We experience well-being in part through our bodies and our emotions.  We experience it psychologically too, and perhaps this is the ultimate facet of experiencing well-being.  Through our thinking and thoughts, we form judgments about our circumstances.  Our judgments, along with our reasoned justification behind them, inform us of how to qualify and quantify life events and our overall life satisfaction and happiness.  Our psychological makeup, which incorporates complex dynamics shapes our reality, conditions our perceptions, and determines how we perceive our level of well-being and overall quality of life.

In other terms, we assess our experience of well-being through our beliefs in what it should look and feel like.  Our psychological makeup organizes our beliefs and filters our perceptions to ensure they conform to our beliefs.  And, our beliefs define how we view ourselves.  Accordingly, they influence our behavior and our self-identity.  That part of our psychological makeup that results in our experiencing a sense of self through our self-concept, is a crucial factor in determining well-being.  A shift in perspective can lead to a change in attitude.  Attitude is important as it can help us to eventually override or alter our perceptions and thus it can affect our behavior.

We have a choice (at the very minimum to set an intention) regarding how we interpret and react/respond to our feelings, emotions, and life situations.  We have the potential freedom to change our perspective of any given events or experiences.   No matter how much external and internal forces seem to compel us to react a certain way, we always have an option on how to interpret our experiences.   We may not be able to change the past or present circumstances or their dynamic influence on our behavior.  However, we can choose to alter our perspective and then continuously affirm it.  We can choose to see ourselves as being more than defined by, or a product of, limiting conditions and/or circumstances we have accepted or that have been thrust upon us.