What Does Good Health and Wellbeing Mean? 

What thoughts conjure up when you think of the words ‘health’ and ‘wellbeing’? We could consider health to mean ‘wholeness’; a person who is whole and of sound mind and feeling well. So, if you’re healthy then you are WHOLE in every sense of the word. ‘Health’ could also be considered as a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

Hippocrates (a Greek physician) said, “We must turn to nature itself, to the observations of the body in health and in disease to learn the truth.” and “A wise man should consider that health is the greatest of human blessings and learn how by his own thought to derive benefit from his illnesses.” I have to agree with Hippocrates.

Physical health should mean a good, whole, healthy body, due to regular physical activity (exercise) of some type, good nutrition, lots of clean water, adequate rest and sunshine. And a nervous system that functions at 100% with no interference.

Principles of Good Health

The main principle of good health is being aware of you and your body’s needs. Reading the signs and symptoms before they fully develop and taking action to look after yourself. Being kind and compassionate to yourself.

Dis-ease befalls us when we are stressed. We have all at some point in our lives been ‘stressed’; many people live with chronic stress every day. Stress can have many causes, such as external sources that you have less control over: a stressful job, relationship, financial difficulties, bereavement, etc. External stressors often impact and contribute to internal stressors on the body, such as dehydration, poor food choices, exposure to toxic chemicals, overproduction of stress hormones, hormone imbalances, etc. All of which can lead to acute or chronic disease.

Learn about what stresses you and your body. Learn from your mistakes and your achievements. Read the signs and symptoms and adapt or change what you are doing, if required. We often know when we have pushed ourselves too much, or if something is going wrong, but we often ignore the signals. Develop your self-awareness so you become more aware of what you are doing and your interactions with others.

Raising awareness and increasing the sensitivity of our inner body will help us to maintain health and inner equilibrium. This helps us to sense our bodies innate intelligence (to better listen to) and respond to the body’s needs. By becoming more aware of our body, we can more easily rely upon inner guidance to help us decide what we need to do to maintain our wellbeing and good health. Ultimately, this will also help us in our quest to become more self-reliant, where we look for an inner cue rather than outer guidance.

What is Wellbeing?

Wellbeing could be considered as “the state of being comfortable, healthy or happy”.

It’s important to realise that ‘wellbeing’ is a much broader concept than moment-to-moment happiness. While it does include happiness, it also includes other things, such as how satisfied people are with their life as a whole, their sense of purpose, and how in control they feel.

“Wellbeing can be understood as how people feel and how they function, both on a personal and a social level, and how they evaluate their lives as a whole.”

Most people would agree that wellbeing is something they strive towards. But once we look beyond what defines wellbeing, it’s difficult to drill down into what wellbeing really means to people day to day, and the factors that may influence this (both internal and external).

Wellbeing has many components, such as:

• Mental
• Psychological
• Social
• Emotional
• Spiritual

And there is much crossover with the components of Good Health.

Social Wellbeing is a sense of belonging to a community and making a contribution to society.

Emotional Wellbeing means feeling good. Being happy, experiencing positive emotions like love, joy or compassion, and feeling generally satisfied with life.

Spiritual Wellbeing can include feeling connected to a higher power, a sense of meaning or purpose, or feelings of peace or transcendence.

‘Wellbeing’ has been described as a “resource for healthy living” and a “positive state of health” that is “more than the absence of an illness” and enables us to function well:

• Psychologically
• Physically
• Emotionally
• Socially

“Enabling people to develop their potential, work productively and creatively, form positive relationships with others and meaningfully contribute to the community”

Wellbeing can take many forms, but a useful description is “feeling good and functioning well and feeling happy is a part of wellbeing but far from the whole”. There is a deeper kind of wellbeing, which is about living in a way that is good for you and good for others around you.

It’s important to understand that ‘wellbeing’ or ‘being well’ as something you do, rather than something you are. The things we do and the way we think can have a big impact on our life experience!

Deeper wellbeing includes:

• Feelings of happiness, contentment, enjoyment, curiosity and engagement with their community, are characteristic of someone who has a positive experience of their life.
• Equally important to wellbeing, is our capacity to function psychologically well in the world. Maintaining positive relationships, having some control over one’s life and having a sense of purpose, self-esteem and self-confidence.
• Wellbeing does not mean that you never experience feelings or situations that you find difficult, but it does mean that you feel you can cope with tough times.

Here are my 3 Golden Nuggets for helping you to have a happier, healthier and fulfilled life:

Top Tip

Score yourself 1 to 10 (1 being low and 10 being high) on how often you think the following statements describe you:

1. Physical Health – I am happy with my body size and weight.
2. Social Health – When I meet people, I feel good about the impression I give.
3. Emotional Health – I find it easy to laugh, cry, and show emotions like love, fear, and anger, and try to express these in positive and constructive ways.
4. Environmental Health – I am concerned about environmental pollution and actively try to preserve and protect natural resources.
5. Spiritual Health – I believe that life is a precious gift that should be nurtured.
6. Intellectual Health – I carefully consider my options and possible consequences as I make choices in life.

Top Tip

Questions to ask yourself to gauge where the needle is on your own wellbeing. Spend some time journaling your answers to these questions and be totally honest with yourself:

1. How am I sleeping?
2. How is my hygiene?
3. On average, how is my mood?
4. What is the state of my living space?
5. When is the last time I laughed?
6. When is the last time I spent time with people I love?
7. How is my diet?
8. Am I engaging in behaviours that make me feel bad about myself?
9. How are my finances?
10. What are my goals?

Top Tip

You can influence what you think, feel and how you behave.  Break the cycle to improve your health and wellbeing.

The best way is to:

• Recognise them
• Challenge them
• And see if you can replace them

This takes some practice, but it will help you look at perceived problems from a different perspective. And help you to live a happier and healthier life.

So, let’s summarise those Golden Nuggets again:

1. Check your health
2. Where’s the needle on your wellbeing?
3. Reframe unhelpful thoughts 

Discover The Key to Good Health and Wellbeing

Good health and wellbeing are about the mind as well as the body. Feeling physically fit, and feeling good about ourselves, means that we can go and achieve more of the things we want to do in life.

Staying in good health is important to all of us and can become particularly important in later years. The best way to stay healthy, physically, mentally, and spiritually is by learning how to take care of yourself.

In our hectic lives, it can sometimes be difficult to find the motivation, the time, and the energy to make a few key changes in our lives. We’re all human! However, a bit of effort can pay off in many ways.

I wonder, did you set a few New Year’s Resolutions? ‘New Year New Me’ and all that jazz?! If those good intentions have become a long distant memory, then now is the time to make those all-important changes in your life.

Join my FREE 2-hour workshop to achieve and maintain a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing. Held over Zoom on Sunday 21 March at 4pm.

Please register and you will be sent an email with joining instructions. Book your place on “Discover The Key to Good Health and Wellbeing” today.

Thank you for joining me and I look forward to seeing you again next week for Pura Vida Your Life Happenings for insight, inspiration and more Golden Nuggets to help you live a healthier, happier and fulfilled life.

I invite you to come on a journey of empowerment with me – sign up to Discoveries to start taking steps to improve your life!

Or, why not become a Pura Vida Your Life Member to discover an even wider range of inspiring resources and tools?

Pura Vida Your Life – it all starts with you 🧡💙💛

Until next time – Pura Vida!