Sites and Synergy of Well-Being

There are four primary sites of well-being: individual persons, relationships, organizations, and communities. While we can distinguish among the well-being of a person, a relationship, an organization, or a community, they are highly interdependent. Each one of these entities is unique and dependent on the others at the same time. None can be subsumed under the others, nor can they exist in isolation. They are distinguishable sites, but inseparable entities all the same. They exist in synergy.

            Communities as sites of well-being embody characteristics such as affordable housing, clean air, accessible transportation, and high quality health care and education. All these factors take place in the physical space of communities. Organizations, in turn, are sites where exchanges of material (money, physical help) and psychological (affection, caring, nurturance) resources and goods occur. People work for money, but not only for money. Exchanges of affirmation and appreciation, in both informal and formal organizations, are a vital part of participation in organizations. Relationships are sites of affirmation, giving, and reciprocity. They are rich sites of mattering. Persons are sites where feelings, cognitions, and phenomenological experiences of well-being reside.

            We have to be able to honor the uniqueness of the four sites of well-being and their interdependence at the same time. We can have a community endowed with excellent jobs, schools, parks, and hospitals where many people feel miserable because relationships in the community are acrimonious or alienating. If we only thought of well-being in terms of community, we would miss the experiential component of personal well-being and the influential role of organizations and relationships in advancing personal satisfaction. Conversely, we can have a select group of people who, despite poor community conditions, experience high levels of well-being because of privilege. In this case, exclusive focus on the well-being of these people might miss the need to heal, repair, and transform community conditions (poverty, discrimination, epidemics) that are diminishing the well-being of those who cannot protect themselves. To promote the wellness of one we must foster wellness for many. We must respect the synergy of all sites of wellness.

 Dr. Isaac Prilleltensky is an award-winning academic and author. He is also a coach, consultant and a researcher. His latest book, co-authored with his wife, Dr. Ora Prilleltensky, is How People Matter: Why it Affects Health, Happiness, Love, Work, and Society (Cambridge University Press, 2021). Press here to pre-order.