What Is Wellness?

Category: Personal Development for Adults

Wellness is essentially another word for health, yet it embraces every facet of our being.

Although the term wellness is relatively new, the idea has long been explored through themes such as healthy living, fitness, sport, recreation, beauty, mental hygiene, stress relief and prevention, positive thinking, creativity, balanced nutrition, human potential development, the pursuit of happiness, spirituality, self realization, a return to nature, and harmony of body and mind.

Wellness brings all these ideas together and invites an interdisciplinary approach. Its primary focus is prevention with the aim of sustaining or enhancing health and improving quality of life.

Wellness is, in essence, health in its fullest sense, the health of every aspect of who we are.

In 1947, the World Health Organization broadened the definition of health to mean physical, mental, and social wellbeing rather than the mere absence of disease, and has since added spiritual health.

On that basis came a definition of wellness proposed in 1950 by Dr Halbert Dunn, who defined wellness as: “An integrated way of functioning directed toward the maximum development of the individual’s potential within the environment in which one lives and acts.”

Wellness therefore signifies a high level of health. It signifies contentment, purpose, and the joy of living.

Can we reach that by relying on saunas, massages, hydrotherapy, exfoliation, and similar treatments? No. They are only a small, albeit valuable, part of a larger whole. They can certainly help us feel better and care for our health. To truly live wellness, we need much more.

It is essential to take responsibility for our health, decisions, thoughts, actions, needs, and desires. We need to commit to health, understand and reshape our habits, and become aware of what makes us feel well or unwell. We should ask why we repeat unhelpful habits so often. What lies behind them? Why do we sometimes knowingly undermine ourselves? Then ask how we can change that. Seek knowledge, ask for support, and keep learning, because there are insights, people, techniques, and methods that can assist us. Yet we must remain active participants.

We must choose to be healthy and happy, and then devote real effort to that choice.

There is no diet, no pill, and no magic formula that will manage our body weight for the long term if we change nothing in our lives. We need to act consciously and do absolutely everything we can to protect our own health.

What we think each day, what we eat, how often and how we move, how we breathe, and how we view life in every moment shape our experience. If we complain day after day, life becomes a lament. If we eat well, our cells grow strong. When we move, the body is alive and active and fulfills its basic calling, which is movement. When we dwell on what is beautiful, everything appears more beautiful, because the mind is attuned to beauty.

If we are joyful within, we create ideal conditions for health. If health falters, we must ask where we are acting out of step with our inner nature or with the laws of nature.

We can live wellness without ever setting foot in a wellness center or spa retreat.

It matters less to visit a wellness facility. What truly matters is to live wellness, to live a healthy and joyful life. The recipe for that is ours to discover, because no one else can know what, as unique individuals, brings us happiness and fulfillment. Only we can know.