Well-being—seems easy enough to define, understand, and achieve— but opinions vary as widely as those to whom they belong. Is it more than just being healthy? Is it objective and easy to quantify? Is being happy enough? What about relationships? Does money and job satisfaction have anything to do with it?
Wabash Magazine turned to alumni from around the world to find out how they perceive well-being and what influences their own well-being. This entire issue is dedicated to and inspired by their responses.
“Your question is, on the surface, a simple one,” says Dr. Stephen Jay ’63, Professor of Medicine and Public Health at Indiana University’s School of Medicine. He continues quoting Winston Churchill, “But in reality it represents a ‘riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.’ These words of Churchill’s were about Russian actions, not health, but fit here.”
Engagement
“Well-being is the summation of many things that include physical health, mental health, psychological well-being, and engagement in life. It is extremely important to me to be engaged in work, family, and my community. I am appreciating the Wabash community for the commitment I see in alumni to their communities. Certainly there is also spiritual well-being which is critical and achieved in may ways – the key is tolerance of others views and mutual respect in this domain.
“For me well-being is an aspiration, something that I aim to achieve. I suspect, I will never feel like “I am there.” A number of years ago, I began to understand that the point is the journey and not the destination. It takes life experience for the journey to have meaning.”
– Todd Rowland ’85
Balance
“I define well-being as a good balance. Good physical health, healthy food, opportunity to exercise, family time, involvements including faith, volunteerism, neighborhood. I have to be very intentional about trying to strike a balance. I could work a lot more than I do but I make myself leave the office to get in some exercise. I am also very intentional about saving time for my spouse and our extended families. Time with friends is also very important to me and is something that requires intentionality.”
- Marcus White ’91
“I’ve made a concentrated effort to carve out more time for family and some just for me, especially when I’m travelling. Even with the crazy hours I keep in Admissions, I make sure I spend part of each day solely as ‘Dad,’ ‘Husband,’ ‘Chip,’ and tell ‘Associate Director of Admissions Chip’ to get lost.
- Chip Timmons ’96
“Well-being is more than just being able to physically meet the daily challenges of life. A positive mental approach to life is essential in being well grounded and happy. For me, I have set certain goals and objectives in my life to be well and healthy. One has to work vigilantly every day to achieve well-being. No excuses about not having time or ability.”
- Dudley Burgess ’64
“Trying to find balance between the things we want to do and the things we should do. Whether that’s deciding I’m going to lay on the couch and relax or I’m going to go exercise. Am I going to work these extra hour or am I going to make it home in time to have dinner with my family? Am I going to take this promotion just because it’s a promotion or do I really need to think about the impact this is going to have on my overall quality of life?
“ For me a lot of wellness has to do with that eternal strife for balance in those different parts of life when I’m being pulled in so many different directions.”
- Chris Bojrab ’89
Staying Fit
“I think that there is a need to be responsible and accountable for our actions – in particular regarding our bodies.
“I find satisfaction in my work, but also in fishing and yard work – cutting the grass, and planting trees. I am not an exercise person, but believe in the benefits of exercise – physically and psychologically. You could say my yard work and work around the home is my exercise physically. Psychologically, I love to read professional texts as well as a good biography now and then. I’ve found that podcasts can be informational and relaxing with books and music to name a few of their offerings.”
- Scott Cavins
“Staying active with my kids’ youth sports activities, walking/bike riding, doing crossword and other puzzles, and reading.”
- Bill Havlin
“To me it is the ability to live as active a life as is humanly possible. I like to play golf, work in the yard, we travel and enjoy the activities of our grandkids. I watch the foods I eat, try to keep my weight under control, have an exercise program and when there is an option, engage in activities that allow me to do things in the outdoors. I enjoy reading when I can’t do any of the above or want a distraction or want to check out what is going on around me.”
-Bob Charles
“I walk three miles five days a week.”
- Dale Milligan
Attitude
“The absence of stress that I cannot influence or change. Maintaining a positive attitude. Laughter. Personal time to focus on the things that I can change and connect spiritually with God.”
-Herm Haffner
“There seems to be a great abyss where we seem to lose track of our motives for good health. If we really strive to work on total health, I think we then have to look at the foods we eat, where they come from, the toxic attack we receive everyday from pollution, cell phone usage, and stress. Getting an excellent Wabash education will allow a lot of Wabash men to at least have the choice of how much they would want to work. It will probably be a trade off with either enough money and some free-time or more money than you need but less free-time. Hopefully everyone loves their work and it’s not a big deal either way.”
-Scott Gall
Keep It In Check
“I stay in shape, have good job satisfaction and keep my wife happy so she won’t kick me out.”
-Daniel Susie
“I strive to live beneath my means in nearly every aspect of my life. I live a very full life, but do not overload mine or my family’s lives with non-sustainable, non-productive stressors, so that when those stressors eventually find me, I have the capacity to handle them, and move on past them.
“It is a different pace of processing life than we were taught to embrace while growing up. Sometimes the worst thing that could happen to us is that we would get everything we want, do everything we want, or be everything we want – at least, it has the potential to distract us from what life is really about, at worst, it could claim our lives, our souls, our hope, or the relationships with those who are close to us.”
-Chris Carpenter
“Well-being for me is more of a ‘happiness’ issue; being satisfied with my life, able to enjoy friends and family, have enough financial security to not worry and to be able to do the things I want to do with my hobbies, with family and friends.
“Take time to reflect on things; walk, have periods of silence, take time to write, talk to friends, take a drive while listening to a great piece of music, have a quiet meal at home or a great meal out, enjoy the arts whether a museum, a gallery, the symphony or opera, travel.”
-Stephen Pavy
“Well-being, I believe, is being in a state of comfort regarding one’s physical, mental, and social needs. It’s not necessarily being completely perfect in a physical sense, nor a mental or social one either. No one is perfect, but when they reach a point where they are happy with how they look, or who they consider to be their friends, then they have certainly achieved a positive state of being.
“I think being comfortable with yourself is very important, but very difficult to do in modern America. A person’s comfort is being constantly attacked and made to be second-guessed, so to really achieve one’s “well-being” they need a social group which is positive and supporting, as well as a mind-set that takes the media’s perceptions of the “perfect” human form with a grain of salt.”
-Tim Kraft ‘11
“I try, although I am not always successful, to turn work off when I go home. I keep up ‘firewalls’ between home and work – that is not to say that I don’t socialize with co-workers, but I don’t want to bring the stress home. I also try to walk and exercise regularly which makes me feel good. Reading and having some time to myself is important. And most of all our pets (two dogs and a turtle) bring us great joy and peace.”
-Roy Sexton