The importance of values for mental wellbeing
BY KIRRALEE NICOLLE
Mental ill health is something with which most of us are painfully familiar. Either our own or that of someone close to us. Thankfully, mental wellbeing is becoming more of a socially acceptable conversation topic, and advice and assistance are, in some ways, more available than ever.
Still, however, there are sadly plenty of reasons to feel anxious or depressed.
Australian Unity’s most recent Wellbeing Index Survey results showed that the cost of living, loneliness, ever-widening generational divides and fear of the future were all factors driving wellbeing concerns.
Australian Unity’s lead researcher, Dr Kate Lycett, said that we were not tracking well as a nation overall.
“What we’ve noticed in the last few years – particularly the last three years – is that people with an average income used to do pretty well, but that’s not happening any longer,” says Kate. “Their wellbeing is significantly lower than those from high-income households, and that’s important because it suggests that there’s a large group of Australians who are really struggling.”
Beyond Australia, global conflicts are rife, many political systems are in turmoil, and simply turning on the news feels like risking a downward spiral. So, when our wellbeing is at a premium, what does it mean to be mentally well?
Well, according to Auxiliary-Lieutenant Dr Catherine Philpot, TSA Pastoral Services Manager, it has less to do with how you might feel and more to do with what you value.
“Mental wellbeing is being able to pursue a valued and meaningful life despite the obstacles that come your way,” Catherine says. “So, to have mental wellbeing is to be able to continue to choose value-driven life goals in spite of whatever obstacles you face.”
As a trained clinical psychologist, Catherine has offered mental health care within corps, as well as drug and alcohol rehabilitation and inner-city ministry settings. Currently, she is tasked with helping to equip and support the mental wellbeing of Salvation Army officers.
Catherine said that while some psychologists may take a different approach to defining wellbeing, her approach was grounded in acceptance and commitment therapy, which originates from cognitive behavioural therapy and can be found in the writings of Australian psychologist Dr Russ Harris. Russ’ book The Happiness Trap is the world’s best-selling book on acceptance and commitment therapy.
“We work with values and not goals because goals tend to be inflexible,” Catherine says. “Something like COVID can come along, and your goal [of] starting five new groups for your church all of a sudden becomes impossible.
“But if you’re pursuing a life direction which is [based around] continuing to be a person of love and looking for opportunities to love others no matter where you are, then it doesn’t really matter whether you get hit by a car or whether COVID comes because you can still pursue being a loving person in the midst of those spaces.”
The World Health Organisation defines mental health as a “state of mental well-being that enables people to cope with the stresses of life, realise their abilities, learn well and work well, and contribute to their community”.
While the definition differs from Catherine’s, both lack one arguably slippery word: happiness. Catherine says the reason for this is founded in historical approaches to psychological help.
“Typically, people were coming to a psychologist looking for freedom from pain and freedom from depression and making those their goals,” she says. “But what happens inadvertently [is that] as you pursue happiness, you keep having to check where unhappiness is, particularly if your goal is around freedom from something negative. So, if you’re pursuing freedom from anxiety, you have to keep checking where your anxiety is. If you’re pursuing freedom from depression, you have to keep checking where depression is, which inadvertently keeps those things front of mind and keeps you chained to those things.
“So, research [demonstrates] that it’s actually more effective for your own wellbeing to pursue a value that’s outside yourself because [it helps] you lose that self-focus [when] you find something that's worth living for that’s beyond you. And your own wellbeing becomes less relevant. That doesn’t mean you ignore yourself, but you see the beauty of your life lived for [a] broader goal and broader context. It’s a new way of framing your wellbeing.”
In a spiritual sense, Catherine says acceptance and commitment therapy points her back to God.
“What tends to happen in the therapeutic space is you have someone come in and say, ‘I want to be free from my depression’, and the therapist, knowing that the more you try and make someone free from depression, the more that’s going to be front of mind, will ask them to choose a value that will make their life worth living for. If you’re lucky, in the next 2-3 sessions, [the patient] will come up with values that they think are worth living for outside themselves rather than their own depression.
“To me, that feels a little bit self-deceptive.”
Catherine says that approach feels like trying to force yourself to believe something in order to get rid of depression rather than firstly living a values-driven life.
“For me, when you serve values that exist outside yourself [and] a reality that is outside yourself, that's when you've got the possibility of doing acts more authentically because you're not ultimately serving your own freedom from depression,” she says.
“So that'’s where [it] points me back to Jesus.”
Catherine says she wonders whether the two great commandments found in Matthew 22, “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” and “love your neighbour as yourself”, were given to us by God with our wellbeing in mind.
“If God is a God of all goodness and all love, is it possible that following those commands might be God's idea of us flourishing,” Catherine says. “[It could be that] loving the Lord our God is going to bring us into a fuller sense of wellbeing than serving ourselves.
“The evidence does seem to point in that direction.”
In his 2018 book, God is Good for You, author and journalist Greg Sheridan describes how the hardest decisions in life are all moral decisions, and they all demand some self-sacrifice.
“The therapeutic age we inhabit tells us always to follow our dreams, to be true to ourselves, that our life’s project is self-realisation,” he writes. “But often enough, our dreams at any moment are a very bad guide to what we should do.”
Catherine says the evidence for living in a connected way that honours others proves that such a lifestyle promotes personal wellbeing, too.
“If you’re lonely, your mortality rate increases,” she says. “If you’re lonely, your rate of mental health issues increases. If you’re lonely, the amount of inflammation and arthritis that you have in your body increases. So, loneliness has these physical effects that are profound and mental health effects that are profound.”
Catherine says a sense of meaning can also transform our basic treatment of mental health concerns. She says how many people who experience depression or anxiety are often told to ensure they eat well, sleep enough and exercise regularly.
“All of those things are good and helpful things to do,” she says. “[But] to define wellbeing around them can be limiting because someone in the midst of depression can go for a walk every day and find that does nothing to make them feel better, and it might even make them feel worse because they start thinking ‘I’m doing everything everyone’s telling me to do, and I still feel the same’.
“[But] when we know what we’re living for, it enables us to transform those activities so they become meaningful or transform our lack of ability to do those activities to become meaningful.”
She says having conversations with those around you about their values can promote greater wellbeing, and taking time to read and reflect on matters you find important can also help. Catherine cautioned, though, that some heavier conversation topics, depending on how the person may be feeling, are best left for a therapist’s office.
Catherine says “having a play” with living out values can be a good place to start. She said deciding to apply values in a small, approachable way might transform cleaning jobs or other daily responsibilities into something more meaningful.
“To find the purpose in your life, even in its mundane moments – to see purpose even when there seems to be no joy - that might be something you can do.”
The content in this article is not a substitute for professional help. If you feel you may be at risk of self-harm, please seek assistance by contacting your trusted healthcare professional or calling Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 224 636. If you are concerned for your safety or the safety of others, seek immediate assistance by calling Triple Zero (000).
Kids Helpline - 1800 55 1800
Suicide Call Back Service - 1300 659 467
1800 Respect - 1800 737 732
