The science of happiness and overall wellbeing happens to be one of my lifelong passions. Being a psychology major and a wellness ambassador, wellbeing seems to be the perfect cross-section that has sparked my passion. I have often time grappled with the question “what is the key to happiness?” I, myself, subscribe to the eight dimensions of wellness and Kelly Crace’s research on values and the Life Values Inventory. I think these are both good models that tackle the “key to happiness” question. I even took a class on flourishing last semester, designed to teach how to achieve a flourishing mindset. Despite all this, I still feel as though I am learning how to flourish each day and I suspect it will be a lifelong journey.
So, the question today is: what is wellbeing? I believe that wellbeing is a mindset that helps one approach everyday with full experiential acceptance. To put simply, I think this boils down to three things. These three things were taught to me on a road trip by a friend of mine, and I have carried them with me since.
- self-improvement
- experiencing new things
- being grateful
To break this down, happiness to me (which is the goal of wellbeing), is about looking for ways one can grow. This can be through the eight dimensions of wellness in one’s life, through the person’s values, or in any other area a person deems important. To keep growing, one needs to constantly be experiencing new things. This is one reason why I value change so much in my life, because I believe that with every change I can grow as a person. The last piece to this puzzle is simply being grateful. Being grateful is such a simple concept, but a hard mindset to achieve. One thing that helps me be grateful (although I am no expert) is doing my best to experience each day with full acceptance, without judgement, and constantly reminding myself of all that I have in life that are so easy to take for granted. The key to happiness is no easy question, but I think this is a good place to start.