The Wellbeing Bicycle – Are Both Tyres Pumped Up?

As we ease into the quieter rhythm of summer, I often find there’s a little more space to breathe, to take stock, to reflect on where we are in life and how we’re feeling in ourselves. This slower pace can offer us just enough room to step back and ask: How am I, really? What have I been overlooking?

Recently, I’ve been turning my attention again to wellbeing - a theme I’ve worked with for years, both personally and in my coaching practice. And I’ve found myself revisiting an idea that blends both the psychological and the physical aspects of wellbeing in a way that feels both practical and playful. I call it: The Wellbeing Bicycle.

Because really, who doesn’t love a metaphor?

Two Tyres, One Ride

The Wellbeing Bicycle is a way of thinking about the balance between physical and psychological wellbeing. Both are vital, but in my experience - and perhaps yours too - we often pay more attention to one than the other.

The back wheel is physical wellbeing: the fuel and force that moves us forward. Think sleep, movement, nutrition, hydration, and rest. These are the basics. The non-negotiables. And increasingly, mindfulness is included in this category too as a practice for calming the nervous system and staying connected to the present moment.

But a bicycle doesn’t move well if just one wheel is turning.

The front wheel, then, is psychological wellbeing - the direction-giver, the steering system. It’s the elements from Carol Ryff’s model of psychological wellbeing, which I explored during my master’s degree in Applied Positive Psychology and Coaching Psychology. This includes:

• Self-acceptance: Can I embrace who I am, flaws and all?

• Personal growth: Am I open to learning and evolving?

• Life purpose: Do I have a sense of meaning or direction?

• Autonomy: Am I living in alignment with my own choices?

• Positive relationships: Am I connected meaningfully to others?

• Environmental mastery: Do I feel capable in managing the world around me?

It’s a strong framework, robust, research-based, and full of rich territory for coaching and self-reflection. But I’ve started to wonder…

What About Creativity?

In all the work I’ve done on psychological wellbeing, and in the hundreds of conversations I’ve had with clients, one thread continues to surface: creativity. Not in the narrow sense of artistic output, but in the deeper, more universal sense of creative self-expression. The ability to make, explore, imagine, and shape our lives.

Where does that sit on the bicycle?

Is creativity its own wheel?
Is it part of the steering mechanism?
Or perhaps it’s the saddle - the place from which we ride, the part that supports and centres us.

I’m playing with these ideas - and I’d genuinely love your thoughts.

Because creativity, for many people (especially those in midlife and beyond), is the piece that gets lost. It’s squeezed out by responsibility, perfectionism, practicality. But when we reconnect with it - even in small, everyday ways - energy returns. Colour returns. We feel more like ourselves.

So perhaps creativity isn’t a “nice-to-have” but something central. Not just a bonus track, but part of the main score.

I'd love to hear from you...

1. What do you think of the Wellbeing Bicycle metaphor - does it resonate? Would you change or add anything?

2. Where do you think creativity sits in your personal model of wellbeing? Is it central, peripheral, or something else entirely?

Feel free to email me on [email protected] Your thoughts will help shape how I continue to develop and coach around this concept. And as always, thank you for travelling alongside me on this journey.

With presence and possibility,
Ursula 
Founder, CoCreative Future