Why Focus On Well-being?
by Jenna Weiss, R-DMT, LNHA, Director of Learning LiveWell
Feeling good in everyday life is an achievable goal. With life’s continual ups and downs, its good to know that people who are able to experience a good quality of life because of difficult events demonstrate a higher level of well-being. These people are described as ‘happy weathering the storm”. (The well-being and resilience paradox, Mguni, N., Bacon, N., Brown, J. 2011) https://youngfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/The-Wellbeing-and-Resilience-Paradox.pdf . The secret to achieving high levels of well-being isn’t a life of easy street but being able to access the tools and habits to weather your storm!
This research identifies variables that contribute to resilience, or the ability to work successfully with stressful events that contribute to improving your overall well-being.
- Cultivating close friends/family,
- being capable of making decisions,
- regular social activity,
- being able to make decisions that affect life and
- acknowledging challenge that feels difficult to overcome.
Taking stock of these variables in your life can be helpful in figuring out what the best first steps are to tend to well-being.
There are lots of resources to choose from in identifying what works best for you; both online and in person experiences can offer flexibility and build healthy habits easily.
LiveWell offers a variety of resources aligned with fostering resilience for individuals and their partners impacted by a diagnosis of cognitive impairment or dementia focused on keeping your brain stimulated, socializing in community, improving close relationships, tending to your emotional self, keeping your body fit and eating well.
International trends in well-being research emphasize specific strategies to improve your well-being using 10 dimensions factors. Sense of accomplishment, emotional stability, engagement, meaning, optimism, positive emotions, positive relationships, resilience, self-esteem and vitality. (Ruggeri, K., Garcia-Garzon, E., Maguire, Á. et al. Well-being is more than happiness and life satisfaction: a multidimensional analysis of 21 countries. Health Qual Life Outcomes 18, 192 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12955-020-01423-y)