The Elusive Station!

We all wonder what it means to have a good life, and this query is as old as human history itself.  We have many sources of information and other means to know what would keep us flourishing  and yet, we do not seem to have found the answer. 

In this episode, I dive down to explore why that is the case and share new insights  from my doctoral research and personal experience. 

Share your thoughts and feedback @wellbeingcentral.org

Transcript

What is a good life?  A question us humans have asked since we started walking on earth. From ancient philosophers like Aristotle, and scriptures like Vedas to modern day self-help gurus and new age therapists…they have all told us what it means to have a good life or a life lived well.  We are constantly flooded with information and products to improve our wellbeing….…And yet!.... how many of us reallyunderstand it? 

Hello, my name is  Archana Mishra, and welcome to my podcast Wellbeing Central. Five years ago, I began my quest to understand wellbeing as part of my PhD studies but this professional pursuit became a personal and transformational journey. The more I learnt, the more I realized how much there is to explore. It’s one thing to read about what the greatest thinkers and philosophers say about wellbeing, but completely different to understand what it really means to us based on our own lived experiences?  We seem to have all the information and resources to improve wellbeing for ourselves and our societies and yet we see some concerning trends. More and more people are suffering from obesity and heart diseases than ever, mental health crisis is becoming an epidemic, Our societies  are becoming more divided, And we are watching news of tragic natural and human disasters almost every other day.

Yes, we are living longer…but are we also living well? Are we really managing and improving our wellbeing? ……

As I am saying all this, what is going through your mind? …….How do you understand wellbeing?

I hadn’t actually thought about my own subjective view of wellbeing until I began working on a PhD thesis. I worked under the supervision of Dr. Lance Newey at the University of Queensland business school in Australia, and my thesis included testing his 8 component wellbeing model. According to this model, well-being is a unity of eight factors: Physical, psychological, environmental, social, cultural, spiritual, economic, and material. Unity means wellbeing is experienced when all these components are in harmony with each other. And maintaining that harmony is the name of the game! A game that keeps us on our toes, because these components are always interacting with each other…. in a way that they are inter-dependent and counter-balancing. 

Basically, all eight are constantly jostling for our attention and if we give any of them too much or too little attention then there is disharmony, and we experience what is not wellbeing. You can find more detail about these 8 components and how they interact on my website wellbeingcentral.org, and here I’ll give you some examples. We often think of Economic wellbeing as being well-off : measured in terms of our income, and the stuff we are able to buy from our income creates material wellbeing….These two are related in such a way that over or under attention to one will affect the other. Extreme devotion to income growth and no investment in material comfort can deprive us of better living standards while too much material accumulation without enough income flow will damage our financial security. So what do we do? Keep earning or keep buying stuff? 

Now, let’s look at social wellbeing, which provides connection with our community, country, and even the world at large, …. For example, we come together as Australians, or Indians or Americans as citizens of these countries ! We are one nation! On the other hand, cultural wellbeing allows us to maintain our ethnic and cultural diversity while having a common nationality – we could identify ourselves as first nation Australians or Italian Americans or Tribal Indians. Now, if we focus too much on social wellbeing at the cost of cultural wellbeing then that will diminish our cultural identity but… too much focus on cultural identity may also damage the idea of coming together as one nation or one society. So, how can we choose between coming together as one or remaining diverse individuals?

And like these two pairs, all the remaining components also constantly counterbalance each other, so any over or under investment in one will affect the other and, our overall wellbeing will suffer. That is why creating and promoting wellbeing is quite a complex task. It is not just about eating good food, or doing exercises, or having good friendships. It is about understanding ALL of the 8 factors and also their relationship with each other. Doing well in the game of harmonising all 8 is  not possible if we keep choosing between them.

We cannot take an either/or approach to wellbeing because if we do, …..then  we suffer from the symptoms I mentioned before:  physical or mental disease, social or cultural conflicts, environmental degradation, loss of purpose or meaning in life.. you name it. ….. we cannot choose between economic OR environmental wellbeing, social OR cultural wellbeing, physical OR psychological wellbeing, we need both, and we need all. But….harmonizing all 8 is complex and constant work, and we gain the ability to do that only over time depending on our level of maturity. Initially, we are able to appreciate and manage only a few of these components. Then as we grow and experience life, our understanding of wellbeing evolves and we begin to slowly manage the complexity. We start to see its many parts, not all at once, but gradually….. and eventually we are able to manage all 8 at the same time. However, despite that, we never really arrive at the Wellbeing central station, ……we only get one stop closer to it. Even when we are able to grapple all 8 relatively easily, we still have to give constant attention to all of them…. any lapse and we will see the symptoms. Wellbeing, therefore, is a constant journey without a destination. We find ourselves at different stations based on our own life experiences, but never really get there. And these were just some of the findings that came out of my doctoral research. 

During those years of research, I noticed that while I was interviewing participants and reading literatures necessary for my thesis, I was also becoming my own research subject, and slowly, a journey of self-reflection began. It started when I asked myself what does wellbeing mean to me?

My first realization was how difficult it was for me to define wellbeing, let alone understand it. Like many of us, my definition of wellbeing mainly included a healthy body and mind.  So when I come across the model, I scanned my wellbeing status across all 8 components to see how I’m doing. I found that while I could improve on all of them, I wasn’t doing too badly on most of them: good physical and mental health, financial security, material comfort, good friendships and relationships, clean environment, and a strong cultural identity.  So,  I thought, well, if that is the case, then why have I been feeling a bit lost lately, as if I lacked a sense of purpose, or meaning in life? I had everything that make a good life, so why was I experiencing this unexplained emptiness? Then it struck me….., I realized that I had never really paid attention to spiritual wellbeing, and perhaps that is now showing up as a lack of a real sense of meaning in my life.  Now, spirituality should not be confused with religious beliefs and practices. We can loosely understand it as the recognition or belief that there is something greater than us, something more to being human than just sensory experience. At its core, spiritual wellbeing allows us to become aware that we are a part of a greater whole, and that we are connected to everyone and everything around us. So, at this level, there are no superficial boundaries like the ones we have created based on nationality, ethnicity, class, gender, religious beliefs and so on.

Having had the realization of what I was missing, I began to work on improving my spiritual health. Initially, that came in the form of enrolling into several classes, practices, and retreats.  My Indian heritage meant that I leaned towards some of the oldest wellbeing practices such as yoga and Ayurveda. I learnt how both of them promote proactive and holistic wellbeing. Interestingly, they also deal with all eight components of wellbeing,  and place a strong emphasis on harmonizing them. This realization was the catalyst for my personal development on many levels, and I continued to immerse in more philosophical and practical teachings on wellbeing…… until I became able to self-reflect.  At this point, an inward journey began and I found myself expanding my view of the world and my surroundings. Seeing the world in more and different ways allowed me to move from an “I” to an “us” mentality, from just thinking about my own welfare, I could now reflect on my community’s wellbeing. With more self-inquiry, I started understanding an even more expansive “all of us” perspective. And this worldview allowed me to appreciate all beliefs, ideas, practices, and cultures including the ones that I thought were in conflict to mine. This brought a deep sense of unity between me and the rest of the creation. I could now hold  a systems view, which means I could see how everyone and everything are connected as part of a larger system in which each one of us has a role and our own place. I could see how each part AND the whole complete the system; neither of them alone is sufficient. Having felt this connection with my surrounding, I regained a sense of purpose and meaning in life, And the harmony that was missing from my wellbeing system was restored. A deeper joy emerged from within, and I experienced a sense of flourishing – not just meeting basic needs but maximising potential on all 8 components. 

So, this is how wellbeing works – each one of the 8 factors is important but neither of them alone can create wellbeing. This is not to say that all 8 of them need equal attention in all situations, but that all of them should be considered to make sure that we are not over-or under investing in any one of them. For example, if I focus too much on spiritual wellbeing now that I’ve become more self-aware and do not take care of my economic or material needs, then that would be bad for my overall wellbeing. I need to regularly check on other factors and make sure that they are not being over or under attended.

I can say that an understanding of the 8 components of wellbeing and the inward journey of self-reflection changed my idea of a good life..… and it will continue to change over time with new and different experiences yet to come.  

Based on my research findings and personal experiences so far, I can say that while we never really arrive at wellbeing central – we can make this journey meaningful and enjoyable. Given its elusive nature, it makes sense why us humans have been wondering about wellbeing since we started walking on earth and yet…it remains our favourite query.   

I now invite you to reflect on your own understanding of wellbeing. How are you doing on these 8 components? I will name them again: Physical, psychological, social, cultural, economic, environmental, material, and spiritual. Are you investing too much or too little on any of them? You can think about these questions in private or better still write to me on my website at wellbeingcentral.org. I would love to hear from you! Thank you for listening, and stay tuned for the next episode where I’ll share some amazing facts about how and why we think differently about how the world does and should work. 

Until then, let’s get one stop closer to wellbeing central.