Well-being is the physical, mental and spiritual health of an individual. These three aspects combine to make up life as we know it.
We typically consider well-being to be a harmonic balance between the physical health and strength of our bodies, coupled with the mental nature of our character and ego and the spiritual essence of our nature. It is true that all of these things in harmony create a certain kind of life, but it does not address those with physical disabilities, unsound minds and poor mental health, or the spiritually bereft. Yet all of these aspects of the human condition exist on a wide scale in every civilization.
What then is well-being to the physically handicapped, the mentally ill or the spiritually bereft?
It is easy to speak of for those who do not have diminished capacity in any of the areas mentioned above but for them, they are not likely to have a theory or concept of well-being and certainly not in the area of their own diminished capacity. Perhaps one of the greatest mysteries of our existence is that a so-called benevolent God allows such conditions to exist in the world.
What is the value to humankind that people suffer in such ways? To quote from the book of “On Being God – Beyond Your Life’s Purpose,” we are told, “We are the good that we love, the evil we hate, the darkness we fear, the light that gives hope. We are all things, people, places we imagine or cannot imagine. We are all thoughts and forms and are endowed with power to create the good we cherish or the evil we despise in this existence. We are the beauty that loves and the ugliness that hates. We are the then, the now, and the yet to be simultaneously in a never-ending, timeless sea of infinite life.”
What this means is that our very existence, regardless of our condition – be it physical, mental or spiritual, is well being. We are not shaped by definition. How can we be? Those who are incapable of creating a definition of their place in life are equally apart of life!
We, who are supposedly “well”, are not better than those who are not. It is our insatiable need to define states (mental activity) that create the division between those we say “have” and those we say “have not”!
To quote again from “On Being God – Beyond Your Life’s Purpose,” “Everything in existence is equal.” There is no difference between any human and the soil they stand on, the objects they observe or the things they believe.
Life is Well-Being! Whatever your state or capacity, do not be a judge of life, simply, Be Life!