Wellness as a Humanist concept

What is well-being and how can it help you to be more ethical and happy?

I come at this from a Humanist perspective (so not religious – but dedicated to thriving as a whole human).

For me –the act of making well-being, contentment or happiness a priority helps me to make decisions that are not only in my best interest, but in the best interest of others. In other words, wanting to be happy or well – helps me to make more ethical decisions and be more ethical as a person.

Which seems counter-intuitive, but it really does work.  I bring this back to Epicurus – pain is to be avoided. But a little bit of pain to get long term gain is good.  Short term gain for long term pain is bad.

By prioritizing well-being – I am better able to employ a decision making framework that helps me avoid those short term gain for long term pain situations – and so – I am able to not sabotage my happiness as a result.

What is Wisdom?

What is wisdom and why is attaining wisdom so important to personal well being?

It turns out that while everyone wishes they were wise, finding a good definition of what wisdom is, is rather difficult. It’s a state of knowledge that is practical. A wise person is someone who not only can tell what is true and what isn’t, but who is able to apply that knowledge to everyday life, so that they can live more successfully. A wise person is able to navigate their relationships better and basically, not suffer as much over every day hassles that plague the rest of us mere mortals.

It turns out though, that some psychiatrists decided to study what it means to be wise and came up with the following definition based on surveys of wisdom experts.  (see: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/188170.php)

Here’s how they define wisdom:
• It is uniquely human.
• It is a form of advanced cognitive and emotional development that is experience-driven.
• It is a personal quality, albeit rare.
• It can be learned, increases with age and can be measured.
• It is probably not enhanced by taking medication.

It’s the second bit that resonates the most with me. Wisdom is an advanced cognitive and emotional development that is experience driven. Immature thinkers are not wise. That’s good to know.

For me, part of the goal of practicing Humanist skills like Freethought and critical thinking and learning to harness my emotions rather than being ruled by them is because, like everyone, I recognize that being wise is a state I would like to attain.

Why? Because according to the Free Dictionary by Farlex – definition #4 of wisdom is “A wise outlook, plan or course of action.”  Having wisdom allows you to be wise and that allows you to choose effective courses of actions. The more effective and good your actions are, the better your life is, the more personal control you have in your life and that translates directly into an improved state of personal wellbeing.

I’m told I’m wise and that I have a lot of wisdom. That I exist in near constant state of stupid happy contented bliss despite the vicissitudes of life is probably an indication that these assessments of my knowledge as “wise” are well founded. How did I achieve this state of advanced cognitive and emotional development? Through practice.

Learn how to think better and practice being more compassionate and you will be wise too. After all, according to the psychiatrists – it’s something that can be learned. And yes, this is the same prescription for wisdom that Humanist and Humanistic thinkers have been preaching and teaching throughout the entire course of human history.  It’s amazing to me that people still look for shortcuts. There are not shortcuts. You don’t need any mystical wisdom or woo to become wise. You either learn how to think better or you don’t. You either practice being compassionate or you don’t. This is why I teach basic Humanist life skills. So others can learn the practical skills needed to become wise. If you want to learn more, get my books and check out my courses (https://humanistlearning.com)

Happiness Experts

I was contacted by Online College Courses who said they created an article on happiness experts because they like my blog so much.  Being a college related site, the lists consists of actual scientists who have done work in the field of happiness. (So no, I'm not on the list - not a scientist, just a practitioner).

(Note - Online College Courses asked me to remove the link as of June 1 2013 - so I can no longer share the link with you. which makes me unhappy because it was a cool article)

Regardless, the list had some great information about the science of how to be happy and that just goes to show, it's not just me spouting off motivational quotes. There is some real science behind it. Here are my favorites from the list:

1) Seligman - father of positive psychology - not only does his studies encourage us to focus on our joys, but apparently, what is more important than happiness is a personal belief that you are accomplishing something important. You need to have worthwhile goals to be happy.

3) Diener - he found that college students that are the most happy, have a strong support system of family and friends. So be sure to be good to the people who matter to you.

6) Csikszentmihalyi - A hungarian psychologist - apparently finding meaningful work that is challenging to you and working at it helps make you happy. You can't just think happy thoughts, you need to take constructive action to be happy.

7) Veenhoven - he's the guy who created the world database of happiness - check it out: http://www1.eur.nl/fsw/happiness/

So, to summarize, what we know from science is that to be happy, you need good strong positive relationships and you need to have meaningful work that you actually work at.

(Image from the Online College Course Blog)