What is well-being?

The word itself contains a possible answer: being well, feeling good. 

When we think about well-being we associate it mainly with psychophysical, economic, and the material aspects of it. According to the Longman Online Dictionary, well-being is “a feeling of being comfortable, healthy, and  happy“. Basically, it’s a condition of being. In my opinion, we don’t have to just be happy in order to feel good. For me, being aware of knowing where I am emotionally, psychologically and physically is already a state of well-being regardless of whether or not I’m feeling “positive” or “negative”. 

Striving to develop the ability to welcome life in all of its nuances is empowering, and generates a state of well-being and connection with life itself regardless of the situation at hand.

However, this hasn’t always been the case for me. For many years, I resisted any kind of pain and took refuge in silence, physically isolating myself and mentally rejecting those uninvited “guests” who knocked on the door: anxiety, sadness, a general sense of insecurity, melancholy and so on. During that time well-being meant having a cloudless day.

In my first years of practicing yoga I found a sense of fullness and security.I felt that I had found happiness in response to my inner turbulences but that wasn’t necessary the case.I thought that practicing yoga would provide answers to all my questions, but instead it led to more questions. It has made me question every corner of my body and mind, and this has not always been pleasant. This kind of awareness, had me reconsidering my concept of well-being. How I feel best now, is when I feel in harmony with everything that happens. I’m able to walk down the path life has given me thanks to yoga and meditation.

I believe well-being is an act of self love.

It exists above any polarities, beyond the ideas of positive or negative, right or wrong, pleasant or unpleasant. Life is all of these things. It includes cheerful and painful moments and invites us to welcome it every moment. When we reject these moments, we are perpetuating a state of pain, while accepting is an act of faith. This what well-being is, it is to allow oneself to celebrate life and all of its essence.