Wellbeing: Through the Lens of Indian Traditional Conceptualisations

Well-being is a multifaceted construct that endeavours to provide an explanation to the length and breadth of human experience. Research on well-being currently focusses on a couple of perspectives: the hedonic approach, which focuses primarily on happiness and defines well-being regarding fulfilment of pleasure and escaping or avoiding pain, and the eudaimonic approach, which emphasises on finding meaning and Self-realization in the Indian context is Atma sakshatkara which is different from actualizing potentials. The objectives of this paper are three-fold. To explore how people, perceive optimism, hope, and resilience. To explore the meanings of the traditional Indian concepts of ananda, sukha and dukha, and to relate this to the process of meaning making in cancer patients in the west. How have they found acceptance to face their daunting odds and in turn how did they explore hope? Surely hope makes survivor's lives (and the lives of those around them) more liveable.