Well of Being

What is it that fuels you? For me, it’s WELL OF BEING. I am Ninio Oxinio-Sagucom. I work as a University Philosophy Instructor. WELL OF BEING's creation could well be summed up in Rainer Maria Rilke's words in his poem Childhood:

 

"It would be good to give much thought, before
you try to find words for something so lost,
for those long childhood afternoons you knew

that vanished so completely --and why?

...And became as lonely as a shepherd
and as overburdened by vast distances,

and summoned and stirred as from far away,
and slowly, like a long new thread,
introduced into that picture-sequence
where now having to go on bewilders us."

 

When I was just starting to take my masters' degree in Philosophy, we were asked to read the poem for a course called Philosophy for Children. Partly, the course is a discourse on transitioning to adulthood and the things we lost in the process--authentic happiness and well-being--something that occurs to a child so naturally. It is not like an adult is no longer capable of experiencing pure well-being as it occurs in childhood. Rather, in many if not in most instances, due to organized and controlling systems in the society (e.g. schools), what is supposed to be an organic transitioning turned into a manufacturing of adults.

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As an adult, then, one thinks of oneself as totally different from the child he/she once was. The manufactured adult then toils to look for that "something so lost, or those long childhood afternoons you knew that vanished so completely" as if it's no longer inside him/her--as if it's something one should find outside of oneself--as if that child is no longer inside one's self.

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Consequently, the manufactured adult having lost the child within him/her seeks his equally gone well-being in values such as money, desire-fulfillment, or socially approved aesthetics that scientists themselves have proven to really have nothing to do with one's well-being.

 

In the following researches, scientists revealed how what is usually construed to produce well-being has  little to no relation at all with one's well-being: "Zeroing in on the Dark Side of the American Dream: A Closer Look at the Negative Consequences of the Goal for Financial Success," "Predictors of Cosmetic Surgery and its Effects on Psychological Factors and Mental Health: a Population-Based Follow-up Study Among Norwegian Females," "High Income Improves Evaluation of Life but not Emotional Well-being," and "The American Paradox: Spiritual Hunger in an Age of Plenty." 

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In one's obsession to regain the well-being of childhood, one is drawn to the misplaced values one's organic manufacturing instilled in him/her. One has completely forgotten that the child he/she once was is still in him/her, within him/her, still him/her--subdued, silenced, or crippled. One need not look outside of oneself to regain well-being. Neither should he/she confuse well-being as something that can be produced more effectively with what his/her mind can produce within itself should it be wired to do the same.

 

WELL OF BEING will awaken the child in you, the child that is still you... the child that is both self-sufficient and autonomous in generating authentic happiness and well-being. Every day should be a day to be well. Relive that childhood--the WELL OF BEING.

 

Take a look around; perhaps you’ll discover what fuels you as well.