Uncovering the lived experience of well-being.

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.