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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.

Sec. Positive Psychology

Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1637864

MELIOTROPIC WELLBEING MINDSET

Provisionally accepted
  • 1Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin, Ireland
  • 2University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
  • 3Other

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Positive psychology has contributed significantly to wellbeing, primarily through Positive Psychology Interventions (PPIs). However, most research in PPIs has focused on their impact on positive outcomes rather than the conundrum of real-life application. This qualitative study explored how 22 alumni of positive psychology programmes integrated their wellbeing knowledge into daily life to sustain their wellbeing over time. Participants reported a shift from using structured PPIs for enhancing their wellbeing to a new mindset that supported their long-term wellbeing. Specifically, five themes have emerged from the data, which represented manifestations of their changed mindset: (1) intentional living, (2) wellbeing hygiene, (3) self-acceptance, (4) embodiment, and (5) environmental awareness. These themes describe "Meliotropic Wellbeing Mindset", which is an intrinsically motivated, wholly approach to living a good life that integrates wellbeing into everyday practice through planned or spontaneous, context-sensitive, and identity-aligned practices. These findings challenge the field's focus on PPIs and suggest that sustainable wellbeing is more about developing mindsets that orient individuals toward continual improvement. Deriving from the Greek melio ("better") and tropism ("movement toward"), Meliotropism describes a tendency to actively align thoughts, behaviour, attitudes, and life choices with what makes life worth living, even amid adversity. This research highlights the importance of fostering Meliotropic Wellbeing Mindset in real-world contexts, where wellbeing is an ongoing, self-directed, and contextually responsive process.

Keywords: Meliotropism, Meliotropic Wellbeing Mindset, wellbeing, Positive Psychology, Sustainable wellbeing, Alumni of positive psychology, long-term wellbeing, Positive Psychology Intervention (PPI)

Received: 29 May 2025; Accepted: 08 Sep 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Burke, Giraldez-Hayes and Dunne. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Jolanta Burke, jolantaburke@rcsi.com

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