What well-being is (and isn't), according to neuroscience
Presenter:
Mary Helen Immordino-Yang
Time:
2:43
Summary
Traditional definitions of wellbeing focus on the absence of mental illness or disease. But true wellbeing goes beyond that, says this neuroscientist.
Transcript
Often we think about well-being as the absence of disease, the absence of mental illness, the absence of strife. But neuroscience and developmental social science help us understand that the origins of well-being are really about balance. It's about an ability and a flexibility to manage oneself. Well-being is both a capacity and a state.
The brain data really help us understand the contributions to that capacity and state. A concept like well-being is not applied to a person; it's conjured within the person by their own actions and dispositions of mind. This shifts the way in which we support a person in developing well-being and becoming well.