Over the past few years, I have started to more purposefully incorporate ways to enhance my personal well-being. When I focus on my well-being, I have greater energy throughout the day, a clearer mind, and a more optimistic perspective on things, allowing me to better manage the multiple areas of my life. I became more aware of the concept of life well-being when I began working for the Clifton Strengths Institute (CSI) in 2015, as it is one of our core values we teach and practice with our staff and students. However, this more intentional approach really started within the past few years. While I was aware that a healthy lifestyle was important, I did not know the full impact of a healthy lifestyle, or truly, all that it entailed. I have come to realize that a healthy lifestyle is so much more than just eating well and exercising often because people tell you it's good for you, it also means being aware of how your lifestyle impacts your productivity and overall mental, physically and emotional energy and stability, correlating with feeling happier and more optimistic.
“Wellbeing is about the combination of our love for what we do each day, the quality of our relationships, the security of our finances, the vibrancy of our physical health, and the pride we take in what we have contributed to our communities. Most importantly, it’s about how these five elements interact.” ― Tom Rath, Wellbeing: The Five Essential Elements
There are various categories of well-being and wellness wheels that have been identified through different research platforms, such as emotional, spiritual, intellectual, career, and social well-being. For this blog category, I am going to dive deeper into Gallup's 5 elements of well-being: Purpose Well-being, Social Well-being, Financial Well-being, Physical Well-being, and Community Well-being. As Gallup reports, "while 66% of people are doing well in at least one of these areas, just 7% are thriving in all five. If we're struggling in any one of these domains, as most of us are, it damages our well-being and wears on our daily life. When we strengthen our well-being in any of these areas, we will have better days, months, and decades. But we're not getting the most out of our lives unless we're living effectively in all five."
The 5 elements are defined as follows:
Purpose Well-being: Do you like what you do every day? When you are thriving in purpose well-being, you will have something to look forward to every day and twice the odds of thriving in your life overall.
Social Well-being: Do you have strong relationships and love in your life? Your social Well-being is strongly influenced by your closest relationships and social connections.
Financial Well-being: Do you have enough money to do the things you want to do in life? Financial security has much more influence on your overall well-being than your income alone.
Physical Well-being: Do you have good health and enough energy to do what you want to do every day? With thriving Physical Well-being, you will look better, feel better and live longer.
Community Well-being: Do you take pride in your community? The positive outcomes of thriving community well-being might be the difference between having a good life and a great one (Gallup, 2019).
This blog category will be geared towards sharing stories and experiences related to the 5 elements of well-being listed above. I also look forward to hearing your well-being insights and how you practice living a balanced, healthy lifestyle!
"Health is not just being disease-free. Health is when every cell in your body is bouncing with joy."
If you are looking for a book that focuses on well-being and creating a meaningful life, I would highly recommend: Are You Fully Charged?: The 3 Keys to Energizing Your Work and Life.
I’d like to better focus myself on my social and community well-beings. Creating stronger relationships and building up those around me. Looking forward to reading more about them!