What Wellbeing Means & Why It Matters

A definition of wellbeing, and what wellbeing is not.

Wellbeing is not happiness, that elusive butterfly. Wellbeing goes deeper than that. Wellbeing is health at all levels. It’s trusting that your basic physical, mental and social needs are and will be met. More than this, it extends to feeling a sense of personal fulfilment and meaning. Meaning is key.

When psychologists discuss what wellbeing means in practice (and they discuss this a lot), they usually adopt one of two perspectives: hedonic wellbeing, which focuses on fleeting moments of pleasure-seeking happiness, and eudaimonic wellbeing, which entails fulfilment and self-realization.

These two views — hedonism and eudaimonia — go back to Ancient Greece and are founded on distinct views of human nature and what a ‘good’ society looks like. And let me just come out right now as being totally on Team Eudaimonia.

Hedonism: a brief history

Greek philosopher Aristippus taught that the goal of life is to experience max pleasure, and that happiness is the totality of one’s hedonic moments. Hobbes, de Sade, Bentham and a posse of others agreed.

Today, hedonic psychologists believe that wellbeing consists of subjective happiness: those moments of joy…