When I was first targeted by organisations offering seminars and courses associated with well-being I did not have an idea what it meant, I had heard the phrase used in radio discussions but the subjects did not relate to me at all.
These courses in well-being varied from outdoor sessions that could last as long as a week, one day meetings in a fixed location, and projects covered by zoom meetings. I looked into the contents of these offers and none of them were viable to somebody who is totally blind, as I am.
Any sessions over zoom or Microsoft teams has inbuilt problems for somebody who has no vision at all, and probably for most people who are severely sight impaired. These problems can be minimised though if the course leader realises that some of the audience has no vision, but even within the blind community I have found this situation to be very rare. The outdoor programs that I have been informed about also caused problems, some of which I have discussed with the course leader and though accepting her reasoning for these courses they were still unattainable for me. Most of these courses involved walking through scenic locations, which sounds very pleasant, to visit a place of natural beauty but if you have to use a long cane over fields and along unmetalled tracks it becomes very stressful. When you reach the target location you can still only see the same as you would see while sitting in your armchair at home but you are listening to a group of people taking photographs and saying how wonderful the places. Depending on how tired you are after that initial walk this can be at any stage between frustrating and totally depressing, something I do not believe will lead to any form of well-being.
I had a 90 minute session with a well-being adviser talking about the five pillars associated with the subject and as soon as she labelled them I knew I would “fail” at least one of the categories. In the final assessment I seem to have given the correct responses in four of the five categories, just as I expected.
I did a high level search into well-being, using two Internet search engines, interrogating a smart speaker, and using the new Google bard system. I got various answers to my questions on the definition of well-being, some answers said there were five pillars, some said there were three pillars and other answers defined a few different concepts and what well-being was meant to achieve. Needless to say none of these answers were the same though some did overlap. I personally define well-being as contentment, and that will mean something totally different to everybody.
If well-being was to be taken seriously it has to be specifically targeted at an individual, and this would mean involving psychologists, medical professionals and fitness experts who should all liaise with the individual concerned and not just between themselves. Everybody is different and everybody’s eye condition is different, and the way they use to cope with the situation will vary.
The cynic inside me, and it is getting larger by the month, believes that the term well-being will disappear in a few years due to splitting off in so many different directions. At that point the disciples of well-being will have found another two or three word phrase to latch onto and write their books and give seminars about in order to make a living.
