Mental health is a term that gets misrepresented to mean mental health conditions, disorders, or illness. Thus the term is stigmatized and pigeonholed, but that is not the case.

Mental health, like physical health, is a crucial part to our well-being and everyday functioning. Like gut or cardiovascular health, we have to take care of and maintain our mental health for overall well-being. According to the World Health Organization (2025), “Mental health is a state of mental well-being that enables people to cope with the stresses of life, realize their abilities, learn and work well, and contribute to their community.” Therefore, mental health is our ability to manage our thoughts and emotions to navigate life.

However, mental health does not just affect our emotions. It also affects our physical well-being too. Feelings of anxiety can show up as muscle tension, stomach issues, headaches, heart palpitations, etc. Low moods can show up as excessive sleeping and/or eating. In other words, there is psychosomatic link between mental and physical well-being, thus taking care of one also takes care of the other.

In fact, there are several dimensions to wellness. When we take a person as a whole and think about the components that affects them on a daily basis, we can pinpoint eight dimensions of wellness – emotional, intellectual, occupational, financial, environmental, physical, social, and spiritual. Each of these dimensions require attention to keep us in a healthy equilibrium to cope with stressors and perform to the best of our abilities. (There will be a series exploring the different dimensions.)

To sum up, mental health is a part of our overall well-being that effects our daily functioning and can affect other parts of our life. It requires attention and maintenance like any other part of our body.

Sources:
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/mental-health-strengthening-our-response
https://shcs.ucdavis.edu/health-and-wellness/eight-dimensions-wellness