Sitting that day in our psychology class, I remember being completely captivated and thinking to myself that THIS should be taught to everyone already at school. We were having a lecture on long-term wellbeing and life happiness. The lecturer, who was coincidentally also one of the research authors, was discussing the key take-aways from a large study. Meanwhile I played in my hands with five colourful cards. The text on them read ‘Give’, ‘Connect’, ‘Keep Learning’, ‘Notice’ and ‘Be Active’.
“Happiness is not just the absence of feeling unwell”, the lecturer went on to explain the need for positive psychology. Most of the medicine today focuses on treating deficiencies. Of course, it’s important to help people who suffer, but we can do better than that. Merely ensuring that people are not sick is not enough, we should be helping them to thrive in life.
The ‘Five ways to wellbeing’ research aims to do just that. It asks the following question: why do some people feel happier and flourish more than others, even though the external conditions of their lives seem comparable? The idea of the study was to focus on the prospering people and figure out what habits and behaviours these happy people have that the rest of population can learn from.
The ‘Five ways to wellbeing’ commenced as a large meta-study that surveyed over 400 scientific papers on psychological wellbeing. The study was conducted by the New Economics Foundation (NEF), a UK government body, and the goal was not only to gather solid academic evidence on factors that are associated with outstanding wellbeing, but equally importantly, to draw concrete practical advice that anyone in the general public can use to improve their own wellbeing.
The five action cards
The researchers eventually classified the underlying factors leading to wellbeing into five main areas and published a concrete call to action: a series of five evidence-based messages to remind ourselves to do regularly: ‘Give’, ‘Connect’, ‘Keep Learning’, ‘Notice’ and ‘Be Active’.
These were the colourful cards I was holding in my hands in that psychology class. Each card gives practical tips on what concrete event or action one can undertake within each category. For example, how often in the past week have you helped a friend, or smiled at a stranger? Did you learn any new skill? Did you have time to pause and hear the birds singing in the morning? Did you do some physical exercise? There is scientific evidence that actions like these can help to improve one’s wellbeing. Why wouldn’t we do more of them?
You can read through the suggestions on each of the five cards and reflect on what activities you find particularly worthwhile within each category. Of course, not everyone will enjoy learning, for example, a foreign language; instead you may learn a new recipe or a new motor skill. Find what excites you. The recommendation is just that you try incorporating some activity from each category.
Our wellbeing is in our own hands
The idea behind the Five Ways to Wellbeing is that you can actively improve your wellbeing by the actions you take. Our wellbeing is, to a large extent, in our own hands.
That psychology lecture resonates with me until this day even though many years have passed since then. I have to confess that this is because basically every time I have since then been distressed or somehow restless in a bad mood, I realized I could easily name one or more of the five categories that I had been recently neglecting. This prompted me to catch up in that field. The Five ways to wellbeing have definitely worked for me.
One other thing the Five ways have taught me is to take some of my needs seriously. It’s easy to perceive, for example, taking a dance class or playing board games with friends as a time off, and even feel guilty if you take time off to do these activities instead of studying or working. But understanding that such an activity represents one of the pillars needed for wellbeing can help us shift our perception on it. Become aware which of the five categories your hobby represents and consider it as an investment towards a sustainable, long-term happiness. And, of course, by all means, keep working hard too, I’m just saying to also consider your other human needs, just as you consider eating or sleeping.
Since the NEF study was conducted in 2008, the Five ways to wellbeing have been widely adopted across the UK and abroad – from counselling groups to local community groups and churches, as well as used in further psychology research.
Learning is doing
If you wish to incorporate the Five ways into your life, I recommend starting with some concrete steps. Reading all the theory about it is good, but actually starting practicing the Five ways is what eventually counts.
You can try out our Grow Trail on the Five ways to wellbeing, to experience and internalize the Five ways in an engaging and fun way.
Further resources
The research findings and the applications in the UK have been summarized in a NEF report. Other countries have been using the Five ways to Wellbeing too, for example, see the Australian or New Zealand resources. New Zealand has also adapted the resources to specifically foster wellbeing at workplaces.
Finally, during the pandemic it may more than ever be important to be able to effectively self-help ourselves. This blog describes how one can use the Five ways in the times of social distancing.
Being a scientist and an educator, I love creating meaningful games for all those who are ready to trick their mind, experience adventure and discover more about themselves and the world around us.
I started Grow Trails, the interactive educational games for adults. Read my story.