Well-Being is a Skill

“Well-being is actually a skill. If we practice at it, we’ll get better.”

~ Dr. Richard J. Davidson, Center for Healthy Minds, University of Wisconsin, Madison

 

I started researching happiness a few years ago, and I found out that what most of us believe will make us happy really doesn’t. I was teaching a writing course and decided to make “Happiness” the theme. Together, my students and I, considered the research on happiness. In a few short weeks, I noticed that my classes seemed quiet, somber, and my students gazes were, more than usual, focusing down. Eye contact with me had become scarce. 

It turns out that happiness research revealed that getting everything we ever wanted, having a perfect job, making a lot of money, really didn’t yield the benefits my students and the rest of our culture had been promised. I felt horrible. I had pulled the proverbial happiness rug out from under them. They were spending thousands of dollars to prepare for a job that would give them a laundry list of goodies, and research said, not so much, not so fast. 

In my attempt to help my students recover, I looked hard to find something that would lift their spirits. It had to be based upon solid research, and I had to make reading or viewing it optional. It was midterm, and they had enough on their plates. 

Offered as extra credit, I had students read about Well-Being Theory from Martin Seligman’s book, Flourish. When I read the student feedback on the assignment, I was floored. They had found something hopeful in this theory. 

It turns out that well-being is a construct, and it is composed of five measurable elements: positive emotions, engagement, positive relationships, meaning, and accomplishment/achievement. 

When we develop these elements in our lives, we experience higher levels of well-being. Most of all, we are in charge of how much well-being we experience because we can work to develop each of these elements on a daily basis. 

Richard Davidson has been doing cutting edge research on the brain and well-being, and when he says that well-being is a skill, he has actually measured the way the brain changes through meditation and other activities and recorded results that have been replicated by his peers in the field. 

The brain can change, and we can change it. Davidson says, “We can cultivate well-being in the same way that we engage in physical exercise. In the same way that we learn to play the violin. If we practice it, we get better.” 

I will be writing a lot more about well-being and how to increase it in future blogs. For now, click on the links I have provided to learn more. 

If you are interested, Dr. Davidson offers a free course on Well-Being on the Center for Healthy Minds site. It only takes an hour or two of your time, but it is packed with useful, life-changing, brain-changing information. 

 

Peace and Joy,

 

photo credit: Luiz Nicolak