title: Uncovering the lived experience of well-being.
abstract: The words well-being, health, and wellness are commonly used in an interchangeable manner by health care professionals and the lay public. We undertook a hermeneutic phenomenological study of well-being and discovered a soulful strength and a rhythmic flow to this lived experience. There is a letting go that is experienced as a tension and rhythmic interchange, as in breathing. Harmony and balance lie at its foundation. Well-being requires a personal drive to exist. It is not experienced through purposeful means; rather, it is experienced in a self-forgetful way, in the free space where life unfolds and where people come to see their worlds in different ways. The results of this research suggest the experience of well-being holds a significant place within nursing practice for clients and for nurses.
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada. mhealey@tru.ca
authors.forename: Marion J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Healey-Ogden
authors.forename: Wendy J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Austin
mesh_terms: D001294:Attitude to Health; D003405:Creativity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*