2023-10-01 00:30:15
Life is unpredictable, imprecise, complex and changing. There is a lot of information regarding how it should be, how we should live it, what we should think, how we should feel and what we need to achieve to be well. Cultural messages promote the continuous pursuit of happiness, an endless search for what is always to come.
Well-being is often translated and reduced into recipes that try to eliminate everything that makes us uncomfortable and accumulate everything that makes us feel good. But this is a trap because turning your back on pain, fear or discomfort increases suffering.
(Also read: Leading a healthy life, which includes sleeping 8 hours, prevents depression)
Pain is inevitable in life. Sooner or later something hurts, we fail at something, some bond is broken, we get sick. If we do not have the resources to enter into communion with this part of our humanity, we are condemned to amplify our suffering.
Encountering this chaos and including everything it means to be human in a flexible way is well-being. Therefore, the important thing is not to feel good all the time, but to be able to be good with the experience we have to go through. We must encourage ourselves to feel everything that this experience offers us in a flexible way. For this we need a change of perspective, a new way of relating to internal experience that implies greater possibility of maneuver and resources.
To develop well-being you need courage, which is key to relating to what arises in the moment without wanting to change it. Wisdom is also required to be able to respond assertively, taking into account our values and meaning in life without harming others. It involves letting go of control of the internal experience because we do not have control over what we feel or think, but we do have control over what we do with it.
The science of well-being says that we can train this ability to relate to experience to cope with what life throws at us. In fact, there are contributions from affective and contemplative neurosciences and psychotherapeutic models that generate evidence regarding some processes that are significant for having a healthier, fuller, meaningful life full of vitality.
(You may be interested in: Time to do gymnastics… for the neurons!)
Psychological well-being is a subjective state that emerges from the way in which we interpret and manage the internal world and the circumstances of the environment in line with the meaning of life. It is regarding the ability to live the experience with openness and curiosity, validating and adapting to it. We can choose, learn to take a “pause”, recognize what is happening, get rid of automatisms and with commitment, patience and a lot of self-compassion generate alternatives to cultivate our own well-being.
We live in a time marked by rapid change and unpredictability, which can create anxiety, but also provides opportunities for growth. To face these challenges, it is crucial to develop resilience, flexibility and foster collective collaboration. In addition to understanding our mind and promoting an integrated sense of self, thus including the well-being of others and the planet.
1. Change is possible
The brain is changing all the time in response to the experiences we have in life. It is a process called neuroplasticity, and although there are periods of development in which it is more powerful, it continues to occur throughout life regardless of whether we know it or not. So our nervous system is plastic and possible to be exercised, with intention and dedication.
2. Exercise attention
It consists of the practice of intentionally directing and regulating attention and being aware of how much our mind is distracted. The objective is to reorient it towards the initial object or task. Attention is the force that promotes change. Without it, there is no learning. Everything we pay attention to generates changes in the brain over time. With this sustained practice, our ability to stay focused on what really matters is strengthened.
3. Inhabit the present
The proposal is to spend more time in the ‘here and now’, inhabiting the body and the senses with all our attention (with which we see, smell, taste, listen, touch). This helps us silence the judgments and opinions that we often emit non-stop and leave us trapped in the world of thoughts, confusing what really happens with what we think is happening.
(Read also: Journaling: a therapeutic tool to clear the mind)
4. Be aware of thinking
The impact of thoughts is much greater than we imagine because they are constantly guiding our experience: they make sense, relate, categorize, compare and judge. But they are not reality, although paradoxically we believe everything they tell us, we take them as absolute truths and they affect our feelings and our way of acting. The interesting thing is that we have the ability to learn to be aware of the thinking process, to relate to thoughts without wanting to change them. As? Observing them and recognizing them as such: this will allow us to choose which ones we give strength to and which ones we don’t.
5. Generate committed actions
A meaningful life is created through actions that are guided or motivated by what is important to us. It is not regarding being perfect or fulfilling what is expected of us, but regarding moving, encouraging us to fail, to be disappointed, to disappoint others, to leave our comfort zones. It’s regarding cheering up, even though many times what we have to do can cause us pain. Sometimes, to win you have to lose.
6. Recognize interdependence
Wellbeing is interdependent. This is a concept that Martin Luther King Jr. had delved into: “We are all caught in an inescapable web of reciprocity, tied to a single garment of destiny. What affects one directly affects all indirectly. “We are made to live together, due to the interrelated structure of reality.”
Being aware of this interdependence, of this ‘we’ with others and with the planet, gives us a broader perspective of who we are and invites us to ask ourselves how we want to contribute to generating a more reliable, safe and sustainable world.
Train the mind
Just as we exercise our body or have the habit of brushing our teeth, including spaces dedicated to this internal review is a great investment for our well-being that is worth putting on the agenda. How to start training the mind? Like any habit, it requires time and regularity. Self-reflection and self-regulation are essential. It is crucial to develop resilience, flexibility and foster collective collaboration. In this way we can cultivate our own well-being and build a more sustainable future for all.
LORENA LLOBENES
La Nación (Argentina) – GDA
@LANACION
1696138025
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