What Is Wellbeing? Understanding the Key Dimensions for a Flourishing Life
What Is Wellbeing?
Wellbeing isn’t just about being happy or free from illness—it’s about thriving. Researchers have put forward a number of different theories as to what constitutes wellbeing and have also recognised that there are cultural differences between Western and Eastern culture. While there's no single universal definition, wellbeing commonly refers to a state of optimal health, happiness, and fulfillment across various dimensions of life.
In this blog, we’ll explore the different dimensions of wellbeing—subjective, psychological, and physical—and how they interact to influence your overall state of health and happiness.
Types of Wellbeing
Subjective wellbeing is your perceived state of wellbeing – how you think and feel about your life. It includes your overall satisfaction with life, the presence of positive emotions (such as happiness, joy, and contentment), and the infrequent presence of negative emotions (such as sadness, anxiety, and stress).
Key components of subjective wellbeing include:
Positive Mindset
Resilience
Effective Stress Management
Adaptive Coping Strategies
Self-Awareness
Positive Emotions & ability to process negative emotions
Life Satisfaction
Psychological wellbeing is focused on the meaning, purpose and fulfilment that you get from life. It considers the deeper psychological components that contribute to overall functioning and flourishing – beyond happiness and life satisfaction.
Key components of psychological wellbeing include:
Connections and Meaningful relationships
Sense of belonging
Purpose & Meaning
Personal Growth
Self-Acceptance
Goals aligned with values
Autonomy
Environmental mastery
Competence
Cultivating Strengths
Physical wellbeing refers to the overall state of health and vitality of your body. It encompasses various aspects of physical health, including fitness, strength, flexibility, endurance, and the absence of illness or disease.
Key components of physical wellbeing include:
Sleep
Movement & Exercise
Nutrition
Rest
The three components of wellbeing interact and impact each other. For example, if one is experiencing positive emotions, they may be more likely to seek out connections and find purpose/meaning in their activities and thereby improve their psychological wellbeing. However, a strength in one component does not necessarily correlate to a strength in another. For example, one may have poor physical wellbeing but have very good subjective wellbeing.
Impacts of High Wellbeing
Research has found that higher wellbeing delivers many benefits including:
Better outcomes re: physical health and longevity
Better individual performance at work
Success at professional, personal and interpersonal levels
Adapt better to setbacks and change
More effective learning
Increased creativity
Increased productivity
Prosocial behaviour
Positive Relationships
To build your toolkit for growth, wellbeing and mental fitness try:
For your workplace and teams:
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