{"title":"Life balance and harmony","authors":"T. Lomas","doi":"10.5502/IJW.V11I1.1477","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"The relevance of balance and harmony to wellbeing has been understudied and under-theorised in psychology generally (excepting certain fields and cultural contexts). This omission partly reflects the field’s Western-centricity, with these concepts having had less influence in the West than elsewhere. Nevertheless, there is still a valuable body of research detailing their importance, of which this paper offers a narrative synthesis. This literature is organised into four areas: affect, cognition, behaviour, and self-other relations. Throughout these, balance and harmony can be appreciated as not merely integral to wellbeing, but arguably its defining feature. Based on this analysis, a new overarching definition of wellbeing is offered: the longitudinal and dynamic attainment of optimal balance and harmony in any and all aspects of life. It is hoped this paper will help provide a foundation and stimulus for further work on these important topics.","PeriodicalId":36390,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Wellbeing","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2021-01-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"19","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"International Journal of Wellbeing","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.5502/IJW.V11I1.1477","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"Economics, Econometrics and Finance","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 19
Abstract
The relevance of balance and harmony to wellbeing has been understudied and under-theorised in psychology generally (excepting certain fields and cultural contexts). This omission partly reflects the field’s Western-centricity, with these concepts having had less influence in the West than elsewhere. Nevertheless, there is still a valuable body of research detailing their importance, of which this paper offers a narrative synthesis. This literature is organised into four areas: affect, cognition, behaviour, and self-other relations. Throughout these, balance and harmony can be appreciated as not merely integral to wellbeing, but arguably its defining feature. Based on this analysis, a new overarching definition of wellbeing is offered: the longitudinal and dynamic attainment of optimal balance and harmony in any and all aspects of life. It is hoped this paper will help provide a foundation and stimulus for further work on these important topics.