Happy New Year! 

Today, we start the conversation about Wellness, its various domains and what you can do to optimize them; thereby attaining balance in your life as you strive to continually live healthy in place and authentically.

What is Wellness? According to the World Health Organization, wellness is an active process through which people become aware of and make choices towards a more successful existence. It involves more than just a person’s physical or mental health and basically refers to the person’s optimal vitality. Wellness can be said to be the act of practicing healthy habits on a daily basis to attain better outcomes in the various domains that reflect our lives, including physical, social, financial and mental wellness, to name a few. So instead of just surviving, you're thriving, in a state of complete physical, mental, social, emotional and financial well-being. Wellness is mainly determined by a person’s decisions and actions; and it affords individuals some control over their health and level of wellness. The primary difference between health and wellness is that health is the goal (endpoint) and wellness is the active process of achieving it.

Factors that contribute to illness/disease or injury can be prevented or decreased by the person’s choices. e.g. decision to stop smoking or not, active lifestyle versus a sedentary one. Achieving optimal wellness is an interplay of some interconnected dimensions of wellness. The dimensions will be explored in greater detail in subsequent postings