Living the good life

Every person has a perception of the good life. For some it is service to others. For some it can be accumulating riches, or traveling the world, or drinking fine wines and dining well every night. It can also be working every day in a job you love, or loving the one who loves you. The list of things that can make a good life is endless.



But actually achieving a good life is very difficult, if not impossible, without a solid foundation of well-being. Developing well-being means living in such a way that your actions promote your own welfare and your own good health, and as a consequence of that, promote the welfare and good health of those you love and the community of which you are a part. The actions that promote well-being are various and numerous, but there seems to be a fundamental minimum that most of us agree are necessary. Important benefits follow, such as weight loss for the overweight, better conditions as measured by muscle to fat ratio, which will help you break up negative behavior patterns that often stress marriages and friendships.



• Well-being is impossible without wholesome food for yourself and your loved ones, always in moderate quantity. Good nutrition means avoiding unwholesome foods-and we all know what that means.



• Exercise is also recognized as a universal requirement for well-being. Workouts promote health, keeps the body resilient and strong, and engenders a positive and happy outlook, which encourages development of an optimistic world view, and promotes a positive and energetic sex life.



• Resting the body is equally important, for rest is the foundation for the body's rejuvenation and in parallel to that, the mind's growth-because rest provides the peaceful environment in which reflection and learning take place.



• Many believe it is impossible to develop a robust condition of well-being without continuously developing mental and intellectual capabilities. This can only take place through the exercise of self discipline in encouraging ones own curiosity about the world and through continuous learning.



• Giving of oneself is still another essential activity in the development of well-being. Humans are social creatures, and socialization requires the ability to mentally live inside the skin of others, and this is impossible without the ability to give generously and receive graciously.



• Giving love and receiving love is probably the single most important action for promoting well-being, for it is the engine of trust, and trust is the essential ingredient in human relationships.



• A discussion of the activities necessary for the promotion of well-being should be about positive actions, but it is also well to name at least one negative action. Avoid self-destructive behavior. This broad injunction encompasses a plethora of negative actions that destroy trust, damage health, and isolate one in such a way that well-being becomes impossible.



Upon reading the foregoing discussion you may say, "But this is incorrect-what about-?" And you would be correct-the foregoing is not an exhaustive list. However, I do argue that it represents a fundamental minimum of necessary actions for developing true well-being.