What is Wellness?

We asked students what wellness means to them and combined all of their words into one image, using Wordle. Here is the result:

Every minute of every day, your behavior (thoughts, feelings, actions) contributes to the world as you know it.  Wellness is a word that describes you, doing your best.  Wellness is your life at a balanced optimum.  Wellness is health in the deepest and broadest sense of the word.  It is a practice, and a process.  It requires patience and persistence.  Wellness embraces your entire being, accepts you as you are, and loves you unconditionally.  Wellness walks with you.

Wellness is that special blend, that unique formula, that secret recipe.  The ingredients are your own, and only you can create it—however, you are not alone.  The Office of Student Wellness at UCSD is dedicated to sharing the journey, connecting you to resources and programs and each other, putting Wellness at your fingertips.

Wellness is that central sense of self from which your world unfolds.

University of California Wellness Principles:

  • Wellness is an active process
  • Wellness is important to UC
  • Wellness benefits all members of the UC community
  • UC supports a culture of wellness
  • UC provides leadership to the State of California in the support of wellness

 “Wellness is a multidimensional state of being describing the existence of positive health in an individual as exemplified by quality of life and a sense of well-being.”
Charles B. Corbin, Arizona State University

 

wellness wheel

This wellness wheel belongs to a person who takes responsibility for achieving balance in his/her life. As a result, this person is rolling along smoothly through life – for whom everything is going “just right”.
John W. Travis, MD

well⋅ness
–noun


1.

the quality or state of being healthy in body and mind, esp. as the result of deliberate effort.

2.

an approach to healthcare that emphasizes preventing illness and prolonging life, as opposed to emphasizing treating diseases.

Random House Dictionary

Wellness is first and foremost a choice to assume responsibility for the quality of your life. It begins with a conscious decision to shape a healthy lifestyle. Wellness is a mind set, a predisposition to adopt a series of key principles in varied life areas that lead to high levels of well-being and life satisfaction.  A consequence of this focus is that a wellness mind set will protect you against temptations to blame someone else, make excuses, shirk accountability, whine or wet your pants in the face of adversity. (I threw that in to help you remember this explanation.) 
Don Ardell, Ph.D., Living Well Center, University at Buffalo

Well, for me, it [health and wellness] encompasses several things: physical health, emotional health, spiritual health. So when I look at health and wellness, I look at those three . . . and try to look at nurturing myself in all three areas to make sure that I'm up to par in all those areas. And when I feel that I have a good balance in these three areas, I feel that I've achieved a good level of health and wellness.
from Definitions of Health and Wellness for Persons with Long-Term Disability
Mary Oschwald and Laurie Powers
Rehabilitation Research and Training Center 
Health, Wellness, & Disability
Oregon Health and Science University 

Wellness is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.
World Health Organization

"Health promotion is the science and art of helping people change their lifestyle to move toward a state of optimal health. Optimal health is defined as a balance of physical, emotional, social, spiritual, and intellectual health. Lifestyle change can be facilitated through a combination of efforts to enhance awareness, change behavior and create environments that support good health practices. Of the three, supportive environments will probably have the greatest impact in producing lasting change"
American Journal of Health Promotion


Wellness is an active process of becoming aware of and making choices toward a more successful existence.
The key words in this first sentence are process, aware, choices and success.

  • Process means that we never arrive at a point were there is no possibility of improving.
  • Aware means that we are by our nature continuously seeking more information about how we can improve.
  • Choices means that we have considered a variety of options and select those that seem to be in our best interest.
  • Success is determined by each individual to be their personal collection of accomplishments for their life.
National Wellness Institute

Currently, wellness refers to the degree to which one feels positive and enthusiastic about oneself and life, whereas illness refers to the presence of disease.
Ronald W. Manderscheid, PhD

Wellness is generally used to mean a healthy balance of the mind-body and spirit that results in an overall feeling of well-being.  Some well known wellness promoters, or speakers, would be: Deepak Chopra, Ken Cooper, Stephen Gould, Robert Schuller, Elaine Sullivan, and Andrew Weil.
Halbert Dunn

Wellness is a dynamic concept comprised of an interrelated set of dimensions including emotional, environmental, financial, intellectual, occupational, physical, social, and spiritual factors. Wellness is an active, lifelong process that involves expanding knowledge, skills, values, practices, and supportive environments that increase one’s ability to enjoy a balanced and fulfilling life. 
University of San Diego

Wellness is not the mere absence of disease. It is a proactive, preventive approach designed to achieve optimum levels of health, social and emotional functioning. Wellness can also be defined as an active process through which you become aware of and make choices toward a more successful existence. A wellness-oriented lifestyle encourages you to adopt habits and behaviors that promote better health and an improved quality of life. It also involves the recognition that you have physical, psychological, social, and spiritual needs, with each dimension being necessary for optimal levels of functioning. Wellness is a positive approach to living - an approach that emphasizes the whole person. It is the integration of the body, mind, and spirit; and the appreciation that everything you do, think, feel, and believe has an impact on your state of health.
Author Unknown