From the very beginning of his consciousness, the human being has been asking himself questions on the same subjects. It is understood that the continuity of these questions throughout history is due to the failure to find completely satisfactory answers.

Among the questions with capital letters that we have asked ourselves throughout history, we find in place of honor the question for the conquest of well-being . For this reason, ideas and principles from which we can begin to feel good have been known for a long time.

The conquest of well-being

Today we know in much more detail new aspects of our anatomy, our behaviour, our way of life, our environment etc. Even with all this knowledge, we do not stop searching for this state which in its ideal promises us a complete and satisfactory experience of our life course. Perhaps this happens because the existence of many and many today is not being complete.

Many people have asked questions and many have given answers. Answers that, for various reasons, seem not to have been heard or, if they were, were lost along the path of planning, the achievement of objectives and the immediacy left to us by the industrial stage of our recent era.

There are three aspects that have appeared frequently throughout history and that as a species we have sensed that “something” has to do with what we call “being well”.

1. Companionship and Affection

I would begin by emphasizing the tremendous importance of being able to be accompanied from the very beginning as human beings by other similar people who, with sincere love, give us the first social relationships in which we can plant the seeds of security, trust and kindness that can only be achieved through recognition in the eyes and face of the other person.

Feeling supported by another who stabilizes and regulates us in this new world we are beginning to know is fundamental. It is from this point that we begin to recognize ourselves as beings who will discover themselves as different later on.

It is in these caresses, in these looks that the first traces of our vision of the world begin , where we begin to configure in our internal world who we are and the place where we come from.

If this care does not occur or is neglected, our nervous system will begin its journey in this life with pressing warning signs that indicate that the environment is dangerous and the people untrustworthy. The sooner this catastrophe occurs, the deeper and more lasting will be the effects of insecurity and distrust that will settle in the first sketch of the Self that will be that baby.

On the contrary, if at that beginning we are accompanied with love, looks and caresses, and if our needs are sufficiently covered, the world we will begin to discover will be an environment that we will perceive as safe to explore, and it will be presented to us in an encouraging and stimulating way.

2. Not always under a barrage of information

On the other hand, and continuing with these keys to wellbeing so rooted in our history, it is important to refer to the vital relationship between mind and body and mention the famous phrase that captures this reality very well: “mens sana in corpore sano”.

We live in an accelerated and noisy age that bombards our mind with innumerable and diverse stimuli that make us be all the time in processes of perception and assimilation of content.

Coupled with this, life experiences happen so quickly and we want them to be so numerous that we spend most of our time immersed in pure mental activity. This causes our body to become detached from itself and the experience and learning of life that always leaves its mark on it, becomes inaccessible and blocked.

The body signals that have always been a guide and compass for the growth and development of people are silenced by an inexhaustible succession of thoughts that keep us in a state of disconnection and almost permanent tension.

3. Living in the present moment

The content of these thoughts leads me to mention the third of these qualities that seem to be linked to our well-being. For several thousands of years, human beings have known the importance of knowing how to silence the mind, of separating themselves from thoughts and their content , in order to return to the present moment from which our plans and memories are distancing us.

It is in the “now” that we find ourselves and where we live, and it is in the “here” that our body finds itself perceiving everything that happens in the environment and learning from it.

As we manage to be present in space and time, changes begin to emerge: the mind becomes free and the body breathes, the muscles become sluggish and the rhythm of our heart slows down, preparing the whole body-mind experience for a more complete one. The body connection and the experience of the present moment is a couple of difficult separation, one and the other appear and disappear together.

An integral conception of well-being

All of us who work at the Centro de Psicología Vitaliza share this approach that helps us integrate our way of visualizing and approaching well-being with our daily work in the therapeutic processes.

Highlighting these three characteristics is not intended to be a wonderful recipe for all ills, nor a cure for all diseases. It only seeks to be a reminder that long before us, there were already contributions to some of the questions of our time.

In Vitaliza we believe in the value of looking back and going through the reflections and findings of those who preceded us , as an exercise that opens our eyes to what we have in front of us and allows us to see it in a different way. It even allows us to discover that what is shown, sometimes as a new light, is still the classic dressed up as modern, that which with haste and plans we have forgotten we already knew.

To conclude, I would like to point out that nothing mentioned in this article, which is Vitaliza’s culture and the belief of those of us who work here, is new. Nothing described is a revealing finding, nothing there is that we did not already know. As those who have a long history in some discipline and experience behind them say, nothing new happens under the Sun. Perhaps all we have to do is stand and watch the objects that shine under the sun. This is what we try to do when we touch souls from our center by accompanying people.