It’s been almost a year since I published a blog post. With the events of the past year, I wanted to take a step back to think about what I want this blog to be. While thinking about how I want to allow myself a bit for freedom to explore other avenues (which I will get into later), everything eventually comes back to wellness. But what does it mean to be well? Back in 2019 when I started this blog, my initial post explained my approach to the concept of “wellness.” Unfortunately a lot of what we see online that’s considered “wellness” is so far from what wellness should be. There’s an ugly side to what has become the wellness industry, peddling goods at best no one actually needs and at worst are potentially harmful, or promoting pseudoscience and misinformation to sell products. On social media we often see wealthy, white influencers depicted as the embodiment of wellness in a way that can make it seem like wellness is not a possibility for anyone outside of those groups. To me, “wellness” simply refers to a way of looking at health holistically.
This term became very important to me a few years ago when I was going through recovery for a brain injury. Navigating three and half years of recovery forced me to look at my health holistically, because this injury had impacted so many areas of my life. For those who haven’t had that experience, not being able to partake normal activities or have control over your body for extended periods of time takes an emotional toll. It also impacts your relationships with friends and family because you need the people around you to adjust to your needs. Having a brain injury also limits the amount and type of work you can take on. While looking at my “health” during this time might mean looking at the progress I was making on routine tests, that doesn’t account for all the other things I was going through at the time.
To me, this is the crux of the difference between health and wellness. Too often we limit “health” to such narrow parameters that ignore large aspects of the human experience. For instance, if you get a physical and don’t have or have never had any underlying health conditions, aren’t at risk for any health disorders, have normal test results (and let’s be honest, look thin), you’ll generally be deemed “healthy.” But that doesn’t take into account the current state of your mental health, if the relationships in your life are healthy, if you are stressed out from poor financial health, or if you are miserable at work. This is where “wellness” as a term for holistic health has an advantage, because there are many aspects of our lives that can have an impact on our health, even though they may not seem directly related. While I am thankful that I had a physician that looked at my health holistically while going through my recovery, I know many are not that fortunate.
I am by no means a visionary in this area, back in 1948 the World Health Organization defined wellness as “‘not merely the absence of disease and infirmity’ but an overall sense of well-being.” The University of California, Davis expanded on this to define wellness as “an active process of becoming aware of and making choices toward a healthy and fulfilling life. Wellness is more than being free from illness; it is a dynamic process of change and growth. It is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” The University also established eight dimensions of wellness: emotional, occupational, intellectual, environmental, financial, psycial, social and spiritual.
I always wanted to talk about wellness on this platform, and there may be weeks where I talk more about my life or other ideas I want to explore, but moving forward I’d like to focus more on these other dimensions of wellness that we often don’t associate with health as strongly. For instance, since working from home during lockdown (and being lucky enough to be employed through lockdown), I’ve been thinking a lot about work, particularly certain aspects of corporate culture, and the impact that can have on our health. If that’s something you’d enjoy reading I hope you’ll join me along for the ride.
Hope you are all safe and well.
Livvy
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