Health vs. Wellness: What Are the Differences?
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You’re scrolling through social media and see a post about the health benefits of intermittent fasting. Or you’re reading an article about how mindfulness is an important part of wellness that can reduce levels of stress. Or you’re talking to someone and they mention how they’re trying to make changes to enhance their well-being.
Health, wellness, well-being: these terms are everywhere! Do they all mean the same thing or are there distinct differences? In this post, we’ll explore the difference between health and wellness, how they interact with one another, and why it matters. Let’s dive in!
While people often use “health” and “wellness” interchangeably, the terms do have different meanings. The primary difference between health and wellness is that health is a goal, while wellness is the active process of achieving it. Let’s take a closer look at the definitions:
Why does this matter? Wellness has a direct influence on our overall health, which is essential for living a healthy, happy, fulfilled life. In other words, we can’t really have one without the other.
The difference is important to understand because while we cannot always choose the state of our health, we do have a conscious choice to make active decisions towards wellness. For instance, we might have a predisposition to heart disease, a diagnosis of type 1 diabetes at an early age, or an unexpected brain injury. This is our “health” — our state of being.
However, we can choose to eat a balanced diet, exercise more often, and schedule regular doctor visits. This is wellness, the state of living a healthy lifestyle.
We cannot truly have health without first achieving wellness.
When we discuss wellness, we’re talking about various components of health. There are eight different dimensions of wellness.
Each dimension of wellness is important to our overall health and well-being. In fact, neglecting any of these dimensions can negatively affect our health and quality of life. Let’s take a closer look at each one.
Balance is an important part of wellness, taking the time to do the things that make us feel good, happy, and fulfilled. This might include working, volunteering, having fun, spending time with family and friends, participating in the community, being physically active, relaxing, or sleeping.
Because we each have individual needs, preferences, and capabilities, our definition “balance” will likely look different from someone else’s definition. For instance, maybe we thoroughly enjoy exercising and prioritize going to the gym for an hour every day. Our friend, however, might really enjoy volunteering at the local shelter and spend more time doing that.
Similarly, it’s important for us to continually re-balance from time to time and make adjustments based on whatever is going on in our lives. When we’re going through a difficult time — whether it’s stress, an illness, trauma, or emotional challenge — balance is especially important. For instance, it’s important to spend more time caring for ourselves and making sure we’re not overextending ourselves with other duties or responsibilities. “Down time” can provide the space we need to process difficult things, work through our feelings, or simply rest.
On the other hand, during more relaxed, less stressful times, we might have a greater capacity to help and support others — family members, friends, and strangers. It’s worth noting, however, that social relationships and connection are a vital part of wellness; it’s never good to isolate ourselves.
The bottom line? The goal is to achieve a well-rounded balance of all eight dimensions of wellness, which provides holistic harmony to our personal health and well-being. Just as a balanced diet is needed for healthy nutrition, balanced wellness engages the body, mind, and spirit.
Wellness exists on a continuum: no one is ever completely healthy or completely unhealthy. However, the more healthy behaviors we choose, the closer we move toward optimal health on the wellness continuum. In other words, we can choose behaviors to move us closer to better health.
Below are some tips for improving each dimension of wellness. We’ve also incorporated several questions to ask yourself to help guide you.
Physical wellness. Make sure you are getting regular physical activity, eating healthy, nutritious foods, and getting adequate sleep. There are many examples of physical activity that range in levels of intensity from light to vigorous, such as yoga, bike riding, jumping rope, running, swimming, tennis, or dancing. The best diet to follow is rich in fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, and healthy fats. It’s equally important to refrain from doing things that put our health at risk, such as drinking alcohol excessively or doing drugs.
Ask yourself these questions:
Emotional wellness. Develop regular habits that help you process and deal with your feelings effectively. For instance, you might use a journal to record your thoughts and feelings. Or maybe you start practicing mindfulness, do deep breathing exercises, or go to therapy to help you work through any painful emotions.
Questions to ask yourself:
Intellectual wellness. When we foster our intellectual wellness, we participate in activities that cultivate mental growth. Reading, doing challenging puzzles such as crosswords or sudoku, debating issues with others who have opposing viewpoints, learning a new language or instrument, or trying a new hobby are ways to improve our intellectual wellness. Whenever we challenge ourselves to learn a new skill, we’re building our intellectual health.
Questions to ask yourself:
Social wellness. Building a healthy social dimension might involve asking a colleague or friend out for lunch, joining a club or organization, setting healthy boundaries, and using good communication skills that are assertive rather than passive or aggressive.
Questions to ask yourself:
Spiritual wellness. Spiritual wellness might come from activities such as volunteering, self-reflection, meditation, prayer, or spending time in nature. To improve our spiritual health, it can help to create a quiet space for solitude and contemplation or a place of curiosity and playfulness.
Questions to ask yourself:
Environmental wellness. Ways to improve environmental wellness include creating neighborhood watches, recycling, planting a personal or community garden, purchasing products with minimal packaging, avoiding littering, and conserving energy and water.
Questions to ask yourself:
Occupational wellness. An occupational wellness goal might include finding work that is meaningful, financially rewarding, and aligned with your values, interests, and skills. Consider your office culture and determine how supported you feel. If you feel unsupported, seek out emotional encouragement from loved ones and be sure to engage in recreational activities that can help balance work stress.
Questions to ask yourself:
Financial wellness. Improving financial wellness might include developing a household budget, starting a savings account and adding to it every month (even if it’s just a small amount!), saving some of your income in an emergency account, minimizing credit card debt, and donating to a meaningful charity.
Questions to ask yourself:
Health and wellness are similar concepts with slightly different meanings. Health is a state of being, while wellness aims to enhance it. We can improve our health by taking steps to address and improve each dimension of wellness: physical, emotional, intellectual, social, spiritual, environmental, occupational, and financial.
If you want to give your health a boost, consider trying Reframe. We’re a neuroscience-backed app that has helped millions of people cut back on their alcohol consumption and improve every dimension of wellness.
1. What’s the difference between health and wellness?
The primary difference between health and wellness is that health is a goal, while wellness is the active process of achieving or improving it. Wellness is an active and dynamic process of change and growth to enhance our overall health.
2. What are the 8 dimensions of wellness?
The 8 dimensions of wellness include physical, emotional, intellectual, social, spiritual, environmental, occupational, and financial. Each one of these are important to our overall health and well-being.
3. How can we improve our health?
We can improve our health by actively working on, managing, or improving each of the 8 dimensions of wellness.
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