What is Health?

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), health is a state of absolute physical, mental and social well-being and is not just limited to the absence of diseases or infirmity (physical/mental weakness).

What is Wellness?

The biggest difference between health and wellness is that you cannot achieve good health without achieving wellness. Health is a state of holistic well-being which involves the diagnosis or predisposition of a disease/illness. On the other hand, wellness is preventive, proactive, and driven by self-responsibility towards living a happy, fulfilled and robust life. Thus, health and wellness are different but go hand-in-hand.

7 Dimensions of Wellness

Wellness is a multidimensional concept. Take a look at various dimensions of wellness below:
1
Physical WellnessPhysical wellness helps enhance physical fitness, which can lead to an increased ability to prevent diseases and illness. For instance, exercise can prevent a sedentary lifestyle and stimulate a healthy mind, thereby preventing mental and lifestyle diseases.
2
Emotional WellnessEmotional wellness helps to deal with stressful situations. If you have achieved emotional wellness, you will have good self-esteem, as you are aware of your own feelings and can also empathize with other people’s feelings.
3
Social WellnessSocial wellness is essential to stay happy and healthy. You can achieve social wellness by interacting, relating and contributing to a community, maintaining long-term relationships with friends and family and maintaining good interpersonal relations within your social circles.
4
Intellectual WellnessIntellectual wellness helps to avoid mental health problems. You can ensure mental wellness through mental exercises and engagement in learning, creative support, and problem-solving that challenge your mind.
5
Environmental WellnessEnvironmental wellness can be achieved by living and maintaining a healthy physical environment that is free of any kind of hazards.
6
Spiritual WellnessSpiritual wellness helps develop compassion, care & forgiveness and realise the true meaning and purpose of our lives. You can achieve spiritual wellness by meditating, spending time with nature and doing volunteer work.
7
Financial WellnessFinancial wellness helps to build a healthy relationship between your financial goals and obligations. You can achieve financial wellness by building a budget, planning your meals and living healthily on a budget.

Health vs Wellness

The biggest difference between health and wellness is that you cannot achieve good health without achieving wellness. Health is a state of holistic well-being which involves the diagnosis or predisposition of a disease/illness. On the other hand, wellness is preventive, proactive, and driven by self-responsibility towards living a happy, fulfilled and robust life. Thus, health and wellness are different but go hand-in-hand.

What is the Importance of Health and Wellness?

Focussing on health and wellness can help you develop a healthy lifestyle, supportive attitude and effective behaviour to achieve good health. Moreover, it prevents you from focusing only on symptoms, pain and disabilities as indicators of good health.

FAQs

  • Q. What is health and wellness?

    Ans: Health refers to the complete state of physical, social and mental well-being, which is not limited to diagnosis of diseases. Wellness is the optimal state of a person driven by self-responsibility towards healthy living. Thus, health is the ultimate goal, and wellness is the active process of achieving it.
  • Q. What are the seven aspects of health and wellness?

    Ans: Check out the seven aspects of health and wellness:
    • Physical wellness
    • Mental wellness
    • Social wellness
    • Intellectual wellness
    • Environmental wellness
    • Spiritual wellness
    • Financial wellness
  • Q. What is the importance of wellness?

    Ans: Wellness is important to achieve good health that leads to a happy and robust life. It is an active process of making informed choices and lifestyle changes to achieve holistic well-being, i.e. mental, physical and social well-being..
  • Q. Why is wellness good?

    Ans: Wellness is good for you as it helps to keep you physically fit, reduce stress and improve your quality of life.