Well-Being is defined as being in the process of striving toward thriving in all areas of your life. In her blog post, LAPBC colleague Shari R. Pearlman, challenged us to work on our well-being using 7 dimensions of well-being. You may ask, “How am I going to meet this challenge?”
The key here is “continuous process”. It is about creating processes that are moving in the direction of self-actualization, in other words towards being yourself. It is not about setting goals for some idealized version of yourself (or of a person) and pushing yourself to make that happen. It is a much gentler and selective method of continuously choosing what is the most authentic choice for you. This may sound simple and in some ways it is. However, as I like to say, “it’s simple but not easy”. It takes dedication and persistence. It does get easier as the choices get clearer and it gets more and more rewarding and sustainable.
There are many possible dimensions to Well-Being. As a reminder, here are the dimensions that we have chosen to feature:
Occupational: Cultivating personal satisfaction, growth and enrichment in work. Financial stability.
Intellectual: Engaging in continuous learning and the pursuit of creative or intellectually challenging activities that foster ongoing development. Monitoring cognitive well-being.
Emotional: Recognizing the importance of emotions. Developing the ability to identify and manage our own emotions to support mental health, achiever goals, and inform decision-making. Seeking help for mental health when needed.
Social: Developing a sense of connection, belonging and a well-developed support network while also contributing to our groups and communities.
Physical: Striving for regular physical activity, proper diet and nutrition, sufficient sleep and rejuvenation. Minimizing the use of addictive substances. Seeking help for physical health when needed.
Spiritual: Developing a sense of mindfulness and purpose in all areas of our life.
Cultural: Practicing your own culture and broadening your understanding across cultures and being inclusive. This practice as we know like other areas of well being can be applied on an individual, institutional and organizational level.
A practice to help us develop this well-being approach is as follows:
(Note: We have a template to help you do this. Please contact us at derek@lapbc.com to ask for the template should you so desire.)
As you will note, by taking just one minute you will not have a lot of time to “think about” these or to “ponder” them. This is about developing an orientation to consider each area and consider if you are moving toward thriving or not. By developing this practice and being consistent, over time you will begin to see moving toward thriving in each of these areas as a more organic and life-affirming process and not just a set of goals. This takes intention, perseverance and persistence. All qualities I know you have.
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