The World Health Organization uses a simple questionnaire to help people assess their own mental well-being: using a scale of “all of the time,” “more than half of the time,” “less than half of the time,” “some of the time,” and “at no time,” participants are asked to rate themselves on five questions:
- I have felt cheerful and in good spirits.
- I have felt calm and relaxed.
- I have felt active and vigorous.
- I wake up feeling fresh and rested.
- My daily life has been filled with things that interest me.
The WHO’s website includes the questionnaire in over 30 languages. Partly due to unusual vocabulary, I think each of these items would make good journaling prompts if you change the sentence to a question. “Have you felt cheerful and in good spirits?” Etc.
the website doesn’t include any information on how this questionnaire was created. It presents some answers to the question that is the title of this post. “At no time” do I feel active and vigorous, but I consider my mental health fairly strong.
What do you think makes for mental well-being?