"Good Health" is not "Wellness"

In January, more than 2 months ago, I wrote "Are U Well?". At that time, I had no idea what "wellness" really meant. Yah, we all know that the USM Clinic used to be called Pusat Kesihatan (or literally, the Health Centre, or just Clinic). Now it has been renamed the Pusat Sejahtera (in English, it's supposed to be Wellness Centre), which got some people confused with Kampus Sejahtera. So they bracketed it with "(Pusat Kesihatan dan Pergigian)" - which kinda defeats the point of the name change because you now sort of tell people that it's still the same thing.

What would you expect when you walk into a Wellness Centre? Gym? Spa? Reflexologists and masseuse lined to crack your bones and relax your muscles? Doctors and nurses? emmmhh ....

I remember the first time I heard about the proposed name change was when VC mentioned it in passing (quite long ago), saying that "apparently there's a difference between health and wellness" (or something like that) ... but he didn't elaborate.

I did some googling recently and started reading. And I am still trying to get it into my bloodstream, so this is really tentative but hopefully instructive.

Firstly, even if you have a debilitating disease, it does not mean you cannot attain a certain state of wellness.

And I hear you go "huh, sick but still well? what kind of concept is this?".

So, imagine a patient who has to go for dialysis a few times a week. It's probably painful (I don't know, really, I'm assuming). It takes hours off your day. And of course, it probably also means you can't be very active the rest of the week. Within these limitations, wellness can still be achieved. Yes, it means that you accept the limitations imposed by your illness but you choose to live you life to the fullest possible.

So, the first idea or concept or principle, is that there are various levels or thresholds to wellness. It varies with your state of health. It varies with age, from childhood to old age. Various developmental stages are identified throughout your life. Within each stage, you should develop certain wellness tasks. For example, during infancy, one minimal wellness task relates to psychomotor skills. As you become aged (like me?) you need to learn to how to deal with your mortality (death), loss of income upon retirement and of course your physical abilities and strengths.

Some people are just lucky. They don't have to do anything and still don't get sick. That essentially means he/she is healthy. That's how we see "health" - the absence of illness. To understand wellness, imagine a sliding horizontal bar. On the left end is "illness" and on the right end is "wellness". Now, if you are ill, you get medical treatment, you work towards recovery and maybe rehabilitation and you will then arrive at somewhere in the middle where you will be considered "healthy", again.

Wellness requires that you continue moving to the right, learning about what it takes to stay healthy (education), then making lifestyle changes with the intention to maximise life satisfaction. Then, you will attain "wellness".

Wellness is a very personal and individual effort (with community and professional support, if necessary). You cannot have a KPI or standard measurement of wellness which applies to everyone. Wellness is not a static point or position. Wellness is a process. You have to keep working on it, to achieve personal growth. And that does not mean just getting rich. Wellness requires effort. You need to work at it.

Obviously, personal ambitions and goals plays a dominant role in determining your wellness. If you are constantly stressed and aggressively pursuing your first million or next big promotion you will neglect your family and friends, make enemies along the way and generally forget to take care of your health. All will not end well.

If you have access, try this article "The Wellness Process" (1977) ... yes, they have been talking about it for more than 30 years! I wonder if the ideas have evolved or change much since.

Quote of the week by Muhammad Salleh, Poet Laurete at the CGSS Dailogue at DPU, USM yesterday : "When I am not having nightmares about KPIs, I am a poet". See a connection to wellness?