Dr. Peter J. Weiss

Today I’d like to talk to you about well­be­ing.  What is well­be­ing actu­ally any­way? Peo­ple talk about “health” as dis­tinct from “well­ness” and “well-being.”

Well I think of well­be­ing as being com­plete and whole.  Even if you’re not phys­i­cally healthy because you have some lim­i­ta­tions, you might still have well­be­ing and a sense that life is in order. Any­way, it’s a lit­tle bit hard to define but I ran across a def­i­n­i­tion in this book that Har­vey Hyman sent me called the “Upward Spi­ral.” I haven’t seen much of a bet­ter illus­tra­tion of what well­be­ing is than this, so I thought I would just read it to you. Here’s how Har­vey describes well­be­ing:

“A per­son who expe­ri­ences well-being is whole, his feel­ings flow freely with­out block­age or ten­sion. He’s in tune with his inner emo­tional life and the emo­tional life of oth­ers around him. He is com­pas­sion­ate towards him­self and oth­ers. He has found bal­ance in the pur­suit of his liveli­hood, with time for self-care, self-reflection, play and joy­ful explo­ration of his inter­ests and pas­sions. He is happy and regards his life as one that is well-lived and wor­thy.”

I like that. That’s well­be­ing, and I want some of that! I’m ded­i­cat­ing my life to help­ing oth­ers achieve well­be­ing through my work, too. So think about well­be­ing. It’s a high tar­get to aim for, but I believe we can get there.