Factors of Wellbeing

The state of the body and brain influences wellbeing. Poor physical health has a multitude of forms: illness, disease, disability, intentional or unintentional injury, and other physical ailments. The resultant decrease in wellbeing also manifests in a variety of ways: physical pain, poor bodily function, less attractive appearance, or early death. These consequences of poor physical health cause further harm by impeding other factors of happiness: good mental health, relationships and socialization, finances, engagement in hobbies, etc.

• Sanitation/Infection control
• Pollution
• Socialization – social isolation, even when isolated from other factors like depression, decreases life expectancy as much as obesity
• Healthy lifestyle eg. exercise and refraining from smoking
• Nutrition
• Access to health care and medication
• Violence including self-harm
• Unintentional injury such as vehicular or workplace accidents

• Regulation of pesticides to prevent poisoning.
• Cataract removal surgery to prevent or cure blindness.
• Bednet distribution to prevent malaria.

An adequate amount of positive interactions with others are a leading factor of personal happiness. Being treated well by others, having a connection with others, functional family relations, regular opportunities to socialize, and romance/companionship all directly affect wellbeing. People often understand the importance that these social factors have on their own happiness but fail to recognize that everyone else has these social needs as well.

• Opportunities to associate with others in a positive environment
• Friendships, with varying levels of closeness
• Friendliness of others and how much you like or feel a connection with them
• Social aptitude and skills (yours and others)
• Existence of romantic partner and quality of your relationship
• Good family relations
• Tolerance of society (ie. lack of prejudice)
• Interaction with animals such as pets or farm animals

• Create meetups or social clubs so people can make friends and romantic partners.
• Establish venues that facilitate socialization without alcohol, like cafes and public squares.
• Social learning programs.
• Anti-casteism action.

Studies reinforce the commonly held belief that money influences happiness, although perhaps not as much as you would think. More money generally increases happiness up to approximately $70,000 per year, above which point, there are sharply diminished returns. Higher income influences wellbeing in different ways. It is correlated with better health and social lives. It can also facilitate self-actualization by giving people the opportunity to pursue their particular interests. Most importantly, to meet a family’s material needs, at least one person in the household needs to be employed and receiving a decent wage.

• Pro-business government policies. Many governments stifle economic growth in their country with poor economic policy. Often, these policies are well-intentioned, but may cause more harm than benefit. For instance, trade tariffs that make it difficult for manufacturers to import required inputs for their products.
• Job security. The employed can have anxiety about unemployment if they are worried about being out of work in the future.
• Income and cost of living. A good income may mean little in a setting of high cost of living or high inflation. Adequate income applies not only to salaries workers, but also to farmers and freelancers.
• Personal finances. Many people with good incomes have stress and worry, or may not be supporting their family properly due to poor financial management or debt.
• Local economic equality. A wide range of income in a region can result in the low income people feeling worse than if they only saw others in their same economic situation. For example, in BRICS nations.

• Open a business that provides a net boost to the economy.
• Invest in business in impoverished regions.
• Educate a developing nation government on business-friendly policy.

How we spend our time affects our wellbeing. Engaging in work, studies, religious activity, or hobbies that bring us lasting fulfillment is important for wellbeing. Just as important is avoiding activities that make us unhappy or hold us back from achieving greater happiness over the long term.

Some activities bring us immediate happiness, but may be harmful over the long term. For instance, shopping can be fun, but paying for the gratuitous objects may negate the fun derived from excessive shopping. Other activities may be unenjoyable but increase our quality of life over the long term. Examples include exercising and studying.

Personal activities includes both obligatory and optional ones. Obligatory activities may be survival-oriented, economic, family, social, religious, or legal.

• Survival-oriented: must be performed to be safe and healthy. Eg. eating, sleeping, running from a predator, keeping your home warm in the winter.
• Economic: activity must be performed for financial or sustenance reasons, such as going to work, or harvesting a sustenance crop.
• Family: activity performed out of obligation to one’s family, such as cooking meals for one’s children.
• Social: activity performed due to the community’s expectation, to avoid social punishment, such as singing the national anthem.
• Religious: activity performed to abide by religious rules and expectations, particularly in regions where that religion is mandatory. Example: attending church for Christians.
• Legal: legally mandated activities. Example: performing a personal tax return.
• Optional activity types: same 5 categories as obligatory, plus hobbies, habits (good and bad, including addictions), and any other way you choose to spend your time.

There is no such thing as “doing nothing.” Whether people are watching TV, sitting and thinking, or even sleeping, they are performing an activity, or using their time in a certain way.

This factor of wellbeing is usually only thought about as only applying to oneself, however, it is possible to help others to use their time in such a way as to maximize their wellbeing. These include:

• Improving working conditions, especially where the conditions are very poor.
• Decrease school hours and course load in Asian countries with severe scholastic demands.
• Open a business or nonprofit that affordably offers recreation, such as a fitness center or community center.
• Start a business that provides more enjoyable jobs than currently available in the area.
• Ban gambling.

The value derived from performing activities is not limited to immediate wellbeing. It includes deep long-term happiness and self-actualization and the effect on character and personal qualities. Activities can affect wellbeing directly or indirectly. For instance, work may not bring direct happiness, but it creates an income which contributes to wellbeing. Activities also affect the wellbeing of others.

• Personal discipline
• Amount of spare time. Too much can also be bad.
• How much you enjoy your job
• Freedoms and rights. In some countries, certain demographics are very restricted in the activities they are allowed to engage in. For instance, girls are not allowed to show their hair or attend school in some Muslim jurisdictions.

The time we spend sleeping affects our wellbeing in a number of ways. A “good sleep” leaves one refreshed, in good spirits, and better prepared for the day. The quality and quantity of sleep affects our waking hours. Lying in bed waiting to fall asleep can be enjoyable or frustrating.

It is not known what people experience, if anything, during non-REM sleep. However, the dreams that come with REM sleep (and non-REM sleep, to a degree) are a form of experience, and therefore affect wellbeing. The pleasantness of dreams, particularly those that feel quite real, affects how pleasant we feel during the dream.

Vivid dreams are real experiences from the point of view of consciousness, no different from “real” experiences. It is possible that dreams are one of the largest sources of suffering and/or happiness that people have in their lives. Our wellbeing in the dream world is important whether or not we remember the dreams. Ensuring pleasant dreams is therefore, an extremely neglected but high potential form of altruism.

• Sleep quality and ability to fall asleep
• Length of time spent sleeping
• Dream content: how pleasant or miserable are the dreams?

• Mitigate factors that tend to increase the likelihood of unpleasant dreams, such as depression, trauma, PTSD, worrying, rumination/catastrophization
• Prevent long working or studying demands, so that they can have an adequate amount of sleep.
• Improving living conditions may improve sleep quality. Ie. decreased noise, less crowded residences.

Not every factor affecting wellbeing can be altered after birth. People are born with varying propensities for wellbeing. This includes to factors: genetics and development of the unborn child.

Development of the unborn child is affected by what the mother consumes. Good nutrition will give the child optimal development. Poor nutrition, use of alcohol, drugs, or certain medications can harm the child. Fetal alcohol syndrome is a serious health problem that affects someone throughout the lifespan.

Genetics is the second component of the innateness of wellness. For the most part, determining the genetics of others is out of our control. However, there are some choices that can affect the genetics of people in society. For instance, a person with a hereditary disease electing to not have kids.

• Educate pregnant women about the hazards of using drugs and alcohol.
• Micronutrient fortification in developing countries to decrease malnourishment of pregnant women.

Spirituality affects wellbeing on a deep level. Inner and outer spiritual practices can bring people closer to God to enrich life in the present and prepare a better afterlife for oneself. Inner spiritual practices include prayer and thinking of God. Outer practicing include attending church and participating in sacraments.

• Spiritual altruism is the primary function of the church. By supporting the church and missionary work, you can support people spiritually.

Physical surroundings and environmental conditions affect wellbeing in a number of ways:

• Physical comfort. Living in a dung hut with no windows or furniture would not be as comfortable as a well lit home with comfortable furniture. Being outside in the cold weather does not feel pleasant.
• Psychological wellbeing. Pleasant surroundings are conducive to a positive mental state. Poor physical comfort often causes people to experience mental stress.
• Physical health. Pollution and pests can cause illness. Unsafe living or working environments predispose people to injury.
• Personal activities. Our environment directly affects how we spend our time. If the closest water well is an hour’s walk away, people will have to haul water over long distances on a daily basis.

• Economic empowerment to allow the poor to renovate their homes. Buying a leak-proof roof to keep out the rain is often one of the first improvements a poor household will make following an increase in income.
• Mosquito-proofing the entire home is another high value home improvement that increases comfort by keeping out pests and prevents malaria.
• Make public toilets and garbage bins widely available in India, a country with a severe sanitation problem.

Well developed personal morals, or character, may or may not increase quality of life. Practicing morals, by definition, means to consider the wellbeing of others, so it may involve a sacrifice. It also may increase quality of life, such as when you practice honest business ethics, so that your business will gain a good reputation and thrive. Or when you treat others well and are rewarded with friends and people treating you well in return.

Good character, while possibly making your life more challenging, is crucial from the point of view of wellbeing in two more ways. Firstly, character is good for the soul. No one can be said to truly have wellbeing if there morals are low, for they are ignoring Christ’s teachings. Poor morals may result in not receiving God’s grace in this life and the afterlife. Secondly, good character is absolutely essential for society as a whole. If the overall level of morals in society are low, corruption will be rampant and economic and social progress will be stifled.

• Supporting church and missionary activities
• School-based social emotional learning programs
• Integrity education and integrity clubs to prevent corruption. (Note: in the anti-corruption context, “integrity” refers specifically to the ability to withstand corruption personally and oppose corruption in others.)