What is Wellbeing?
To this date, there is still no fixed definition for wellbeing, but the general consensus is that it is more than just the absence of illness and negative emotions, but is the presence of positive emotions, a sense of fulfilment and the capacity for functioning well.
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Philosophers believe that our wellbeing refers to what is intrinsically valuable to us, what is ultimately good for us, and what is in the self-interest of us. It includes our global judgments of life satisfaction.
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According to Valerie Tiberius, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Minnesota, Well-being is what is good for you. If you achieve well-being in your life, you may not have lived a morally perfect life and your life may not have made any great contribution to art, world peace or progress, but you will have lived a life that is good for you. Even though a good life in this sense is not the same as a perfect life (whatever that might be), well-being is still an ideal. It is something we strive for and we certainly do not all achieve it. Our well-being may be diminished by health problems, bad financial luck, the death of a loved one, poor planning, or many other factors. Even if we are lucky and things go well for us, the ideal of a good life serves as a goal for our aspirations about how things might go even better.
The World Health Organization’s definition of health clearly underscores the importance of well-being: “Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”
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Therefore, we can look at well-being as a broad construct that encompasses multiple dimensions.
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In order to lead a satisfying and fulfilling life, It is important for us to develop the understanding, knowledge, skills, capabilities and attributes for our wellbeing as early as possible.
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Sources:
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/well-being/
https://www.wellbeing.hku.hk/about/
https://www.cdc.gov/hrqol/wellbeing.htm
https://www.jpe.ox.ac.uk/papers/how-theories-of-well-being-can-help-us-help/
https://www.who.int/about/governance/constitution
https://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/152184/RD_Dastein_speech_wellbeing_07Oct.pdf
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