Well-being consists of two main components, psychological and physical. There are a number of factors that affect our sense of psychological well-being. Factors that can improve our psychological well-being include having positive relationships, engaging employment, and taking part in pleasurable activities. Overarching features that contribute to our positive well-being include experiencing a meaning in life, feeling respected, and believing that we are fulfilling our potential and having a sense of belonging and optimism. Factors that may reduce our psychological well-being often include issues such as stress, worry and poor mood.

The second important component of well-being is physical well-being. Conditions that may improve our physical well-being may include having a healthy diet, engaging in exercise, and having adequate sleep and sufficient money to fulfill our needs. Factors that may reduce our physical well-being may include ill-health, disease and chronic pain.

Research demonstrates that individuals in happy, supportive and loving relationships are more likely to feel healthier, happier and satisfied with their lives, and be less likely to develop physical or mental health problems. Many couples wait for relationships to disintegrate to the point of no return rather than attempt to improve their relationships. The best time to work on enhancing your relationship satisfaction if often prior to the onset of any major problems or issues. Such action can prevent issues from developing in the future.

A number of preventative strategies can be used to improve your relationship, such as, learning to manage stress appropriately before it interferes with your relationship, managing your emotions to prevent feelings of anger or hurt from negatively affecting your relationship, learning to understand and manage non-verbal communication, using humour and play in your relationship and learning to resolve conflicts without allowing resentment to build up and damage your relationship.

Communication skills are the cornerstone of romantic, family and business relationships. The aim of communication is to devise a shared understanding. Communicating effectively involves two key aspects. Firstly, communication involves actively listening to those we are communicating with. A key aspect to active listening involves conveying to the person that we understand their message. Secondly, communication involves sending accurate messages to those around us. Assertive communication involves clearly expressing what you think, how you feel, and what you want, without demanding that you must have things your way. Communication involves both verbal and non-verbal aspects. Non-Verbal communication includes our eye contact, facial expressions, gestures, posture and body orientation, proximity, humour, as well as our tone and pitch.

Assertiveness is a way of communicating your thoughts and feelings in a way that respects your own rights and needs, and the rights and needs of others. Being assertive is often confused with being aggressive, but the two concepts are very different. An aggressive person may attempt stand up for their own rights, but they may at the same time disregard the rights of others. An assertive person will not ignore the needs of others. Being assertive also differs from being passive, which is when we consistently place the needs of others ahead of our own needs.

An assertive person will:

• Use “I” statements to communicate their thoughts and feelings, for example, “I feel disappointed that you don’t appear to be listening to me,” rather than “Your not listening to me.”
• Look for a win/win scenario i.e. a situation where both parties may be happy with an outcome
• Restate their position when others appear to be unreasonable or overly aggressive
• Make themselves aware of the needs and wants of others, while not prioritising unnecessarily the needs of others ahead of their own
• Say “no” to a request when they have a reason to do so
• Attempt to communicate openly, honestly and directly, and will remain respectful of other people’s feelings.

Self-Esteem relates to how we feel about ourselves and our sense of self-worth.

A person with high self-esteems will most likely:

• Feel good about themselves and their achievements
• Feel like they are worth something as a person
• Not put themselves down
• Focus on their strengths
• Not be afraid to step out of their comfort zones and try new things
• Feel happy to be assertive with others

A person with low self-esteem may:

• Feel like they are not worth much, and feel unhappy with their lives
• Magnifying things that they believe are wrong with them and minimise their strengths
• Not like themselves and put themselves down constantly
• Avoid trying new things for fear of failure or embarrassment
• Feel the need to constantly seek approval from others
• Be afraid to say “no” to people
• Lack confidence in social situations

Parenting can be hard work, and parents are not provided with instructions on how to do it “right”. Many parents feel insecure about their own parenting style and wonder whether they could improve the way they relate to their children or help them to improve their behaviour, or otherwise enhance their home environment in some way.

There are a number of common styles of parenting which parents often adopt.

A common parenting style is the “authoritarian” or strict style. Parents adopting this style set all the rules in the household and expect complete obedience from their children. Lack of obedience usually results in heavy punishment for misbehaviour. Unfortunately, this style can sometimes result in a fearful relationship between parent and child and a lack of trust. Another typical parenting style is the “permissive” style. This style allows children to determine their own behaviours and usually does not provide any consequences for inappropriate behaviours. While this style leads to a positive relationship between parent and child it can sometimes result in children who develop behavioural problems.

Our coping skills relate to how we deal with stressful events in our lives. We can train ourselves to be more resilient to the stresses that life has to offer. Many people engage in coping strategies that are not particularly helpful for the long term, for example, abusing drugs or alcohol, procrastinating, or taking their stresses out on others. However, there are a number of techniques that work particularly well in assisting us to cope with our stresses better.

Techniques that can be particularly helpful to coping include:

• Avoiding unnecessary stress, for example, at busy times limiting activities that don’t really have to be completed.
• Altering situations that cause you unnecessary stress, for instance, learning to manage your time better.
• Trying to adapt to a stressor, for example, ask yourself how you will feel about the situation in a few days time? Will it still be as stressful? If not, adjust your perception of the problem.
• Accept what can’t be changed, for instance, if you can’t control a situation, focus on what you can control such as your own response to it.
• Adopt a healthy lifestyle, for example, making sure that you engage in regular exercise and pleasant, social and relaxing activities.