Wellbeing - What is it to you?

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Wellbeing – What is it for you? 

Wellbeing is gradually taking its rightful place as a priority in our lives. For me, this means looking at ourselves in the round; whole people living whole lives.

The old way of compartmentalising, living in the silos of compartments within our lives, isn’t working. However, we and our organisations are often still trying to operate in silos. The way we live is so different compared to when I was a child or even when my children were born 31 and 27 years ago.

  • New connectivity

  • New fields of endeavour and businesses

  • Faster paced lives 


There is continuous change, new ways of working with more of us having portfolios of work, being self-employed and working in small, niche organisations and businesses. This calls for looking at our development needs and growth in a more holistic way. The capabilities we develop need serve us well in all areas of life. 


For me, there are five key areas of wellbeing, all interlinked and all serving us across all areas of life:

Personal 

Social 

Educational

Health 

Economic 

If we develop ourselves, we can maintain our wellbeing across all these areas of our lives. 

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For example, it’s all too easy to think of managing stress in a work context and limit our attempts to address it in that context. However, our unhealthy stress levels can manifest themselves in all areas of wellbeing; at home, in relationships, in education, in financial pressure, in social situations and in leisure or sports. In all areas, it’s all too easy to blame others or say, ‘it’s just the way I am,’ and it’s probably much easier to abdicate responsibility for our prickly behaviours when we are stressed out of work. People treading on eggshells around us is often much easier to get away with at home. Not managing my stress levels effectively in the early part of my career, especially when I was also a mum with young children, had a negative impact on many important work and personal relationships. 

We can reflect on, and learn to avoid the debilitating, mind fogging, productively sapping, relationship straining effect of too much stress in all areas of life and in whatever way it’s caused. Doesn’t it make more sense to look at causes, affects and tools to effectively lower and manage our stress levels from the perspective of all aspects of wellbeing? 

So how is your wellbeing? 

How would you rate your wellbeing in all areas above?

Is there a common thread of where you may be able to improve your wellbeing?

Beverley Burton

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