The concept of wellness
Wellness from the beginning until now
For more than half a century, wellness has been discussed in communities, schools, businesses, and health care in the United States. Wellness is a movement, a profession, an industry, and beyond that, a dynamic process that has inspired four generations of people.

The official definition of wellness and well-being

The words wellness and well-being describe a concept beyond health that is determined by evaluating biomarkers and include psychological ones.
Oxford dictionary defines well-being in this way: "being good and living well; happiness, health and prosperity; physical and mental well-being (individual or society). It is clear that in this definition well-being is more than just Health is good. The World Health Organization does not have a specific definition for wellness, but it includes the word well-being in its definition of health: "complete physical, mental and social well-being and not just the absence of disease or infirmity."

Wellness has been used in different contexts with different meanings. Including:

 psychology
 Economy
 social

The word wellness in alternative and complementary medicine is mainly used to encourage people to adopt healthy lifestyles. People who seek alternative and complementary medicine methods actively participate in improving their health and evaluate their well-being. Holistic health, which includes all aspects of life, is used in alternative and complementary medicine with the concept of well-being. These words and concepts are not only used in the field of alternative and complementary medicine and are also found in the scientific texts of traditional methods. There are many researchers and articles that show the shortcomings of the medical model in disease management in contrast to the holistic approach of well-being and wellness. The use of these words is not limited to the field of health. In other sciences such as sociology, psychology and economics, this word is used to describe and measure human capacity.

Wellness in the field of psychology

The word wellness in the field of psychology is defined as well-being dependent on a person's thinking, which includes cognitive and emotional evaluations of a person's life and includes happiness and satisfaction with life.

The theory of set point for internal well-being came out of the study that was conducted under the title of AUWI in 2000 in Australia. According to this theory, well-being within people of different cultures is obtained in a range of 0-100 between 70-80 and healthy people who face different problems remain in this range. Areas that are important for personal well-being were considered in this study and include 7 aspects of a person's personal life, which are:
Health, personal relationships, safety, standard of living achievements, social connections and future security.

Wellness in the field of economy

In order to obtain the present and future potential of the population, economists applied methods to evaluate well-being using concepts such as national income and the product account presented by King and Epstein in the 1930s.
 Juaster and his colleagues developed this theoretical framework to evaluate the concept of well-being in relation to economic and psychological approaches. This theoretical framework acknowledges that resource limitations for individuals and society are directly related to the "availability of human time" and the "accumulation of wealth inherited from the past". This theory considers both tangible assets such as housing and intangible skills such as psychological outcomes.
Other economists have also considered the gross national product as an index to evaluate the nation's economic well-being, but this index does not consider the social consequences of this case, such as the long-term benefits of capital accumulation, leisure time, life expectancy, and income distribution in the population.

Wellness in social context

Social studies related to health and the words wellness and well-being examine political, social and economic issues and various components that affect health and death rates for societies and groups. These concepts are essential concepts and the changes that are made in them with the passage of time, make any evaluation of human wellness that goes beyond the life expectancy indicators and includes the health of the people themselves not to be done correctly. Researchers have also acknowledged that social studies must go beyond disease and gather information about healthy bodies and behaviors to contribute to well-being. According to Sointu's studies, people who are responsible for themselves and act proactively are considered in social relations as human beings with ideal virtues and are recognized as people who can create their own health and well-being. Therefore, the current use of the word well-being, due to its nature, is related to the elite of society and by default excludes those who do not have the required skills and support. Therefore, people who experience power and control have higher mental health and contribute to their health and well-being.

The cycle of wellness
Achieving balanced wellness is a growing, dynamic, yet conscious process. The three key concepts of wellness are:

  The first key concept: the disease-wellness chain
 The second key concept: the iceberg model
 The third key concept: wellness energy system

Three key concepts of wellness
The first key concept: the disease-wellness chain
Wellness is a dynamic process and not a static state.

The disease chain - wellness is the first concept in wellness. Most of us think that wellness is the absence of disease and the absence of disorder and disease indicates the desired level of wellness. while wellness has a different concept beyond the usual definitions; In fact, just as illness has different degrees, wellness also has different degrees. The disease-wellness chain shows the relationship between the treatment paradigm and the wellness paradigm. Every person can go higher than the neutral point, which indicates a state in which the person does not have any disease or disorder, and reach high levels of wellness, which indicates the growth, dynamism, awareness, and high balance of the human body and mind.
Moving from the center of the earth to the left indicates the deterioration of human health, and moving to the right indicates an increase in the level of quality of life and wellness. The paradigm of treatment using drugs, surgery, psychology, etc. can bring a person to the neutral point, where the symptoms of the disease have disappeared. This is all that the treatment paradigm is designed to do.
On the other hand, the wellness paradigm, which can be used at any point in the chain, helps you reach higher levels of quality of life and wellness. The wellness paradigm takes you to levels above the neutral point.
If you are sick, treatment is important, but don't stop at the neutral point and use the wellness paradigm to reach higher levels of wellness to increase your quality of life.
Although most people do not have physical symptoms of a disorder or disease, they are bored, depressed, nervous, anxious, or dissatisfied with their lives. If these emotional states continue, they often cause physical and psychological diseases.
Diseases such as cancer can be caused by high stress that weakens the immune system. Medical science has shown that negative emotions can lead to abuse of the body through smoking, excessive consumption of alcohol and food. These behaviors are attempts to fill the voids that result from not responding to other human needs such as being acknowledged and respected, a supportive and nurturing environment, and a sense of purpose and meaning.
High-level wellness includes taking good care of your body, using your mind constructively, expressing your emotions effectively, interacting creatively with the people around you, and paying attention to your physical, mental, and spiritual environment. In fact, it doesn't matter where you are in the chain; What matters is which direction you move: disease or a high level of wellness.
Wellness at a high level does not mean the absence of periods of illness and weakness and does not deny the fact that death is a natural part of life. We know that genetics and other factors can cause disease. At a high level, wellness simply defines choices about things we have control over, including our behavior and activities.

The second key concept: the iceberg model

The iceberg represents only a small fraction of the actual size of the iceberg – about 90 percent of the iceberg is underwater.
Your current state of health, sickness or health, is only the tip of the iceberg. This tip is the part you see. If you don't like your state, you can try to change it; Make fundamental changes, correct and optimize an unwanted situation like high weight, and just like an iceberg, if you remove one piece of ice, another piece will pop out of the water and appear.
For the perfect balance of life and wellness, you need to dive deeper. To understand all the factors that build and support your current quality of life, you need to look below the surface of your wellness.
The first level you deal with is the level of lifestyle and behavior – what you eat, how you use your body and exercise, how you relax and de-stress, and how you protect yourself from the dangers around you. you do Many of us follow lifestyles that we know are harmful to ourselves and the planet, but we don't see the power to change them. To understand why this is the case, we must look deeper and look at the cultural, psychological and motivational levels. Here we understand what made us choose this lifestyle. We understand how and with what power our cultural norms affect our lives. Sometimes these effects are negative and obsessive, such as ignoring excess weight or finding excessive thinness attractive.
For example, we can see what results we get from being overweight, smoking, driving recklessly, and what results we get from eating right, being considerate of others, and exercising regularly. We can understand what psychological problems we have because of childhood experiences like burying our feelings in order to be acknowledged.
The deepest level is the realm of identity, existence, and meaning (depending on one's beliefs, this part is called metaphysics, transhumanism, or philosophy). In fact, this part is more than a level, it is a territory; Because it has no clear boundaries. This part includes everything in the unconscious mind and issues such as the reason for existence, the true meaning of life, your place in creation and the universe. The way you choose to answer these questions and the answers you choose will create all the layers above, including the quality of your physical surface. Finally, this deeper realm helps to understand whether the tip of the iceberg that represents your health and quality of life is from the disease or wellness sector.

The third key concept: wellness energy system

We are all energy transfer agents that are connected to the entire universe. All our life processes, including disease, come back to how we manage our energy.
Let's start with the science: In 1977 Professor IIya Prigogene won a Nobel Prize for the theory of dissipative structures. According to this theory, dissipative structures are game systems that receive energy, transform it, and then return it to the environment. For example: a rock or a cup of cold coffee is a closed system; Because it does not transfer or change energy.
A seed that makes a plant from soil, light and air is an open system, and a city is an open system. In the city, raw materials are transformed into other objects in factories. These goods are then shipped all over the world. Information, knowledge, and experience are processed in city schools, and the end result of this processing is trained minds that are freed to impact the world.
Now look in the mirror. A human is an open system. We receive energy from all sources around us, organize it, transform it and return it to our environment. Dr. Travis based the Wellness Index in part on the efficient flow of energy needed for wellness. Diseases can be seen as the result of disruption in this flow. This applies to all energy-using processes in life.
When the flow of energy is balanced and smooth, you feel good. When there is a disturbance at the point of entry, exit, or between the two, you feel empty, confused, pressured, or closed. Disease and disorder can be the result of this situation.
Energy input
We have at least 3 sources of energy in our surroundings: 1. Oxygen (breathing) 2. Eating food 3. Sensing means sensory stimuli such as physical contact, heat, light, sound and other forms of electromagnetic radiation. In addition, there are other inputs that are less tangible: emotional and psychological information such as attention, caring, passion, and love, all of which have physical markers for wellness. In the following, we will discuss the sources of energy output in the wellness cycle.
Energy outputs
You are the channel and transformer of energy. For the human organism, the list of energy modifiers is much longer. Gender, blood type, skin color and other racial characteristics are your genetic inheritance. You can't do anything about these things, but you have more control over other things. These issues include education and beliefs, previous experiences, nervous system activity, flexibility, strength, weight, emotional development, muscle tension, general health, and organ function. Other things like sensitivity, open-mindedness, and self-love that can't be measured are also under your control.
Internal energy outputs
We use part of the incoming energy to build and repair the body itself, most of which occurs during sleep.
At the most basic level, the body uses its energy to maintain a small range of body temperatures by circulating blood and bringing blood to cold areas. The body secretes digestive substances to digest and absorb food. The body produces chemical compounds that are sent to all the organs of the body. The body produces electrochemical impulses that travel through the nervous system.
In this process of energy conversion, replacement of old cells and tissues with new cells, wound healing and bone fusion are included. The body moves the muscles that control digestion, respiration, excretion, and reproduction.
Don't forget the intangible manifestations of energy. Generating feelings, your inner dialogue with yourself, your visions, dreams and creating states that may be spiritual insights or altered states of consciousness.
External energy outputs
The outside world is influenced by the way you transmit energy. You radiate heat and expel waste in the form of urine, sweat, carbon dioxide, and excrement. Other people are affected by your touch, your physical actions like playing and working, laughing and crying. We learn about ourselves and others through communication, sharing intellectual pursuits, and expressing creativity.
The processes of self-responsibility, love, movement, feeling, thinking, playing and working, communication, intimacy, finding meaning and transcendence are the outputs of the wellness energy system.

The world is influenced by your interaction with your surroundings. There is no doubt that the energy of your love changes us all. By placing the input and output, the valence energy system is complete.