Psychology and Wellbeing: Strategies for a Healthy Lifestyle

This essay delves into the crucial relationship between psychology and wellbeing, emphasizing that health encompasses not only physical but also emotional and mental states. It highlights the significance of adopting a healthy lifestyle to prevent diseases, discussing the role of diet, exercise, and psychological strategies. The essay explores how a balanced diet, incorporating professional guidance, and regular exercise, can contribute to a healthy lifestyle. It further emphasizes the importance of adopting psychological traits like optimism and effective stress management techniques, such as positive coping mechanisms and goal setting. The author concludes that integrating these elements is vital for achieving overall health and wellbeing, supported by references to relevant research in the field.

Running head: PSYCHOLOGY AND WELLBEING
Psychology and Wellbeing
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation

PSYCHOLOGY AND WELLBEING 2
Psychology and Wellbeing
Health does not refer to physical wellbeing but also to emotional and mental
wellbeing. Psychological wellbeing helps achieve a healthy lifestyle and prevent some
diseases (Wicher, 2017). There are several things that one can do to lead a healthy lifestyle.
These include consuming healthy foods, regular exercise and adopting some measures for
emotional wellbeing. Psychology provides some ways of helping achieve mental and
emotional wellbeing.
A healthy lifestyle contributes to low incidence of diseases (Lomas and Ivtzan, 2016).
In the modern days, most people live in environments that encourage sedentary lives
(Chapman, 2016). Technology has been mainly blamed for the existence of such
environments. In addition to sedentary lives, another important component of lifestyle is diet.
There exists extensive evidence to show that western diet increases the risk of non-
communicable diseases such as hypertension, type 2 diabetes and some types of cancer
(Chapman, 2016). There are several things that I would do to ensure that the I lead a healthy
lifestyle. I would ensure that my diet is healthy. The best way to achieve this is visiting a
nutritionist or a dietician to get professional help on the best means to a healthy diet. With
increased processing and preservation of foodstuffs, it is important to ensure that I make the
best food choices.
Exercise is a great way to ensure a healthy lifestyle. Therefore, I would be sure to set
aside some time every week for exercise. There are great benefits that can be accrued from
regular body exercise. These include being physically fit and being more immune to diseases
(Slade, Oades and Jarden, 2017). Research shows that people who engage in moderate
exercise for at least 30 minutes daily have a reduced chance of contracting non-
communicable diseases such as cardiovascular illnesses (Wicher, 2017). In addition, exercise

PSYCHOLOGY AND WELLBEING 3
has been shown to improve emotional health and wellbeing. To ensure that I exercise, I
would make a plan of how and where to be carrying out my exercises and purpose to achieve
the exercise goals I set.
The science of the mind is also helpful in ensuring a healthy lifestyle and disease
prevention. Some traits that I would adopt include being optimistic and healthy ways of
coping with stress. To be optimistic, I would employ strategies such as reading and watching
material that instils positivity. In order to avoid stressful situation, I would be sure to set goals
and have well thought plans of how to accomplish them. In the situation where, stress arises,
I would use positive ways of dealing with it such as listening to music or sharing my situation
with a trusted friend.
In conclusion, it is very important to adopt healthy ways of living to prevent diseases
and illnesses. A healthy diet is an integral part of a healthy lifestyle. In addition, regular
exercise has great benefits to a person’s body and helps improve emotional wellbeing.
Psychological principles are also vital to a healthy lifestyle. Having healthy ways of dealing
with stress and being optimistic are some of the strategies that one can use to achieve health
and wellbeing.

PSYCHOLOGY AND WELLBEING 4
References
Chapman-Novakofski, K. (2016). Integrating psychology and nutrition. Journal of nutrition
education and behavior, 48(6), 360.
Lomas, T., & Ivtzan, I. (2016). Second wave positive psychology: Exploring the positive–
negative dialectics of wellbeing. Journal of Happiness Studies, 17(4), 1753-1768.
Slade, M., Oades, L., & Jarden, A. (Eds.). (2017). Wellbeing, recovery and mental health (2nd
ed). London: Cambridge University Press.
Wicher, M. (2017). Positive psychology: a pathway to principal wellbeing and resilience.
Education Today, 17(1), 24-26.