment where human flourishing was propagated.
