Feedback from our Evergreen Life community shows that wellbeing is almost as important to people as their overall health.
What do we mean by wellbeing?
Wellbeing is not clearly defined and means different things to different people. In our Evergreen Life community survey, people told us the most important elements of wellbeing were “feeling healthy” (88%), “feeling happy” (76%) and “feeling fit” (60%).
Wellbeing can be described as judging life positively and feeling good. Wellbeing focuses on strengths: positive emotions, resilience, mastery and autonomy. It’s usually measured with questionnaires and often looks at these 3 key features;
- Frequent pleasurable feelings
- Infrequent painful feelings
- A sense that life is good
The first steps to a better sense of wellbeing can begin with something as simple as actually noticing the connection between what you’re doing or thinking and how it makes you feel. You may get a sense of contentment when you see a bird in your garden. Or your anxiety may increase when you speak to a certain person. Noticing these connections is a great place to start your wellbeing journey.
Why is wellbeing important?
There is a lot of overlap between wellbeing and health.
Good wellbeing can predict good health and a longer life. It’s linked with improved pain tolerance, cardiovascular health, slower disease progression and better reproductive health. It might even be good for the immune system.
Importantly, research suggests that wellbeing may be changed or modified by our own intentional activities.
Why bother to measure wellbeing?
Look at it this way: when you start a new diet, it can be helpful to first check in on your body fat or waist measurement, to see how things change when you make adjustments to what you eat. It’s the same for wellbeing. If you want to try to improve your wellbeing, it’s a good idea to measure it first so you can see what effect any steps you take have on how you feel.
When you download the Evergreen Life app, you’ll see the Sense of Wellbeing Check in the Happiness section and the Health Indicators Check in your Records. You’ll also receive the Subjective Happiness Check as you progress through your wellness journey within the app.
Let’s explore what these 3 questionnaires are about…
Not got the app yet? With Evergreen Life, you can measure and track your wellbeing, happiness and other areas like sleep and fitness. Download the app here and take your available questionnaires to start your wellness journey.
Health Indicators Check
The Health Indicators Check is like our baseline questionnaire. It asks about some key ‘health indicators’ that our users have told us are important measures of their overall health. Noticing these can help you take control of other areas of your health and wellbeing – where you might want to focus on making positive lifestyle changes. And it’s these changes that can have a ripple effect – for example a change to your nutrition may have an impact on your happiness levels.
Sense of Wellbeing Check
This measures personal – subjective wellbeing and includes 4 questions that are used in national surveys. Each question covers 4 key areas of your wellbeing – 3 positives: happiness, life satisfaction, the sense that the things you do in life are worthwhile, and one negative aspect: anxiety. It’s a very well known and used questionnaire, so it’s a good way of comparing and sharing our community findings.
Subjective Happiness Check
The Subjective Happiness Check is a way to understand more about your happiness. It’s based on the Subjective Happiness Scale developed by Prof. Lyubomirsky and measures whether you see yourself as a happy or a sad person.
According to Prof. Lyubomirsky, happiness can be changed and it is possible to become happier by changing the things we do. After you’ve taken this check we introduce some tips to try.
Next steps
Upon downloading the Evergreen Life app, we suggest you first take the Health Indicators Check. It’s found in the Records section of your app. You’ll be sent more questionnaires to your Evergreen Life app based on the answers you provide that can help you optimise different wellbeing areas – from sleep, to gut microbiome, to movement.
You might also want to take the Sense of Wellbeing Check to better understand how you’re currently feeling – your own personal barometer. Then, you can take the other questionnaires as they become available in your app.
Repeat and feedback
Repeat your checks at intervals that make sense to you to recalculate your overall Wellness Score. We’ll send you handy reminders to complete them if you have notifications enabled.
Did your score improve or did you feel any differently? Repeating the checks also helps you feed back. The Evergreen Life community is made up of similarly focused people, so feeding back helps yourself and others learn what works well, in this case to improve wellbeing. After pooling our information, we’ll report back our findings.
The take-away
It is possible to successfully change our sense of wellbeing and happiness, but it can sometimes feel hard and like any new pursuit, takes some practice.
Of course, there are medical, physical, and spiritual reasons why we might have a lower sense of wellbeing and those things are very important. For example, mental health conditions, poor diet, toxins, pathogens, physical and psychological trauma, and social isolation. Without addressing these things your ability to feel better will be limited.
It’s important to point out that this article is not about mental health, nor is it a substitute for professional care and support for people dealing with a mental health condition. If you have any concerns about your mental health you should make an appointment to discuss these concerns with your GP.
Reviewed by:
Anna Keeble MA BA Head of Content and Wellbeing Expert
What is wellbeing?
Wellbeing in the UK: April 2018 to March 2019
Wellbeing and health
Happy People Live Longer: Subjective Well-Being Contributes to Health and Longevity
Why personal wellbeing is good for the nation’s health
Health benefits: Meta-analytically determining the impact of well-being on objective health outcomes
Positive affect uniquely predicts lower risk of mortality in people with diabetes
The relationship between wellbeing and health
Wellbeing evidence for policy: A review
Measuring wellbeing
Subjective Happiness Scale + Can Happiness Be Successfully Pursued?
