Neuroscience of Wellness

Abundant evidence highlights the important role of personality traits, age, and social relationships in the experience of subjective well-being. Experiential factors influence well-being, and evidence shows that specific forms of training, such as physical exercise and mindfulness meditation, can produce strong and enduring beneficial effects on well-being. These factors also shape the structure and function of our brains throughout the lifespan, with fascinating implications for our well-being. However, understanding how well-being is created (and changed) by our brains has only recently become the focus of neuroscientific investigations. In this chapter, we review recent neuroscientific evidence revealing how the neurocircuitries underlying personality traits (i.e., optimism, negative bias, self-esteem, extraversion, and neuroticism), successful emotional aging, and social relationships (i.e., love and loneliness) contribute to well-being, and how these circuits and systems are altered in chronic stress, anxiety, and depression. Identifying the neural correlates of well-being can illuminate the processes that cause higher levels of well-being, which, in turn, can inform promising training interventions that can induce neuroplastic changes and help people live happier, healthier, and more successful lives.