According to ground breaking new research that finds 6 building blocks of healthy minds states, “Positive mental health is more than just ‘not feeling depressed’”. On 4/10/26 the research identifies that positive mental health is to feel “a sense of engagement, connection and mastery” and that healthy minds “are actively positive”. For the readers that are used to hearing about pathology and chaos, this is a breath of fresh air as it points to the building blocks of living well, rather than the pitfalls of mental illness:
This positive mental health report and the authors have identified six ingredients that will quite probably be linked to those who have rated themselves as thriving – emotional balance, meaning and purpose, good quality relationships, mastery (skill or competence), resilience and satisfaction in life. Emotional balance involves experiencing, experiencing and expressing feelings without becoming overwhelmed or distracted by them. Meaning and purpose might be found in your work, caring for a loved one, creativity, in your spirituality or community activity. The important thing about relationships is that you will not always be able to achieve positive mental health by yourself.
More recently as this groundbreaking research has demonstrated, that if we can find six keys to healthy minds,6 it can be summarized that healthy mental health is more than just not feeling depressed:. In this research released on 4/10/26, it states that healthy mental health also means feeling; ‘a sense of engagement, connection and mastery’ and that healthy mental minds are ‘actively positive’. For the reader more familiar with much mental health literature, which usually refers to disease processes and disorganization, this recent research is a breath of fresh air as it discusses the building blocks of well being, rather than the potholes of mental illness:
To conclude, the positive mental health report provides the six ingredients that appear to be the most common among those who self-report feeling as if they are flourishing: emotional stability, meaning and purpose, satisfying and high quality relationships, mastery and competence, resilience and life satisfaction (Davidson, 2004). Emotional stability involves an individual‘s ability to experience a wide range of emotions and to appropriately express these emotions while avoiding fixation or becoming overwhelmed by alternate emotions. One finds meaning and purpose in work, caring for loved ones, creating something artistically, spiritual practice, or in one‘s community. One‘s relationships are thus: positive mental health cannot always be achieved alone.
Source: Behavioral Health Hospital on target for April 2026 opening
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