The Whole Being at Work

A holistic view of well-being, where the whole human being behind the employee badge is considered, is at the core of beingful work. Moreover, just as the concept of eudaemonic well-being draws from Aristotle and the ancient Greeks, the concept of holistic well-being at work draws from the concept of the whole person in ancient Indian philosophy. We can then build on this concept and adapt it to the modern workplace/workspace using more recent theories of the self in organisational psychology.  

Ancient Indian wisdom has developed many different conceptions of a human being as described in the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, the epics and the Puranic literature.  Among these, the particular viewpoint used here is the panchakosha (Five Sheaths) approach of the Taittiriya Upanishad. In this Upanishad, a human being is said to be comprised of five koshas (sheaths), i.e., the annamaya (food or material), the prana (energy or life breath), the manas (mind), the vignana (discriminating intelligence), and the ananda (bliss).

Building on these sheaths and on psychology research regarding the different kinds of self, we identify the following eight kinds of self: Physical, Monetary, Ambitious, Psychological, Social, Ecological, Moral, and Higher.

Together, these eight kinds of self comprise the whole being we bring to work every day. These distinctive selves can also be thought of as identities of being. For example, my ecological self is an identity of being because it enables me to identify with an ecological being who is deeply connected to nature or the environment. Similarly, my higher self enables me to identify with a universal being or Spirit that is the ground of all reality.