The word ‘wellbeing’ gets thrown around a lot these days. In fact, from Buddha to the explosion of the self-help movement, history is paved with hundreds of suggestions on how to create and cling to this concept. But just what is wellbeing and why might it matter to you, your team and your workplace?

In its simplest form, wellbeing is your ability to feel good and function effectively. It gives you the resources to navigate the highs and lows we all experience in our work and our lives, while enabling you to intellectually, emotionally, socially and physically ‘flourish.’ As a result, studies are finding that people who have higher levels of wellbeing reap all sorts
of benefits. Research highlighted by the Thewellbeinglab found that when people are thriving at work, on average, they are:

• ~6x more likely to be engaged
• 29% more likely to be more productive
• 45% more likely to be satisfied with their jobs
• 46% less likely to experience unhealthy days
• 125% less likely to burn out
• 32% less likely to quit

It turns out that wellbeing is what makes it possible for you to ‘be well and do well.’ Of course, it sounds simple enough. Yet the reality is that perhaps like most of us, you’ve discovered that maintaining your wellbeing is a lot harder than it looks. In fact, a recent study shows that when it comes to our wellbeing, 70 percent of us report that we actually spend
most of our time somewhere between ‘functioning’ and ‘flailing.’ In other words, instead of flourishing, most of us are just getting by.

wellbeing is your ability to feel happier within yourself and function effectively. Improved well-being creates a virtuous cycle which gives you the resources to manage life’s highs and lows we experience in daily lives at work or at home, while enabling you to intellectually, emotionally, socially and physically ‘flourish.’

In 1998, Professor Martin Seligman, then president of the American Psychology Association, urged his colleagues to expand their focus beyond merely fixing mental illness and start researching ways to build sustainable wellbeing. The result has been an explosion in our understanding of how people can create and maintain their wellbeing, with more than 18,000 peer-reviewed research articles published to date. Researchers have proposed numerous theories of wellbeing. A popular recent model was put forth by Dr. Seligman himself and suggests that wellbeing is cultivated by the presence in our lives of:

Seligman developed five building blocks toward well-being called “PERMA.” Each of them stand independently of the others, and should be pursued for “its own sake, not as a means to an end.”

“P” stands for positive emotion, which you can cultivate in hope for the future and an appreciation for the past. By practicing gratitude for what you’ve been given and forgiveness for what you were not, Seligman feels you can create positive emotion about your past. Build hope and optimism, he says, and you build positive emotions about your future.

“E” is for engagement, which he defines as fully using all your skills, strengths and attention on a challenging task. Doing this, he says, will put you in the “flow,” sort of a mental version of the athlete’s “zone.”

“R” is for relationships and the critical importance they have in our lives in amplifying both our positive and negative feelings.

“M” is for meaning, a sense of purpose from being part of something bigger than ourselves. He points to religion, family and social causes such as working for a better environment as ways to increase meaning in our lives. Research shows doing acts of kindness for others can also increase our well-being.

And finally, “A” is for accomplishment. This is not necessarily financial success, but success and mastery of a skill or activity for its own sake. Other researchers also believe that the cultivation of your “Health” by eating well, moving regularly, and sleeping deeply is one of the hygiene factors of wellbeing.

Everything just gets easier when this is present. So this framework is also sometimes referred to as ‘PERMAH.’

Dr. Seligman believes that no single element defines wellbeing, but each contributes to it. In order to flourish, you need to be cultivating each of the PERMAH elements. How much you need of each element, he suggests, will vary depending on the type of person you are, the situations you’re in, and the outcomes you want to achieve. The bad news is that this means there is no single recipe for wellbeing; it looks different for each of us. But the good news is that researchers have found it is possible to improve your experiences in any of the PERMAH elements, it just takes some informed practice to figure out what works best for you.

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