What is Health and Wellness

What is Health and Wellness to you? Why do the two work hand in hand with each other? How can I involve exercise, nutrition, anatomy, complimentary, alternative, and integrative medicines, all into one learning schedule? Will I have to learn all of them differently at a separate pace? These are all questions I asked myself when I was searching for this type of degree. To me, health refers to a state where the physical body is free from disease or complications. While Wellness refers to an overall balance of a person’s physical, social, spiritual, emotional, intellectual, environmental, and occupational well-being. We must stay on top of our health in order to live a healthy life, and there are so many things in todays society that can affect health. With everyone living such a fast paced life, “Fast-Food” restaurants seem to have named their chains correctly. Popping in and grabbing a bite to eat within a small time frame is appealing to almost everyone. Which is the basis of so many complications in ones health. Fast food can cause complications such as cardiovascular problems, diabetes, inflammation, and even depression. When eating your favorite burger from one of these stores, you get an endorphin rush right through you. And what goes up, must come down. When those endorphins begin to lower from their heightened state, you can become depressed. On top of that, most people use food as a vice when they are depressed. So it is a vicious cycle of becoming depressed, and going to get more fast food, because–well–our fast paced life style. The instant gratification trait is something that has begun to develop over the years, in nearly every individual. The advent of technology has given us instant messages, instant google searches, instant ordering of everything.

Wellness takes that health aspect and brings it to a different kind of focus. The aligning of your chakras as some people may say. When a person brings all of these different traits into consideration, they can begin managing all kinds of things. Emotional well-being stems from being able to control your emotions. Intellectual well-being stems from constantly learning, whether in a book or at the gym. Each one has its own proprietary meaning in our lives, however, it must be longed for. It is said that you must find your happiness in life. Well, in my thought process, if we constantly search for our happiness, we are going to be looking all over the place for something that isn’t necessarily tangible. I am a firm believer that we must create our happiness through intellectual, emotion intelligence, physical, spiritual, and societal well-being. Yes, it all is combined, because in order to finish a puzzle, you must have all the pieces. Finding a deep love for yourself, gives you the ability to find a deep love in the ones around you, whether it is a personal relationship, or someone in passing. It keeps irrationality to a minimum, which can reduce conflict in your everyday life. When we begin to take the steps to creating a better self-image of ourselves, we can begin influencing the people around us. Family members, friends, co-workers, or other acquaintance’s can say “If that person can change, then so can I”. Change starts from within!

-Cyral I Callender III