Sometimes these audits are imposed upon us. At an individual level we may find ourselves sometimes overwhelmed by stress, thereby needing to take stock urgently to prevent us being completely ‘zapped’, disempowered and devalued, with all the concomitant risks to our physical, emotional, mental and spiritual well-being.

At an organisational level we may find that external factors and internal performance combine to put us under the searching spotlight of an audit, inspection or take-over. Whether it be falling sales or production; diminished capacity to care for or protect vulnerable people, the levels of our own well-being and that of others are inextricably linked together. Importantly there are occasions where it is right that we experience stressful challenges precisely because we are not fulfilling our responsibilities adequately.

The concept and experience of well-being therefore is a complex phenomenon. Indeed, as the Hebrew notion of ‘shalom’ suggests, it is about wholeness and completeness, not just at an individual level but at cultural, structural and spiritual levels as well. In this regard we may well wish to adapt Thompson’s (2006) PCS analysis of oppression and discrimination to raise our awareness of these wider and deeper levels of well-being. PCS analysis (Personal, Cultural, Structural) reminds us that discrimination and oppression are complex, interweaving phenomena, and that they will only ever be fully tackled and overcome if they are dealt with at all three levels.

Similarly we could also use this analysis in two ways for our reflections on well-being. We can use it to analyse the ways in which our well-being is undermined at personal, cultural and structural levels. We can also use it – looking at the other side of the coin, so to speak – to analyse and appreciate the ways in which our well-being is enhanced and consolidated at the personal, cultural and structural levels. In our workplace, for example, however bright,chirpy and committed we may be as an individual worker, if the team culture is oppressive and discouraging, or if the organisation’s policies and procedures do not focus on how to foster humane support for their workforce, the chances are that we will be ground down and our individual well-being will suffer. And this will result in the well-being of our team and organisation being undermined. By contrast, if there is an effective management system in place, and there is a culture of encouragement and empowerment throughout the structure of the organisation, the impact upon an individual’s performance and well-being is greatly enhanced.

It is important, however, that we place the well-being debate in a much wider context. The concerns for global warming and social justice are but two of the powerful contemporary drivers in our understanding of well-being. Our well-being depends upon global, environmental, and social justice issues which have a practical, emotional and indeed spiritual impact. These dimensions to the discussion bring us in effect face to face with some basic fundamental questions which lie at the heart of a contemporary understanding of spirituality. Who am I? What does it mean to live in relationship with others? What meaning and purpose can I find in/bring to my living?

Now we can suggest a further dimension, captured in Zapf’s (2005) poignant question which heads this article: How can I live well in this place? And: What is my relationship to, and my responsibility for, my environment? Zapf is raising some profoundly important questions which suggest that our well-being must include community-based issues such as social justice and a care for the planet in whatever ways seem relevant in our differing contexts. This sense of interdependence, or interconnectedness suggests, with Besthorn (2003, 2002), that: [individual] well-being can only be maximised in the context of, and accompanied by, community well-being. Personal fulfilment is not an isolated event ... concern for other people and other beings can be a great source of pleasure and fulfilment and help us to transcend the exclusivity and self-interested individualism of modernity … [it can] manifest an inclusive spirituality that is based on the intimate connection among the human, the Earth and the spirit. (Coates, 2005, p.19).

Even these dimensions, however, need taking a little further. The contemporary discussion about spirituality, which includes both secular and religious perspectives, raises ever deeper questions about how we understand ourselves, our environment and (if it is not too pretentious to suggest) the universe and our place in it. If our worldview sustains us and creates with us a sense of meaning and purpose, then issues of well-being and living well in this place find their ultimate context.

References

Besthorn, F. (2002) ‘Expanding Spiritual Diversity in Social Work: Perspectives in the Greening of Spirituality.’ Currents: New Scholarship in the Human Services, 1(1)

Besthorn, F. (2003) ‘Radical Ecologisms: Insights for Educating Social Workers in Ecological Activism and Social Justice.; Critical Social Work: an Interdisciplinary Journal dedicated to Social Justice, 3(1) pp 66-106.

Coates, J., Grey, M., & Hetherington T ( 2005) ‘An “Eco-spiritual Perspective”: Finally, a Place for Indigenous Approaches.’ British Journal of Social Work.doi:10.1093/bjsw/bch391.

Thompson, N. (2006) Anti-discriminatory Practice, 4th ed. Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan

Zapf, M.K. ( 2005) ‘The Spiritual Dimension of Person and Environment Perspectives from Social Work and Traditional Knowledge.’ International Social Work, 48(5) pp. 633-642.

Bernard Moss

Professor of Social Work Education and Spirituality, Staffordshire Universityand Senior Fellow and National Teaching Fellow, Higher Education Academy

First published in Well-being 4.1 December 2009 

This article is copyright Avenue Consulting Ltd. It may be reproduced in full provided that this copyright notice and information about its source (www.well-beingzone.com) are also reproduced. © 2009

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