Essay Sample on Well-Being

Introduction

Despite the language definition of well-being the condition of an individual, WHO's definition borders on the positive, as opposed to a neutral situation. According to me, well-being reflects an overall positive state of balance: social, mental, physical, emotional, spiritual, environmental, intellectual, occupational, and even financial. As a result, one's physical, cultural, economic and social environment has a significant impact on their well-being. Well-being enables an individual to overcome hard times and achieve objectives with increased success rates. One can control or change their well-being by projecting attitudes and outlooks that draw on positivity. Therefore, one can improve their well-being for the better, and ultimately, their all-around health. Traditionally, the measures of well-being include objective indicators or social indicators such as financial income of a household or an individual's educational outcome. One can also make use of measurements and models of what people consider quality and healthy life subjectively to determine the level of perceived well-being.

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I ensure that I positively maintain my well-being as I build my mental health by engaging in relaxing and socially stimulating activities. To begin with, I spend a lot of time around people I love and trust. As a result, my mind is always at peace, without me still being on the lookout. Secondly, I express myself sufficiently and constructively on a frequent basis. I do not allow myself to bottle up my feelings which triggers an outburst later. Expressing my emotions and talking about them makes me feel at peace for having them and also brings people closer due to the vulnerability expressed. Avoiding the use of illicit drugs and the consumption of alcohol also keeps my well-being in check. Drug use may feel relaxing for some time. However, in the background, many reactions take place that places the body under s lot of strain and undue stress.

Keeping fit, staying active and eating balanced diets also develops my well-being positively. A lethargic body and mentality are harmful towards any individual's well-being. Challenging an individual's capabilities and taking up new skills to hone and develop them also helps the individual maintain a sharp mind and crisp well-being. Taking up new hobbies as well as enjoying existing ones also helps me to unwind and take a lot from my mind. The resulting peace and contentment come with an incomparable fulfilment. Setting realistic goals shields my heart from big disappointments that are entirely unnecessary. Well-being is a desirable state that can also be pursued with the aim of developing self-confidence and positive self-esteem. I firmly believe that people with positive well-being can build strong relationships and maintain them and also communicate effectively with people around them and the world around them. Coping positively with the difficulties of life on a daily basis can be directly co-related with having positive well-being.

What I consider most as standard indicators of well-being are when an individual is healthy, safe, active, nurtured, respected, achieving, included and responsible. With all those factors fulfilled, I can state confidently that the individual is more than likely to have positive well-being. Having one's desires met and achieved a goal, or a dream brings about the happiness that contributes to an individual's well-being. Robert Nozick explains true happiness and contentment as stemming from an individual achieving their goals by their own hands as well as enjoying being the kind of person that the experiences build you into (Nozick, p. 44). Any shortcuts taken on the road to fulfilment such as using the experience machine would ultimately lead to one feeling unfulfilled. One would feel like they could have felt more contented had they undertaken the experience themselves and become the person shaped by the experience. Doing activities has been shown to produce more feelings of fulfilment than merely sitting back and taking the exposure.

Knowing people and the world in an intimate and real fashion has been preferred over a human-made reality. The human-made truth has no actual contact with the fact, and as a result, not much significance is placed in it, hence the controversial opinion that psychoactive drugs do not allow the user to connect their drug reality to the fact.

Happiness is a crucial factor in the well-being of an individual. Haybron (NYT) describes happiness as being content in life, according to most people. Psychology reveals that a majority of people living in poverty have been quoted saying that they are satisfied with their lives. Haybron observes that despite how typical it has become, it is very misleading to equate happiness to satisfaction. Resignation might cause an individual to be satisfied with their life and not much else, but it does in no way indicate that they are happy with their situation and their presence in general. Happiness has also been equated to pleasure, good feelings and the absence of sadness. According to Haybron, researchers in pursuit of information on happiness ask the wrong questions during data collection. By asking about mood states and emotions alone with joy, suffering, pain and pleasure are often excluded from the questionnaires. As such, the data obtained paints an incomplete picture. Haybron concludes that happiness should be considered the emotional well-being of an individual.

Richard Brandt describes goodness as resulting from the satisfaction of an informed desire (Sher, 558). Irrational desires are done away with to attain true satisfaction. In Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful World, George Bailey achieves true happiness when he finds out that his life has had meaning after all. Seeing all the people that he helped and all the positive impact he brought made his pain bearable and made him even more willing to help more people. Having put other people before himself all his life, he never honestly felt happy. He had not achieved any of his dreams and life was increasingly harder.

He felt obligated to take care of his community's needs before his own and therefore, never had time left to take care of his dreams. George could not feel truly happy by placing his individual needs before the community's and chasing his dreams. George suffered long bouts of depression throughout his life. It can be argued that it could have been partly because he did not recognise what true happiness resulted. If he were aware of how to find joy in helping others, he would have seen significant fulfilment in it. Despite not having achieved his dreams, his life would have been much happier than it was.

A lot of times, happiness is not tied to just what happens to one individual. Watching someone in pain may make your happiness fade away despite everything in your life going smoothly. Empathy, consideration and kindness have an element of satisfaction tied to them when they are used to helps others out of their pit. Happiness cannot co-exist with guilt as well. Feeling that one could have done better or done something for someone else is also bound to make one feel unhappy. Other people's happiness is tied to our joy. True happiness needs to be entirely pure, for it to be enjoyed. It is this pure happiness, that then contributes to the positive well-being of an individual.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the well-being of an individual is heavily tied to the happiness of that individual. Despite the many typical definition and comparisons to delight, only a few can be regarded as describing true happiness. True happiness can only be attained by an individual who understands the purity of the concept. Conversely, an individual may experience true joy without owing it because they do not have the proper knowledge of what it means and what it entails to be truly happy. It is this true happiness that results to the positive well-being of an individual.

An action plan about happiness would be to research on what can be described as the true meaning of pleasure so as not to misunderstand any positive emotion and wrongly perceive it as happiness. Knowing what true happiness is, I will be in a better position to steer my life to achieve it. Understanding factors that affect happiness will make its achievement faster and more efficient, without the struggle of wondering why it seems unobtainable. With true happiness, emotional well-being will be my portion.

Works Cited

Haybron, Daniel M. "Happiness and its discontents." The New York Times (2014).

Nerdwriter1. "It's A Wonderful Life: Individual vs. Community". YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8G3JBKgegGA. (2015)

Nozick, Robert. "The experience machine." (2013).

Sher, George. Ethics: essential readings in moral theory. Routledge, 2012.