The Complex Construct of Wellbeing and the Role of Vagal Function

What's next for wellbeing science? Moving from the Anthropocene to the Symbiocene

“…Strategies which nourish inner dimensions and foster connection, community, and a belief in something greater than oneself have been described as an emerging "recovery movement" in response to the various crises we face (Koger, 2015). These crises in part, stem from an extreme disconnection from the self, others and nature (Bhaskar, 2012;Way et al, 2018;Weintrobe et al, 2021), and we argue therefore that methods to facilitate these connections may help to build our inner resources (Mead et al, 2021b;Wilkie et al, 2022), supporting individual change needed to achieve positive change at higher levels of scale. A focus on the inter-relationships of the self, others and nature will lay strong foundations for a new era described as the Symbiocene (from the Greek "sumbiosis", or companionship; Albrecht and van Horn, 2016), in which all living beings live together harmoniously in mutual benefit, providing a potential antidote to the "long emergency" (Kunstler, 2007) of the climate crisis.…”

“…Our own theoretical framework (the GENIAL model) focuses on similar concepts, including balanced minds, engaged communities, and connection to nature, around which we have promoted positive change at multiple levels of scale. We have defined the complex construct of wellbeing itself as a sense of connectedness to ourselves (the individual domain), others (the community domain), and nature (the environment domain) (Kemp et al, 2017;Mead et al, 2021b;Wilkie et al, 2022). Various societal crises reflect the result of a disconnection from ourselves, others, and nature (Bhaskar, 2012;Weintrobe et al, 2021); such that rebuilding our sense of connection (or "relatedness", as per the Inner Development Goals) is crucial for supporting ourselves, communities and planet.…”

“…Despite the positive contributions of psychology, including the promotion of climate action (Gulliver et al, 2021), the field has been criticized for focusing on the individual rather than the system (Kern et al, 2020). Our own work (Kemp et al, 2017;Mead et al, 2019Mead et al, , 2021aWilkie et al, 2022), and the work of others (Kern et al, 2020;Lomas et al, 2021;Lambert et al, 2022), has highlighted how the combination of topdown (e.g., public policy) and bottom-up (i.e., individual behavior change) approaches may be combined to support responses to complex problems. Our focus in this paper is on the need for population-wide inner development and self-transformation to improve progress on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs), drawing on scientific developments embedded in existential and positive psychology.…”

Theories of wellbeing, practical applications and implications for coaching

“…Complementary proposals have been made by Kjell and Corral-Verdugo, to highlight interdependencies between the individual, others and nature, and explicit links between concepts like character strengths and proenvironmental behaviours. Mead et al, 2019. Recent developments in the field demonstrate a broadening of positive psychology to encompass communities and the natural environment alongside the individual themselves, a development in which we are actively engaged (Kemp, Mead, et al, 2022;Kemp & Edwards, 2022;Wilkie et al, 2022a). A focus on social identity -defined as 'the knowledge that [we] belong to certain social groups together with some emotional and value significance to [us] of this group membership" (Tajfel, 1972) -has encouraged reflection on the considerable psychological benefits of social relationships and community.…”

“…The English word 'genial' also means 'friendly and cheerful', reflecting important aspects of 'connection', social relationships and community. More recently, we have characterized wellbeing as 'connection' to ourselves, others, and nature, connecting the frequently isolated constructs of individual, collective, and planetary wellbeing Wilkie et al, 2022b). We have argued that functioning of the vagus nerve may underpin the experience of wellbeing and provides a target for "inner development" and transformation of the self (Wilkie et al, 2022b) with potential application in the context of coaching psychology.…”