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Well-Being

Introduction:

Well-being is more than just being healthy or happy. It’s a sense of vitality, connection, and purpose that comes from your thoughts, emotions, actions, and experiences.

Skill Definition:

  • I can take care of myself (and others) …heart, mind, body and soul.

Key Learning Points:

  • We need to take care of ourselves emotionally (heart), intellectually (mind), physically (body) and spiritually (soul) to thrive.
  • Key elements of well-being are meaning, achievement, positive emotions, relationship, engagement.  Source:  Flourish by Martin Seligman.

Learning Path:

  • Make a choice to thrive rather than just “be OK” or survive.
  • Set personal goals in each of the PERMA model elements (see below) and identify at least one action in each of these elements.

Deeper Topics:

  • The PERMA model was devised by prominent psychologist Martin Seligman, often considered the founder of positive psychology. His work has focused on supporting individuals to understand better what happiness means for them, and he is a recognized authority on different therapeutic interventions that build resilience and wellbeing.  Seligman (2011) describes the PERMA model in his book Flourish. Simply put, it is a breakdown of the individual elements in life that Seligman believes can help us cultivate greater overall happiness and wellbeing.  These elements are the foundation of happiness, and understanding how each element applies to the self is key to understanding where we might be able to make positive changes.  Five elements form the acronym PERMA:  positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning and achievement.  Source:  Positive Psychology.

 

  • Positive Emotions.  Positive emotions can be defined as pleasant multicomponent response tendencies.
    Research shows that positive emotions may contribute to positive outcomes like longevity, improved immune function, and less pain.  Source:  Psychology Today.  Here are some examples:

    • Excitement: A feeling of great enthusiasm and eagerness.
    • Delight: To take great emotional pleasure in something.
    • Astonishment: A feeling of great surprise and wonder.
    • Happiness: Feeling or showing pleasure or contentment.
    • Pleased: A feeling of pride or satisfaction.
    • Content: A state of happiness and satisfaction.
    • Relaxed: A state of being at rest or ease.
    • Calm: Not excited or upset.

Exercises for Older Teens and Adults:

Questions to Encourage Critical Thinking:

  • Are you surviving or thriving?
  • What would the vision for your life be if you were thriving/flourishing?
  • What (negative) beliefs do I have that hold me back from thriving?
  • What makes a great day/week/year?

Tools and Templates:

Word Definition:

  • Flourish.  Grow or develop in a healthy or vigorous way, especially as the result of a particularly favorable environment.

Web Articles/Short Stories/Essays:

  • What Is Well-Being? Definition, Types, and Well-Being Skills.  Well-being is the experience of health, happiness, and prosperity. It includes having good mental health, high life satisfaction, a sense of meaning or purpose, and the ability to manage stress. More generally, well-being is just feeling well.  Source:  Psychology Today.
  • Well-Being Concepts.  Well-being is a positive outcome that is meaningful for people and for many sectors of society, because it tells us that people perceive that their lives are going well. Good living conditions (e.g., housing, employment) are fundamental to well-being. Tracking these conditions is important for public policy. However, many indicators that measure living conditions fail to measure what people think and feel about their lives, such as the quality of their relationships, their positive emotions and resilience, the realization of their potential, or their overall satisfaction with life—i.e., their “well-being.”1, 2 Well-being generally includes global judgments of life satisfaction and feelings ranging from depression to joy.  Source:  CDC.gov.
  • The workforce well-being imperative.  Some organizations have publicly committed to addressing workforce well-being issues and have allocated significant resources to drive improvements in health, well-being, and productivity—an average of US$11 million a year for companies with more than 20,000 employees1—but their investments, while signaling support, may not be working when you look at the outcomes.  Source:  Deloitte Insights.
  • Well-Being.  Well-being, or wellbeing,[1] also known as wellness, prudential value or quality of life, refers to what is intrinsically valuable relative to someone. So the well-being of a person is what is ultimately good for this person, what is in the self-interest of this person.  Source:  Wikipedia.
  • Positive Psychology Theory.  While positive psychology has seen tremendous growth over the past decade, the central theories in the field are continuing to evolve. Source:  University of Pennsylvania, Authentic Happiness.

Books:

Videos:

 Quotes:

  • “Adopt responsibility for your own well-being, try to put your family together, try to serve your community, try to seek for eternal truth… That’s the sort of thing that can ground you in your life, enough so that you can withstand the difficulty of life.”  Jordan Peterson
  • “More compassionate mind, more sense of concern for other’s well-being, is source of happiness.”  Dalai Lama

One-Point Lesson:

Related Skills: