Remember that famous line from Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Was he talking about today? An age in which wisdom and foolishness prevailed, an epoch of belief and incredulity, a season of light and darkness. We now find ourselves in a similar time, dominated by solidarity and division, love and hate, hope and despair.
How do we achieve wellbeing in such an era — for ourselves, our society, or planet? At Six Seconds, we believe that in this perilous time, the path forward is to bring our thinking and feeling together. The path forward is to increase our empathy for others while raising our self-awareness and recognizing the consequences of our actions. The path forward is to balance our abilities to know ourselves, choose ourselves, and give ourselves to create a lasting sense of wellbeing. By developing and practicing the skills of emotional intelligence, we cultivate the resources to foster wellbeing, even during a challenging time of disruption and dislocation.
Each calendar quarter, Six Seconds selects a theme to guide our research and publications. Last quarter, we focused on trust, the foundation for positive relationships. Choosing wellbeing as our theme for this quarter reflects our sense that, at this particular moment in history, contentment and life balance are in jeopardy on a daily basis. We hope you will join us over the next three months as we offer a variety of practical strategies to apply the science and practice of emotional intelligence to bring balance back into our lives.
We asked friends and colleagues across the globe to share their images of wellbeing. They sent us photos of people learning, laughing, and playing music together, tranquil scenes of nature, with oceans and mountains, sun and sky. They wrote about energy, connection, wonder, gratitude, mindfulness, and simple beauty. We would love to see and share what wellbeing means to you. Please send your captioned photos and we’ll create an wellbeing inspiration board for our network. Email photos to [email protected]
Wellbeing looks like…
Wellbeing is important for everyone, but it is critically important for children, which is why we are once again celebrating Universal Children’s Day with the inspiring “POP-UP Festival on emotions, wellbeing, and children’s rights” that will be happening around the world.
Maintaining a sense of wellbeing in our personal and organizational lives is also vital. During the month of November, Six Seconds is sponsoring The 2017 World EQ Summit, which will take place in Dubai and Mumbai. Find out more about the amazing line up of leading emotional intelligence experts who will be presenting their groundbreaking work.
To paraphrase Tom Paine, these are the times that try men’s and women’s souls. Don’t miss Six Seconds CEO Joshua Freedman’s reflection on how to navigate the emotions elicited by the events that have been unfolding around us.
If you would like to receive updates on Six Seconds’ articles and resources about wellbeing and practicing emotional intelligence, click on the button below and we will add you to the mailing list.
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Joshua, the reality of wellbeing is perhaps summed up in the oft quoted saying…”there is no such thing as a free lunch!”. The central point being that behavioral actions, no matter where on a fallacious continuum of selfish to altruistic, can ultimately be understood to reflect an agenda of enlightened self-interest. My view is that this would also preclude the possibility of the greater good ala the community…for in all instances there is a quest/agenda for personal gain/wellbeing…in the absence of which the seemingly selfless community behavior would not consciously occur. To offer an answer to your “But what’s the end game”…methinks the “no free lunch” example exemplifies the reality of self-interest as a given of the human condition which, upon rigorous analysis and reflection I would respectfully suggest is hard to refute. The bottom line…this is as good as it gets!
Proactively creating for self and others specially the future generations an environment where emotional physical & mental healthcare, financial family social & safety needs care are harmonized for enjoying emotional well being
Wellbeing is not a one dimensional construct…and thus warrants reflection and definition along at the very least a diametrically opposite continuum. in a nutshell…Machiavellian versus Humanitarian…individuals at both extremes could lay claim to wellbeing. Put differently…it is questionable that wellbeing, depending upon its definition, is sought/found only in the realm of an ethical/moral way of life. A despot being an obvious case in point!
David, maybe there is a dimension of individual vs collective wellbeing to consider? As social creatures, I’d argue against this… deep wellbeing for an individual requires collective wellbeing. So does a despot really have wellbeing, or maybe it’s something else? Self-gratification or personal power-grabbing do not require collective wellbeing…. nor does individual enrichment at the cost of the community & planet. But what’s the end-game?