Not saying anything new really, but have you noticed how the wellbeing trend is undergoing a very interesting shift/evolution, which can be looked at as “from wellbeing to welldoing” or “wellbeing through welldoing“.
The wellbeing trend originally evolved as a new kind of culture that has resulted from a growing number of people who realized how seriously modern society has become contaminated, and embarked on a better lifestyle that blends physical health with mental health and stands for enjoying life.
Wellbeing is not only about 5-a-day, achieving physical health and disease-free life, but it’s also about striving to feel the sense of accomplishment and wholeness; to balance work, leisure and family life, and to find mental stability.
Striking a balance between the body and soul, work and leisure, family and society - that’s what wellbeing used to be about.
And then recently another hugely important notion slowly diffused into the wellbeing culture, and is making it’s way into the heart of mainstream. Due, mostly to the growing awareness and concern to the environment as key triggers, wellbeing is not just about me and healthy-eating/living and yoga/vipasana or work-life balance.
Increasingly wellbeing is about the balance and relationship between your own self and your community, you and the environment, and this can be achieved through behavioural change, through our everyday actions that affect not only ourselves but others around us.
It is an intriguing shift of focus from the inward looking, somewhat egoistic nature of wellbeing to a situation whereby people ‘expand the balance’ and finding that the path for wellbeing is also through their everyday actions in relation to their external world/environment, both the social and the natural in a we are what we do kind of ethos.
From a brand/corporate perspective we can clearly see a shift from the internal focus on wellbeing of employees (flexible hours, pilates in the workplace etc.) to an increasing outward looking whereby brands are trying to make meaningful changes that benefit their consumers, society at large and the environment - thats what successful companies are all about these days and certainly in the future.
Good times ahead.
Comments 1
Nicely captured Asi. I overheard on the BBC I think that happiness levels in Nigeria are higher than the average person from the U.S.
Of course its deeper than that because daily expectations are different in Lagos than say LA but in principle I think obesity, a propensity for therapy and general unhappiness are the hall marks that characterize the excesses of what is accurately but pejoratively called ‘consumer culture’.
Anyway. Wellbeing to welldoing. I like.
Posted 25 Jul 2007 at 4:10 pm ¶Trackbacks & Pingbacks 1
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