What Is Health and Wellness?

Health versus wellness

While you cannot choose the state of health, you can consciously choose wellness by living your life responsibly and taking proactive steps for your well-being.

Health comprises the diagnosis of a disease/illness, predisposition to a disease, and any unexpected injury.

Wellness is an active process of growth and change to reach your fullest health and well-being. It is associated with actively pursuing activities, making choices and lifestyle changes, controlling risk factors that can harm a person, focusing on nutrition, having a balanced diet, and following spiritual practices that lead to holistic health.

Risk factors are actions or conditions that increase a person’s risk of illness or injury. Some of the risk factors that can be harmful to good health are as follows:

Smoking: It is a major risk factor for lung cancer and cardiovascular diseases.

Drinking alcohol: It can cause liver damage, stroke, heart diseases, and cancer.

Unprotected sex: It spreads sexually transmitted diseases including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

Extreme physical activity/sports: This may lead to broken bones and other types of injuries.

Social: Social circles and support networks are invaluable to the overall well-being of a person. Relating, interacting, and contributing to a community, establishing good interpersonal relations, and maintaining long-term relationships with family and friends keep a person happier and healthier.

Spiritual: Spiritual wellness does not imply religion or faith of a person, but the search for meaning and purpose of human existence. Developing compassion, caring, forgiving, and having a purpose in life help in spiritual wellness. This can be achieved through meditation, volunteer work, spending time in nature, etc.

On one end, patients with poor health engage the medical fraternity to treat illnesses. On the other end, people focus proactively on prevention and maximize their vitality. They adopt lifestyles that improve health, prevent disease, and enhance their quality of life and a sense of well-being. Wellness is proactive, preventive, and driven by self-responsibility for healthy living.