What are the differences between well-being and quality of life and what is the way to achieve them
Prosperity week recently passed. The Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) and the World Economic Forum are the organizations the organizers of this initiativewhich seeks to develop a social movement that promotes action for healthy living and draws attention to the issue among individuals, politicians, communities and employers.
The concept of well-being is not easy to define as there are many ways to look at it.
Well-being: in search of a definition
Authors Richard Lucas, Ed Diener and Eunkook Suh believe that well-being consists of three factors: Life satisfactionpositive effect and negative effect and has been confirmed in numerous studies.
It reflects the assessment that a person makes of his life in cognitive terms (life satisfaction) and emotional (emotional balance between positive and negative affects).
Then this subjective well-being will result from a total balance (degree of satisfaction) that a person makes of his vital possibilities (personal and social resources), of the course of events he faces, and of the emotional experience he receives, suggest Amalio Blanco and Dario Díaz.
Meanwhile, psychologist Rocio Fernández-Ballesteros proposes a life satisfaction model in which exercise (understood as physical activity, satisfaction with it and social relations) and Hello (physical illness and subjective health) were the variables with the greatest impact.
Other authors have other issues in mind when they talk about well-being.
What are we talking about when we talk about quality of life?
The concept of quality of life has common points and some other differences, especially with regard to objective factors that bring people satisfaction.
Quality of life, according to the conceptualization of some authors, can be considered in five different areas:
- physical well-being (with concepts such as health, physical safety),
- material well-being (related to income, property, housing, transport, etc.),
- social assistance (personal relationships, friendships, family, community),
- developing (productivity, contribution, education)
- Y emotional well-being (self-esteem, mentality, emotional intelligence, religion, spirituality).
In any case, this does not seem to be the most common use of the concept.
The vision of the contemplative sciences
For mindfulness, as for the contemplative sciences, the concept of well-being refers to the path of self-discovery and the process of inner transformation that be more aware every day.
Well-being is a process, a self-development which, although influenced and conditioned by the external, has a strong anchor in the individual. Especially in terms of the responsibility to unfold it in our lives.
But be careful! That the individual is articulated with the general. A human being is a to be in touch, in touch. It is not possible to cut ourselves off from our environment.
When we hear the term “quality of life”, we think of more external conditionsopportunities to satisfy needs and feel good about it.
The economic income, for example, seems very important to achieve the mentioned conditions. Thus, a significant difference in well-being is seen.
Consciousness or the path of inner transformation
Entering a mindfulness program means choosing a path to well-being that involves developing the courage to discover ourselves and produce real changes in our lives.
As Carolina Muñoz, psychologist in charge of stress and anxiety management programs at our Train Your Brain Argentina space, says, “participants report that they feel they can deal with difficult situations for them more calmly.”
“In their stories, they show how they begin to use that small space of freedom that all people have to consciously decide what to do, how to act against everyday stressors,” he adds.
And he affirms that “the possibility of being able to respond consciously as an alternative to impulsive and automatic response puts them in a different place, situations begin to be seen from a different perspective and their way of being in them is more adaptive.”
This results in “greater well-being in your life than decreased emotional reactivity“.
Among other aspects, it “reduces cortisol production and increases self-awareness and the ability to self-regulate our emotions.”
In the organizational realm, contemplative practices also seem to be having an impact, especially in the wake of post-pandemic uncertainty and ambiguity.
Well-being in organizations
For Cecilia Lindner, a psychologist in our business-focused team, “the challenge for organizations is cultural and working on wellbeing is understanding that it is fundamental put people at the center and incorporate it into organizational design”.
Those companies that succeed in accompanying their talent to lead a “life balance” are the ones who will be better able to adapt to the new challenges presented by the context, since well-being is already cannot be considered as an embedded program in organizational design, but should be a value that is worked on every day (understanding that it is multidimensional) by policies, strategies and practices.
That is why the development of soft skills or Soft skills in leadership positions is a key time to invest, “although it takes time and strong commitment to everyone involved in achieving it, as the leader is the bridge between the company and the people who generate the results”.
As she suggests, “resilience, empathy, attentive listening, confident communication, recognition of humanity the shared are increasingly necessary for the integrity and synergy of work teams, therefore for the life of organizations”.
*Martin Reynoso is a psychologist, director of Train Your Brain Argentina and author of Mindfulness, Scientific Meditation.
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