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Defining Optimal
Well-Being
2004: Volume
1,
Number 1
According to the
World Health Organization, health is defined as:
“A state of optimal well-being, not merely the
absence of disease and infirmity.”
Wellness
practitioners believe that optimal well-being
requires a balance between wellness dimensions
that comprise the whole person.
These dimensions
of well-being include physical, mental,
emotional, environmental, spiritual, and social
components. This integrated perspective of
optimal well-being recognizes the importance on
each dimension as well as their gestalt. An
individual’s well-being and vitality is greater
than the sum of his or her parts. Although this
concept has been around since Hippocrates, it
seems to have been lost with the rise of
conventional medicine and its reliance on
specialization, technology, and separating the
disease from the person.
Today, a paradigm shift is taking place as
evidence-based medicine and complementary
approaches are integrated into a total treatment
regimen. |
