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What is Well-Being?


Language isn't a product of science.


While language itself has a defined and consistent structure... words them selves are simply an agreement that "that thing" will be called "banana"... or "ball"... or {pick a word}.


So words are often vague and messy.... "Health" and "Happiness" are no exception.


However, when we use them, we clearly mean very different and distinct things. If we wanted to create greater clarity and separation between the two, it would look like this:

 

HEALTH

is the physical state of a body relative to its environment, with the highest defined by high energy and high stability, and lowest defined by low energy and low stability.


Simply: Health is the measure of how much your body can do, under the circumstances.


HAPPINESS

is the informational representation of the physical state of a body relative to its environment, with the highest defined by high energy and high stability, and lowest defined by low energy and low stability.


Simply: Happiness is the measure of how much you think your body can do, under the circumstances.


 

At Effectiveli, we simply call:

  • Health something's "e-physical state"

  • Happiness something's "e-informational state"

... with "e-" representing "environmentally relative".


Or more simply: P-state and I-state.



Some illustrations and analogies:


  • Health is the hardware performance.

  • Happiness is the software performance.


  • Health is how much mobility you have in your arms.

  • Happiness is how much mobility you think you have in your arms, relative to how much you think is available to others around you.


  • Health is whether you have enough money to buy everything you need.

  • Happiness is whether you think you have enough money.


  • Health is how fast you can run a 1/4 mile.

  • Happiness is how fast of a runner you think you are.


  • Health is how smart you are.

  • Happiness is how smart you think you are.


  • Health is what's true.

  • Happiness is what you imagine to be true.


  • Health of your 401k is how much money it makes or loses, relative to inflation and other monetary environmental factors.

  • Happiness with your 401k is how well you think it's performing.


  • Health of your mind is how well your brain performs at processing information.

  • Happiness levels that your mind is capable of producing is based on what information is stored there, how it is organized, how it is accessed, and how it is use.


  • Health benefits from essential oils is how much your actual health changes based on their use.

  • Happiness benefits from essential oils is how much you think your health changes based on their use.


  • Improving overall Health in the world is based on actual measurable improvements.

  • Happiness with the state of the world is based on the factors we choose as our focus for evaluation.


Imagine there's an industrial accident nearby while you sleep, and the result is that a high powered laser amputated one of your legs painlessly in your sleep. Your loss in mobility due to the injury is a loss in Health. Waking to realize that you lost a leg in your sleep is a change in your awareness to the situation, and so changes your level of Happiness.


Imagine a billionaire quietly and secretly deposited $500 million into your bank account. Once the transfer went through, your financial Health would be immediately improved. However, your Happiness with your financial situation wouldn't change until you were aware of the deposit.


Imagine a package is dropped at your front door. If you treat it like it's the Amazon delivery with your family's holiday presents that you ordered, and it is, then your Health and Happiness impacts of opening package will be in aligned. If you forgot that you ordered something, and think it might be a 'mail bomb', then they will be misaligned.


Imagine you hear a noise at your door. If it's a bear that wants to eat you, but you think it's your neighbor trying to borrow sugar, you will be Happy to open the door, and it will lead to UnHealthy results. The reverse is also true, if you think there's a bear at your door,


Behavior is based on our I-state (or the information available), not the P-state (or the actual state of affairs.


Freedom to Guess

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