Wellbeing: a good or satisfactory condition of existence; a state characterized by health, happiness, and prosperity (dictionary.com).

One day, in my early thirties, I was sitting in my perfect suburban house, full of my favorite things, with my beautiful, smart kids, and my beautiful, kind husband, working at a great company, making great money… when I realized I was miserable.

I was reading Elizabeth Gilbert’s book Eat, Pray, Love one night when I just started to cry and couldn’t stop. I won’t recount the book for you (I suggest reading it!), but the point is that she realized the same thing, but then she did something about it. My favorite quote from Elizabeth is in the header of this blog: “Happiness is the consequence of personal effort.” This was the moment when I decided I had to start my own happiness journey.

When I first began to dig in to resources focused on happiness, or what I later began to call wellbeing, I realized many of them talked about the idea that wellbeing is not just one thing. Instead, it can (and should) be considered the composition of several aspects. In order to understand what was causing my unhappiness, I needed to look at each aspect separately and how they affected one another.

I found several different versions of these aspects, or pillars, but ultimately decided that the following five worked best for me:

• Mental
• Physical
• Career
• Social
• Financial

As my journey waxed and waned over my working and child-rearing years, I came to realize that physical and mental wellbeing were much more intertwined than I had ever suspected.  

Follow me on my 15-year journey, where I share my major struggles and learnings. I share in the hopes that they are helpful to others, and just to let others who’ve struggled to know that you are not alone.

In other posts on this blog, I go into more detail on the learnings and tips that are continuing to make a difference in my wellbeing.