Enhancing one’s health and overall wellness are two typical objectives. Some people say these are synonymous, yet they diverge significantly from one another. It is helpful to first distinguish between health and wellness to begin constructing a quality of life that will last a lifetime.
Defining Health And Wellness
What Is Health?
“Health,” as portrayed by the World Health Organization (WHO), is “a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being.” Thus, it’s not enough to prevent chronic health.
To be considered healthy under this criterion, one must experience satisfactory physical and mental health levels. More and more people are connecting regular exercise with nutritional health and lifestyle. Depression and anxiety aren’t taken seriously by them. As long as their BP and cholesterol readings are within normal ranges, they feel well. They overlook that mental health matters. Nonetheless, it’s something to consider because it could affect their health.
The World Health Organization (WHO) asserts that “social well-being” is as crucial to one’s health as physical fitness. This demonstrates the significance of social support in maintaining good health, as to whether or not you enjoy consuming time with your loved ones. Having friends and coworkers outside one’s immediate family is also part of this.
How can we define wellness if health encompasses one’s mental, emotional, and social states to that same degree?
What Is Wellness?
Global Wellness Institute defines wellness as “the intentional pursuit of activities, choices, and lifestyles that contribute to a condition of holistic health.” As the group explains, “active” is a necessary term here. Thus, wellness entails more than just sitting back and hoping for the best possible health and happiness. It involves making concerted efforts to live a healthy life.
The term “holistic health” is also crucial to this description. Wellness does include physical health. Other aspects of health, though, are just as important. The Institute identifies 12 different aspects of health. Here are the top three:
- Physical Wellness: Physical wellness includes knowing when to exercise, eat well, and get enough sleep, as well as learning when to avoid getting sick or hurt or how to manage long-term health issues.
- Emotional Wellness: Emotional wellness is described as “an awareness, knowledge, and acceptance of our feelings, and our capacity to cope skillfully through challenges and change” by the National Center For Emotional Wellness.
- Mental Wellness: “A condition of well-being in which the individual understands his or her abilities, can cope with the usual demands of life, can work creatively and meaningfully, and is capable of contributing to their community” is how the World Health Organization defines mental wellness.
There are more facets of wellness that other groups are aware of. One example is workplace wellness or occupational wellness. The goal here is to work while being in excellent health. Another is intellectual wellness. In terms of your knowledge and skills, it’s wellness. Financial wellness and cultural wellness are additional. Simply stating that wellness influences every element of life is sufficient.
Overlapping Definitions
Looking closely at each definition, you’ll notice they have a lot in common. For instance, both include a section on physical health. A component of mental health is included in both. And they all discuss how vital our social connections and overall welfare are to our lives.
These prerequisites must be satisfied to achieve overall health or total wellness. This only makes sense because the two are distinct from one another and are tightly entwined.
Why Health And Wellness Closely Intertwines
The fact is that health and wellness are well intertwined. For instance, your financial wellness may be compromised if you have a chronic health problem, which is common among older people. Medical or other health expenses could wipe out your life savings.
Wellness can affect health. Your physical health may begin to deteriorate if you are under a lot of stress at work. Alternatively, you can get sick, and your overworked immune system won’t be able to heal you.
If your mental health is impaired, you might not understand how to meet your health-related objectives. It’s more challenging to comprehend what you need to perform to stretch or strengthen your muscles. Or you skip a vital step in the regimen, increasing your risk of harm. This affects your physical health.
How Health And Wellness Are Different
Fundamentally, wellness is the active pursuit of healthier well-being, whereas health is the state of your well-being. This distinction is crucial.
Knowing the difference is crucial because, while your health condition may reflect where you are right now, your well-being reflects the steps you may take to move toward your goals. This can entail changing your diet to include better-for-you foods. Or it can entail using your company’s wellness program or prioritizing physical activity.
Being proactive is one advantage of wellness. For instance, you might not be able to thwart getting cancer. However, you have some influence over what you do to live as healthily as you can despite this condition.
Being aware of this distinction reduces emotions of helplessness. It acts as a reminder that there are still many aspects of our lives that we can impact, even though we can’t control everything. Our actions, routines, and behaviors need to change to have this influence.
Approaching Health And Wellness Simultaneously
The American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) recently undertook an initiative to find and develop tools to assist physical therapists and physical therapist assistants in integrating strategies that promote health and increase wellness into physical therapy practice. Empowering people to exert more control over and improve their health is referred to as health promotion. To promote health, one must look beyond individual behavior and consider a variety of social and environmental interventions.
Since health and wellness are inextricably linked, we can’t talk about one without talking about the other. As a result, disruptions in one area of our lives can have repercussions in others. Everything in life is connected to everything else.
The health problem may have multiple causes, some requiring investigation beyond the ailment itself. If you are interested in enhancing your overall health and wellness, consider contacting or booking an appointment here at our clinic, Studio Medical Aesthetics. We also provide other services that can help address your aesthetic goals.
