In recent years, great progress has been made in understanding gravity's impact on cognition (Ferrè et al., 2013), behavior (Gallagher et al., 2019), and health (Spiegel, 2022; Blaber et al., 2010). Based on over a decade's ongoing research into gravity's role in mental health, it may be possible to translate these scientific advances into applied principles for psychological intervention. I am not advocating for gravity-based clinical interventions as such—that would be premature, at best. Instead, I believe there is scope to use gravity-based cognitive science for non-clinical approaches to Mental Health Promotion (MHP).

MHP is a branch of public health and a sub-discipline of health promotion that aims to improve mental health outcomes across populations through empowerment, education, and environmental modification. These interventions complement more individualized, clinical forms of mental healthcare such as psychiatry, counseling, psychotherapy, and psychopharmaceuticals. Rather than focusing on those who are unwell, population-based MHP interventions can take a universal (i.e., everyone), selective (i.e., vulnerable groups), or indicated (i.e., those exhibiting early warning signs) approach to keeping people well (i.e., a preventative approach). Interventions are typically designed to enhance mental health literacy, increase the likelihood of psychological flourishing, and reduce the risk of mental illness (Kent et al., 2025). Traditional MHP models emphasize cognition, emotion regulation, and social determinants of health—all of which are relevant to the cognitive neuroscience of graviception in more or less direct ways, as explained below.

One conceptual framework through which the science could be translated is the novel principle of Mental gravity (MG), which I have proposed as a holistic hypothesis regarding the relation between embodied graviception and mental health (Kent, 2023, 2024). Based in the cognitive neuroscience of simulated graviceptive mental imagery, the MG framework proposes that internal/emotional states are partly organized and interpreted through embodied experiences derived from humans living, developing, and evolving within a gravitational environment. MG seeks to explain how and why mental states are often described in gravitational terms such as “uplifted,” “grounded,” or “off balance,” and why affect (i.e., feelings, emotions, and moods) is especially gravitational in nature (e.g., being depressed, being on edge, feeling of equilibrium, etc.).

Based on these formalized observations, I believe MG could be used as a conceptual framework to meet the three primary aims of MHP: (1) to enhance mental health literacy through embodied spatial metaphors or vectors (e.g., upward/stable states are emotionally preferable to downward/unstable states); (2) to increase levels of mental wellbeing by associating upward/outward emotional vectors with positive mental health outcomes (i.e., flourishing); and (3) to reduce the risk of mental illness by associating balance/stability emotional vectors with psychological coping and resilience (i.e., preventing negative mental health outcomes like anxiety and depression). As such, this opinion piece outlines the background and general principles of a future MHP initiative based in MG theory.

Spatial vectors are powerful language devices that people use in everyday language and metaphor to understand and communicate their emotional experience (Cian, 2017; Lakoff and Johnson, 2008; Stocker, 2014; Coll-Florit et al., 2021). Gravitational language can be used formally to communicate key MHP concepts, while also suggesting new ways to frame common health-promoting activities such as physical activity (i.e., upward vectors), grounding exercises (i.e., downward vectors), mindfulness practices (i.e., inward vectors), and pro-social attitudes (i.e., outward vectors).

These practices are well-supported in the intervention literature. Systematic reviews demonstrate that mindfulness meditation enhances interoception and reduces distress (Sharp et al., 2018), yoga improves self-regulation and resilience (Gard et al., 2014; Schillings et al., 2021), and nature immersion is linked to wellbeing gains across large population samples (White et al., 2019). Posture, gait, and balance training also show measurable preventive effects on depression and anxiety (Canales et al., 2017; Feldman et al., 2020).

These interventions are typically evaluated with respect to whether they: (a) increase mental health literacy (i.e., knowledge and attitudes about psychological health and wellbeing); (b) increase the capacity of the individual to experience positive thoughts, feelings and behaviors (i.e., hedonic or eudaimonic wellbeing in the form of positive emotion, life satisfaction, or quality of life); or (c) reduce the likelihood that an individual will experience negative thoughts, feelings and behaviors (i.e., psychological distress, psychosocial impairment, and/or a mental health condition like depression and anxiety).

In terms of the latter two aims of MHP, one of the key intervention targets is emotional regulation (Menefee et al., 2022), which involves either up-regulating positive emotions to improve wellbeing (Livingstone and Srivastava, 2012) or down-regulating negative emotions to reduce distress or psychosocial dysfunction, such as in response to trauma (Xion et al., 2013). Mindfulness improves emotional regulation through initial down-regulatory interventions such as non-judgemental awareness and acceptance of feelings. Nature immersion, on the other hand, can upregulate positive feelings of awe, connection and immersion.

The MG paradigm can interpret these different modes of MHP promotion/up-regulation and prevention/down-regulation as emotional vectors and embodied gravitational states of balance/stability or elevation/lightness. This can, in turn, improve mental health literacy by providing a concrete, physical, and intuitive framework for consumers to understand the mechanics of MHP.

From this perspective, the MG paradigm can support the three pillars of MHP at the individual level of intervention:

Prevention in mental health occurs at many levels from individual to dyads to family units, and from educational and occupational environments to wider spheres of community and society. Addressing social determinants is imperative but crucial individual- and family-level interventions typically aim to increasing resilience to adversity, trauma and other stressors through improved social and emotional competence (Arango et al., 2018). Using concrete, embodied concepts of emotion's physical characteristics can aid competence through understanding, especially for young children (Hoemann et al., 2019) who stand to benefit from targeted mental health literacy interventions (Tully et al., 2019).

These aims can be achieved through psychological and educational programs designed to improve self-care, create sustained individual behavior change, and increase resilience through stress management. Interventions could be applied to general audiences and target populations as needed, including youth and even young children given the intuitive nature of emotional vectors/metaphors. Some example interventions are detailed below.

The MG-MHP framework suggests that improving emotional wellbeing and resilience are not only about thoughts and feelings, but also about reengaging embodied cognition. By anchoring emotional regulation in graviceptive imagery and vector simulation, MG-MHP offers a neuroscientifically- and cognitively-grounded approach to mental health and wellbeing. The anterior insula emerges as both a neural gateway and a target of MG-MHP interventions.

MG can add unique value to established MHP frameworks. The three pillars—literacy, wellbeing, and prevention—map naturally onto MG's vectors. Literacy is supported by embodied metaphors that clarify emotional states; wellbeing is enhanced by upward and outward practices linked to flourishing; prevention is strengthened by inward and downward practices that promote stability and resilience. MG also complements resilience training by offering an embodied scaffold for coping strategies, and aligns with positive psychology by reframing flourishing as gravitational elevation and openness.

For example, MG-MHP could translate the “broaden-and-build” theory of positive emotion (Huppert et al., 2004), which falls under the positive psychology umbrella, through the use of vector-based embodied cognition practices. This would: (a) increase wellbeing literacy though improved understanding of what comprises positive emotion; (b) enhance wellbeing by linking bodily sensations to positive emotions; and (c) strengthen resilience by empowering individuals to identify and respond to the absence of positive emotion (i.e., a risk-factor for negative emotion, distress, and anxiety/depression).

MG-MHP provides a new foundation for mental health promotion rooted in the body's relationship to gravity. Through embodied simulation of inward, downward, upward, and outward emotional vector-states, individuals may achieve greater understanding of the internal and external forces shaping their mental health, helping individuals and populations become more likely to flourish and less likely to experience mental ill-health. There is further scope to scale MG-MHP concepts up to the collective level of social determinants of mental health using analogous societal vectors.