What is Well-being?
Well-being Definitions
We define well-being as a state of feeling good about one’s life and functioning well at a physical, emotional, social and professional levels. Our definition draws from different published definitions of well-being which consist of subjective (e.g., life satisfaction, happiness) and/or objective elements (e.g., working conditions, objective physical health). Examples follow.
Dr. Ed Diener, a prominent American psychologist and founder of the science of well-being,8 focused on the subjective elements and viewed well-being as a combination of self-reported positive affect, negative affect and satisfaction with life. More specifically, he defined it as “a person’s cognitive and affective evaluations of his or her life”.9
According to The World Health Organization,10 well-being is equivalent to mental health which “is more than the absence of mental disorders” and “is a state (…) in which an individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and is able to make a contribution to his or her community.”
Gallup, an expert on employee well-being, believes that well-being is best viewed holistically as encompassing “all the things that are important to each of us and how we experience our lives.”1 According to Gallup, the five most common important contributors to overall well-being are career, social, financial, physical and community well-being.1
Well-being Components
Well-being exists on a continuum from optimal (represented by thriving and flourishing) to suboptimal (as in conditions of chronic stress) to completely lacking (as during burn-out). Gallup1 describes the well-being continuum as extending from thriving to struggling to suffering. Another way to look at well-being is that it consists of different components. Among the best-known evidence-based models of well-being is PERMA+,11 according to which well-being consists of Positive Emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning/Mattering, Accomplishments/Achievement and components collectively related to Health, such as Physical Activity, Nutrition and Sleep.
Davidson’s and colleagues’ Well-being Model12 based on neuroscience, posits that there are four components of well-being: Awareness, Connection, Insight, and Purpose. Finally, according to the U.S. Surgeon General’s Framework for Workplace Mental Health & Well-being,4 well-being at work involves five essentials: Protection from Harm, Opportunity for Growth, Connection & Community, Mattering at Work and Work-Life Harmony. Clearly, there is considerable overlap among these evidence-based models of well-being.
