WHAT WELL-BEING IS

We hear the term “well-being” quite a lot today, but it was much less common a couple

of decades ago. Then, ideas like “wellness” and “good health” were more central to

discussions about how individuals feel or are deemed fit and materially secure, without

physical or mental disease.

Well-being goes far beyond being healthy. It’s a very broad concept that embraces a

range of positive experiences across physical, emotional, mental and social dimensions.

This change in perspective reflects a huge expanse in our understanding of what makes

life satisfying; of traits and qualities in those individuals who thrive, regardless of their

material or personal circumstances; and of the remarkable capacity of humans to

intentionally grow and develop throughout life.

This shift has occurred because some ancient wisdom traditions and advances in

modern science have come together in powerful and illuminating ways.

Ancient Traditions

For many centuries, wisdom traditions in eastern philosophy, especially those taught by

the Buddha, described the causes of unhappiness, dissatisfaction or “suffering” (‘dukkha’ in Pali; ‘duhkha’ in Sanskrit). There are many nuances to this, but one important insight is that wonderful things and difficult things inevitably visit us during our life. Often people are dissatisfied with their circumstances. When they are not, when they experience joy and happiness, they try to cling to it. But this too leads to dissatisfaction, since clinging is not enjoying and we cannot simply keep forever what we like most. All of these lead to feelings of stress or anger or

unhappiness.

The Buddha also taught practices that countered these forms of unhappiness and led to

qualities of equanimity, acceptance and deep happiness. (In the Buddhist dharma, this

is especially found in the eight-fold path.) For the most part, these traditions were

practiced in monasteries. Around the end of the 19 th century and beginning of the 20 th

century these practices entered more main stream life and found there way into the

west.

One very potent practice is mediation and during the 1960s and 1970s curious

westerners began to explore it. (They also began to explore yoga practices around this

time.) There are many forms of meditation, but the one that became seminal to well-

being is mindfulness mediation.

Within these traditions, well-being means things like feeling content and living with joy

and deep compassion. It also inclines those who have found these qualities to be a

guide for others.

Secular Mindfulness Emerges

A very important contribution came with the development of “Mindfulness Based Stress

Reduction,” which offered a purely secular approach to mindfulness meditation. A young

molecular biologist named Jon Kabat-Zinn, who was teaching in the medical program at

the University of Massachusetts and was a meditator in the Buddhist tradition, reasoned

that meditating could guide people to have a better relationship with the inner and outer

tough stuff we all experience during life – stress, pain, illness, difficulties. He made a

rather bold leap to bring mindfulness practices to a medical framework. He was given a

virtually impossible challenge: to offer mindfulness techniques to a group of patients

who were struggling with overwhelming pain and who did not seem to be helped by

medical interventions. Kabat-Zinn taught them simple techniques of mindfulness,

centering on a mindful body scan. The stunning result was that these patients changed

their relationship with pain within just a few weeks, easing them and significantly

improving their quality of life. Meditation didn’t end the pain; it made the pain different

and softened the sharp all-consuming focus on it.

Within short order, this secular mindfulness was extended to other medical problems,

particularly for those at risk for stroke or who had high blood pressure. What we now

call MBSR (Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction) is widely used in medical centers for

pain, stress reduction, control of hypertension and other issues. It has also spread to

counseling psychology and the general population.

Positive Psychology: a 21st C Innovation

Positive psychology is the newest branch of psychology, born literally in 1998 when

Martin Seligman delivered the keynote address at the annual meeting on the American

Psychological Association.

Modern Psychology, which dates to about 1879, has built a wealth of knowledge about

typical human thinking and behavior -- things like personality, emotions, attention,

cognition, motivation, development and the like. It has also studied atypical thinking and

behavior in those who are challenged by various disorders, what we call “abnormal

psychology.”

But it turns out there was a rather significant oversite -- psychologists had never

considered the other end of the atypical spectrum: those who thrive! Some people seem

to naturally see challenges as opportunities to grow and develop. They inherently seem

to have strong positive character traits like resilience, savoring, compassion and similar

qualities. These are people who flourish regardless of life circumstances.

Positive Psychology is the study of how humans and societies flourish. From its

inception, it has both studied those who thrive and created tools and techniques to help

others build these positive qualities.

Within Positive Psychology, well-being is often based on 5 elements first suggested by

Seligman in 2011 and identified with the acronym: PERMA. These interacting features

are Positive Emotion (P), Engagement (E), Relationships (R), Meaning (M), and

Accomplishment (A). Although there are other approaches and other theories withing

the field, all them see well-being as 2-pronged: 1) achieving one’s full potential, and 2)

experiencing positive emotions and enjoying life. Achieving a high level of well-being is

called “flourishing.”

Neuroscience and Well-Being

The 21st C brought another important innovation, one that dramatically expanded our

understanding of the human brain and the way it responds and adapts to experiences.

Brains have long been studied in biology and medicine, at first through post-mortem

dissection. During the 1980s and 1990s PET scans were used for research. These

could generate snapshots of the human brain during or after an activity by capturing

markers of metabolism – basically where the brain was using oxygen and glucose.

There were some big downsides to this. One is that it requires a low dose of a

radioactive isotope to be introduced into the blood so that researchers can track and

see where blood is most most used (metabolized). The other is that the images are

basically a series of snapshots; they don’t show exactly how the brain is operating in

real time.

Today, fMRIs (functional magnetic resonance imaging) have hugely advanced our

understanding of the brain. These measure blood flow in non-invasive ways and allow

researchers to map the brain, track activity in real time, and track changes in neural

networks over time. (There are other techniques being used or in development that may

be even better at this including near infra-red spectroscopy or NIRs).

This neuroscience research has demonstrated beyond doubt that many of the

techniques that produce subjective feelings of enhanced well-being also produce

changes in the brain. They expand neural density in areas associated with various

forms of positivity, build new connections between the thinking

parts of the brain (the cerebral cortex) and areas associated

with emotional responding (the limbic system and the

amygdala) and many other beneficial changes.

Putting it Together

What is increasingly clear is that well-being is multifaceted and involves the cultivation

of positive behaviors, thinking, emotions and responses. This kind of “inner work” leads

to both significant changes in our subjective feelings of happiness and vastly reduced

feelings of stress and anxiety. It also leads to clear measurable changes in the brain

that boost our positivity and enable us to …. flourish.

As a well-being mentor, I work with my clients in many ways, helping them explore,

sample and try the many techniques and practices that bolster well-being to discover

the ones that are most effective for them. The science is optional, not necessary but

sometimes intriguing for those who are curious.

Our work together centers on discovering various practices that address each client’s

particular interests in a richly supportive, safe and nurturing environment. This deeply

accepting and supportive approach is also how I guide participants in my workshops

and classes.

At its core, well-being suggests feeling happy and unstressed, living with a sense of

meaning and purpose, cultivating strengths and positive character traits like resilience

and compassion and creating rich, satisfying relationships. There is a real sense of

possibility. Of potential. Of cultivating inner growth.