The five ways to wellbeing

Life will always present challenges, but humans are resilient and resourceful, often finding ways to overcome these challenges and maintain a quality of life. This can be shown in the following diagram.

Given the events of the past months, it is easy to feel that this balance has been lost; the challenges are too great and we don’t have the resources to cope.

The New Economic Foundation define wellbeing as: “how people feel and how they function, both on a personal and social level, and how they evaluate their lives as a whole.” They explain this further with the following diagram:

Grand Union, together with other organisations including the NHS and Mind, promote the 5 Ways to Wellbeing. This evidence-based approach, also developed by the New Economic Foundation, describes five ways in which people can develop and maintain their wellbeing.

In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, promoting wellbeing is as important as ever. We have therefore adapted our 5 ways to wellbeing to match the situation we find ourselves in, please click on the links below to find out more. Additional ideas can be found on our Further wellbeing activities and Maintaining your physical and mental health pages.

Click on the five ways to wellbeing below for more information on each one.