There is no off-the-shelf, vacuum-sealed definition of the newly emerging study of well-being. But here's one route to explaining it:

The Study of Well-being is a newly emerging field that looks at our Relationship with Life, and wonders how we might improve this by studying lives that go particularly well - by which I mean profoundly rewarding lives that are healthy, helpful and good-hearted.

The underpinning question is "How can we lead our life… our psychological, physical and social life… in a way that is not only good for you and me as individuals, but also good for the people for whom we care, among whom we live and work, and for the natural world around us. In short, how can we be the sort of person who makes a really positive difference to whatever we're a part of?"

The meaning of the term 'well-being'
In 1948, the founders of the World Health Organisation defined health as "physical, mental and social well-being, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity."

By doing so, they made two clear statements:

• health isn't only a physical characteristic, it is also psychological and social. And today, the science of well-being is equally holistic.
• Well-being means 'good-health', not simply an absence of ill- health. i.e. well-being isn't a 'neutral' state of health, it is a clearly positive one. In fact 'beautiful health' better captures what the science of well-being aspires to understand. How do lives flourish and prosper? And how can we foster more of this?

The meaning of the term 'The Study of...'
I think the Study of Well-being requires a healthy partnership between at least four dimensions of human exploration:

the Science of Well-being : to develop a far better understanding of how lives work well

the Art of Well-being : for the inspirational communication of helpful insights

the Craft of Well-being : what precisely needs to be done to profoundly improve how we live our lives in harmony with our mind and body and the world around us.

There is, too, the Technology of Well-being : using technology to help our Science, Art and Craft to be far more effective. Perhaps this is through the inspired use of media and educational technologies… or the design of people-friendly technological products and services…or some planet-healing inventions. There's little doubt that our wise use of technology will make all the difference to whether we make it through to 2050.

What does this new field include under its umbrella ?
This new field includes such subjects as psychological, social, and physical good-health, as well as understanding how we can better achieve expertise and high-performance, beauty in all its forms, thriving in the face of adversity, and living in harmony with the natural environment. This emerging field launched itself with a three-day conference hosted by the Royal Society of London in 2003, and is now represented in the UK by the newly formed Well-being Institute at the University of Cambridge. (www.CambridgeWellbeing.org)

The study aspires to incorporate beneath its flag all and any disciplines which can shed sunlight on how we can help life to thrive and flourish for individuals and families, communities and nations. Hence, there is a role for the likes of:

• Technology
• The Arts and Humanities
• Environmental Science
• Medicine
• Architecture
• Sociology
• Economics
• Positive Psychology

Because it's not only a scientific approach we need for the study of well-being. The surveys and experiments aren't enough. We also need the know-how and insights from the creative arts and humanities and every discipline that can explore and portray how positively human life can be led…because living life is an infinitely interwoven process.

In respect of which, our approach needs to be profoundly integrated and holistic if we're to see the bigger picture of how a life works well, because it's for good reason that the word 'health' comes from the old English meaning 'wholeness', and the verb 'to heal' means 'to make whole'. Thinking and behaving holistically like this brings great benefits. It's the very same principle that allows the effects of one vitamin to be enhanced if it can work in synergy with all the other vitamins.

The study of well-being does not ignore ill-health
As part and parcel of the investigation of vigorously good health, we need to compare and contrast the 'poor health' examples with the 'excellent health' examples, so that we can more readily see, brightly and clearly, the defining characteristics of exceptionally good health.

In other words, we need to bring together our understanding of the 'troubles' with an understanding of the 'triumphs.'

And it's not just for the purpose of making comparisons, that we need to keep 'poor health' in our sights. Sometimes, to make progress to a higher level of 'good health', we will need to free ourselves from some inhibiting problem, and this will require the awareness and know-how to deal with such problems. For example, to go from 'average health' in my approach to personal relationships, to 'well-above average', I might need to unshackle my mind and body from a long-ago emotional trauma that inhibits my friendliness and ability to trust. In this case, to make progress I'll need not only to understand trauma but also know something of how it can be resolved.
In short, an appreciation of ill-health can complement our understanding of excellent health, and vice-versa.

How is this study of well-being different from what's gone before?
At present, and for very many years, the vast majority of work in the fields of psychology and medicine are trying to help people back from 'poor health' to 'average health'. By contrast, someone doing well-being science is trying to help people progress from 'average health' to 'well above average health', and any gain in our understanding of how to improve cases of ill-health, is an intentional and welcome byproduct of this investigation, rather than its primary goal. Understanding 'beautiful health' is the primary goal of well-being science.

Here's a quote from Professor Martin Seligman of the University of Pennsylvania, 1998 President of the American Psychological Association, and co-founder of Positive Psychology.*

"Good science is, by and large, courageous science. It is unpopular science. It is science that no one did before and thought should not be done."

* Quoted in 'Lessons Learned from a Life in Psychological Science' (Morgeson, Seligman, Sternberg, Taylor, & Manning, 1999)