The importance of well being in today’s society by Simon

“How are you doing?” “Fine, thanks. Getting on.” “You?” “Yeah” Every day we meet and greet our fellow human beings and make mutual inquiries about well being. Often the exchange becomes ritualised, because in reality we don’t really want to know or to share.

We are constantly pursuing a state of positive well being. We are told that we should. Well being is not a benchmark, or a constant, or even something that can really be quantitatively measured, but a personal assessment of how comfortable, healthy and happy we are.

Happiness is a state of balance between all the conflicting demands that the average human faces on a daily basis. It is worth considering that despite our many achievements, we are not much more than elevated primates, and as a result there are generally not many things that we really require to be happy.

Maslow describes a hierarchy of needs that illustrates what he felt human life motivations were. I think it provides a fairly good framework to show how we could achieve well-being. Each level of the hierarchy is required to be able to achieve the tier above.

I look at life in terms of balance. It is unrealistic to expect that we are going to feel good all the time – there are always things that we don’t want to do or situations that are less than ideal. Ultimately if the balance of positives outweigh the negatives I believe I’m winning.

Interests, hobbies, sport and positive work experiences all contribute to our well-being. Building frames for a Parnall Panther certainly does!

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