How Well Are You Really? Answer These Five Questions
One of the key principles of wellbeing is that health is much more than the absence of disease. Just because you’re not sick enough to need medical help doesn’t mean you are bursting with vitality or happiness. In between sickness and optimal health is a vast middle ground that the majority of us inhabit.
How do you evaluate where you sit on that scale? One tried and tested way it to take the Wellbeing Test (WHO -5), developed by the World Health Organization in 1998. It’s a quick and simple way to check your wellbeing status. To take the quiz, simply rate your response, to the follow five questions:
Over the last 2 weeks
1. I have felt cheerful in good spirits.
2. I have felt calm and relaxed.
3. I have felt active and vigorous.
4. I woke up feeling fresh and rested.
5. My daily life has been filled with things that interest me.
Score each question with either:
At no time (o)
Some of the time (1)
Less than half the time (2)
More than half the time (3)
Most of the time (4)
All of the time (5)
To convert your score to a percentage just multiply your total by 4.
If you scored 25% or less The good news is that now you know, if you didn’t already, that it’s time to seek help to turn things around and, also, there’s probably some ‘low hanging fruit’ waiting to be plucked that will make a difference. If you’re not sure where to start, reach out to a trusted health professional to get the ball rolling.
If you scored between 25% and 50% There’s room for improvement! Check your answer to question 4: ‘I woke up feeling fresh and rested’. If that was low, then I would start with working on the quality of your sleep as so many of the other aspects of wellbeing are hard to optimize if you’re chronically exhausted.
If you scored over 50% but less than 75% You’re doing a pretty good job but with some tweaks you can feel better. Start on your lowest score and see how you can turn it into a higher score. For example, if you rated low on question 5, then challenge yourself to make sure you include one thing you love into every day of the week.
You scored 75% or higher, well done. You’re clearly listening to your body and consciously engaged with the process of nurturing your wellbeing. The aim is not to get to 100%, for example feeling calm and relaxed all the time is not something humanly possible or even desirable. In my opinion its healthier to be accepting of whatever emotional states are there in any one moment. However, a calm and relaxed baseline to return to ‘most of the time’ is a good thing to aim for.
Image below from: https://ogg.osu.edu/media/documents/MB%20Stream/who5.pdf
To book online with one our practitioners and up your well-being index score, click here
