Happiness isn’t something that happens to us - it’s something we build through intentional choices every day. It’s not quick or easy; it takes time and effort. We don’t always control our happiness, as life’s challenges get in the way. And happiness isn’t just a feeling - it’s a full spectrum of emotions.
Happiness can be fleeting, but fulfillment and flourishing can last a lifetime. Even then, fulfillment can be fragile, sometimes collapsing around us in an instant. Money can actually buy happiness - but only if we spend it purposefully. And free time is wasted unless we use it to create peace, joy, and meaning for ourselves and others.
I’m Troy Norris, founder of WellBalance, a mission-driven organization dedicated to bringing the latest science of positive psychology into people’s lives, relationships and workplaces. During a period of deep despair, I created a model of resilient wellbeing that transformed my life.
The WellBalance Model has now been scientifically validated in a top peer-reviewed journal, and I’ve been invited to share it at leading psychology conferences. But I’m not a psychologist - I’m a scientist and a student, dedicated to advancing the field of positive psychology and sharing what I’ve learned with you.
The WellBalance Model
Decades of research have taught us that the way to wellbeing is to care for our minds and bodies, connect and contribute to others, balance active engagement with rest and relaxation, and create, savor and appreciate life’s special moments. These are the three dimensions of the WellBalance Model of positive experiences that contribute to positive feelings of wellbeing, as represented by the WellBalance Lotus:
Balance self and others (x-axis)
Balance mental/relational and physical/tangible (y-axis)
Balance active, mindful and calm activities and feelings (z-axis, from the outer to inner circles of the lotus)
Together, these dimensions create twelve wellsprings of wellbeing, the categories of positive experiences that have been demonstrated to improve subjective feelings of wellbeing, in turn represented by twelve blossoms of flourishing, the categories of positive feelings that collectively represent the many facets of human flourishing and overall wellbeing.
Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1396543/full
The WellBalance Method to Create Resilient Wellbeing
Three core principles underpin the WellBalance Method:
Positive experiences create positive feelings: The way we feel arises from what we experience. By intentionally pursuing positive experiences, we can create positive feelings of wellbeing. This doesn’t require a major life overhaul – over time, small, purposeful choices to create a balance of positive experiences can catalyze positivity throughout our lives.
Positive experiences involve caring for ourselves and others: Sustainable wellbeing requires that we care for both our minds and bodies while building deep, meaningful relationships. Contributing to others’ lives and feeling a sense of significance and connection are the foundation of our wellbeing. We need to feel that our lives have meaning and matter.
Balance and breadth sustain wellbeing: Sustainable wellbeing requires balance, and balance creates resilience. We need a healthy mix of active engagement and rest, excitement and contentment. We need to care for ourselves mentally and physically and for others emotionally and tangibly.
But there are only so many hours in a day, and this is a lot to fit into our already hectic lives! While we’re focusing on one thing, we aren’t focusing on another. Our lives are constantly being pulled out of balance, by external forces and our desire to repeat familiar experiences that have made us happy in the past. So how can we create resilient wellbeing as we go about our busy lives? We face an endless stream of advice and admonishments. We know what we're supposed to be doing to be healthy and happy. But where do we start?
The first step is to improve our wellbeing productivity – the amount of positive feelings of wellbeing we can create in our limited discretionary time. For example, we can multiply the positivity in our lives by adding wellbeing “boosters” to activities we’re already doing. Rather than spend an hour on a treadmill at the gym, exercise outside, in nature, with a friend, and help that friend with a challenge they are facing. In this same hour, you will gain more positive experiences and feelings. And practicing positive experiences in one area of our life adds wellbeing in other areas of our lives too.
The next step is to enhance our wellbeing resilience – our ability to maintain our wellbeing in the face of life’s inevitable challenges, setbacks and losses. By broadening our sources of wellbeing - our relationships, our health, our contributions to others, we create a more resilient life. If one area of our life suffers, we have others to sustain us. And variety ensures we keep feeling great about the activities and people we enjoy.
Lastly, we need to nurture our mindset positivity – gaining more positive feelings from our positive experiences, mainly by paying attention to and being grateful for the good in our lives. We need to savor special moments we create, be grateful for what we have, and let ourselves anticipate, fully experience and remember our positive experiences.
Achieving Balance while Aligning our Lives with Our Growing Selves
Whomever we are today, we’ve never been this person before. And the life we’re living today was created by past versions of ourselves guessing at what might make us happy in the future. So where and how do we begin to align our lives to who we’ve now become, right here, right now?
Your WellBalance Profile and Personalized Positivity Plan are designed to answer this question while enabling you to mark progress along your personal growth journey. If you're in a period of active growth and change, take your assessment quarterly to create a new plan and pursue this for the 12 weeks needed to create lasting habit change, then reassess and define your growth path for the next 12 weeks. If you are anticipating a major life change - a new child, a new job, marriage, or relationship difficulties, job loss or loss of a loved one - assessing your WellBalance Profile before and after the transition can help you see positive change and identify ways to maintain or restore balance following the transition, then set a path for future growth for your new life and your new you. And if your life is already full and flourishing, an annual "tune-up" assessment can help you make small changes to adjust your life to remain authentically aligned with the person you are becoming.
WellBalance will enable you to chart your unique path to happiness at each stage of your life and teach you how to magnify and multiply your wellbeing, while building resilience to sustain wellbeing through life’s challenges. The content you will find here is not only designed to capture your attention, but to inspire your heart and inform your mind. Our goal isn’t to distract you from life, but to motivate you to go out into the world and create the full life you desire and deserve, based on scientifically proven methods.
If you share our passion for radiating wellbeing into the world, join our movement, sign up for our weekly newsletter and follow us on Instagram, Facebook and other social media @WellBalanceLotus!
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