Wellness means engaging in attitudes and behaviors that enhance quality of life and maximize personal potential. Although wellness implies working toward a highly developed level of health, it does not mean that an individual will make the best choice in every situation or that “perfect wellness” is achievable. Wellness emphasizes the need to take responsibility for engaging in behaviors that develop optimal health. An individual’s position on this continuum is always subject to change and is affected by many factors, including physical health, activity level, nutritional patterns, personal demands, career goals, time of year, and effectiveness in managing stress. The direction you move on the continuum is largely determined by the activities you pursue and your attitudes toward these activities. These activities and attitudes can prevent illness and promote health or can destroy peace of mind and physical well-being. Because your behaviors are intrinsic to health, you must learn to assume responsibility for your health by developing the skills necessary to improve it.In the past, medicine approached wellness from a different perspective. It emphasized the treatment of diseases rather than their prevention. It demanded no more than passive participation by the patient in the decision-making process. Now people are encouraged to become active participants in their health care, to exercise control over wellness risk factors (factors or conditions that threaten wellness and increase the chances of contracting disease), to shape their lifestyles to promote health, and to serve as a partner with health care providers in making medical decisions. This approach to wellness is referred to as health promotion and places the responsibility for wellness on the individual.
Achieving a high level of wellness requires constant balance and maintenance of certain components -
- Spiritual - The belief in some force that unites human beings. This force can include nature, science, religion, or a higher power. It also includes your morals, values, and ethics. Every one has a personal perception of spirituality. The spiritual component provides meaning and direction in life and enables you to grow, learn, and meet new challenges. Optimal spirituality is your ability to discover, articulate, and act on your basic purpose in life. The spiritual dimension of wellness is different from religion. Spirituality is related to religious precepts but does not adhere to any religious structure. The importance of spirituality was confirmed recently in a study of 232 seriously ill patients who had undergone open-heart surgery.
Those who were able to find strength and comfort in their religious outlook had a survival rate three times higher than those who found no strength in religious faith. The researchers found that although there was no relationship between frequency of participation in religious services and activities and recovery, there was a strong relationship between the ability to give meaning to a life-threatening situation (surgery) and recovery. They concluded that a belief in a greater force at work is medically helpful. From the wellness perspective, spirituality is the quest for a higher quality of life. - Social - The ability to interact successfully with people and one’s personal environment. Social health is the ability to develop and maintain intimacy with others and to have respect and tolerance for those with different opinions and beliefs.
- Emotional - The ability to control stress and to express emotions appropriately and comfortably. Emotional health is the ability to recognize and accept feelings and to not be defeated by setbacks and failures.
- Intellectual - The ability to learn and use information effectively for personal, family, and career development. Intellectual wellness means striving for continued growth and learning to deal with new challenges effectively.
- Physical - The ability to carry out daily tasks, develop cardiovascular fitness, muscular fitness, maintain adequate nutrition and proper body fat level, and avoid abusing drugs and alcohol or using tobacco products. In general, physical health is an investment in positive lifestyle habits.
A major assumption of the wellness approach to living is that good health is best achieved by balancing each of these dimensions. The body, mind, and spirit are inseparably linked. When they work together in a fully unified, integrated biological system, the body can ward off or overcome many diseases. When there is a breakdown in any of these dimensions’ wellness is threatened. Although the association between disease and physical causes (for example, pathogens) is obvious, there is a reluctance by some people to accept the association between illness and the mental, social, and spiritual aspects. Nonphysical causes are intangible and difficult to assess. Nevertheless, many people experience poor health because of guilt, anger, hostility, poor interpersonal skills, loneliness, anxiety, and depression. Any of these can interfere with the body’s immune system and lay the foundation for the disease process. Medical records are replete with examples of psychosomatic diseases in which physical symptoms are caused by mental and emotional stressors. The symptoms are just as real as if caused by disease producing germs. Virtually every disease involves an interplay between the dimensions of wellness. Fortunately, after a longtime obsession with medical technology, many health care providers are beginning to focus on treating the whole person, and more people are demanding more than test tube medical care.
How much control can someone expect to have over factors that influence wellness? About 53% of the factors influencing quality of life can be affected by the lifestyle of the individual. Of the factors affecting quality of life, 21 % are environmental, including public health measures, laws, and agencies that safeguard the physical environment, as well as relationships and interaction with family, friends, and the community that nurture the social environment, and 10% are affected by the physicians and health care facilities available. Altogether, 84% of the factors affecting health are within the control of the individual.
Hypothetically, 16% of the factors affecting health are beyond the individual’s control. This 16% consists of the genes and hereditary tendencies received from the parents. However, if medical history indicates a family predisposition toward a particular disease, such as heart disease, the health decisions that an individual makes can delay the onset of, minimize the effects of, or possibly prevent the disease from developing.
For example, the effects of a genetic predisposition to heart disease can be minimized significantly if the individual chooses to exercise, to follow proper nutrition guidelines, and not to smoke. Preventing disease is not always possible, but the choices an individual makes do affect his or her health and quality of life. The more wellness activities an individual engages in (unless obsessive behaviors begin to occur), the more positive the results.
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