Understand the REAL nature of the concept of wellness

Introduction: What is Wellness?

Because the term wellness has been used indiscriminately for decades, many have abandoned it for more generic labels (eg, health promotion). Yet others, especially those who adopted and used it decades ago, continue to describe wellness as a positive lifestyle for anyone seeking to thrive, flourish, and maintain vitality and well-being. The term, first used in the 1950s by physician Halbert L. Dunn, is not confused by wellness advocates and promoters with issues related to prevention, health education, alternative medicine, the spa business, the promotion of products or other unrelated industries.

Yet since so many doctors, entrepreneurs, alternative medicine advocates, spa promoters, and a variety of New Age hippie dippies like actress Gwyneth Paltrow have embraced the term for their own disparate interests unrelated to personal responsibility, I decided decades ago to create a brand for authentic wellness

To distinguish my work in advancing a positive life-enhancing model based on the true nature and logical dimensions of positive wellness, I added the REAL modifier to the word wellness. REAL is an acronym; the four REAL letters that stand for reason, exuberance, athleticism and freedom.

How is this form of wellness different?

REAL wellness is about positive approaches, perspectives, and possibilities for improving quality of life. Risk reduction, medical management, prevention, and everything else designed for cost containment in corporate wellness programs are fine, as are medical services, medical tests, and most health care services. usual. But it is better not to confuse such offers with the original and genuine form of well-being. The latter entails an approach beyond (and without including) the absence of evils, dysfunctions and discontent.

REAL wellness invites continuous learning and advancement toward life-affirming matters, including but not limited to happiness, positive passions, meaning and purpose, joy and affection, effective decision-making, and expansion. of personal freedoms. It’s about living the kind of life you want to enjoy while being physically and mentally healthy.

If you’re going to spend time and energy taking care of yourself, don’t settle for gadgets, diets, dilettantes endeavors, or anything other than true wellness.

Protection of the integrity and meaning of the concept

You can share my idea that other wellness uses without this modifier are most likely FALSE wellness. I am pleased to announce that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has granted me a trademark for REAL wellness ®.

The first person I spoke to about the REAL wellness brand award was Dr. Grant Donovan, the Halbert L. Dunn from Australia who popularized wellness in the 80s and 90s at Downunder and with whom I have worked closely since then. This is what he wrote in a congratulatory email:

Wellness has become a blanket marketing term, on a very long continuum, for everyone from medical and pseudo-health groups to resort owners, spa promoters, and tour operators. In fact, it can be difficult to find a more bastard word in any language.

So in a completely mindless and randomly assembled world that is overpopulated with humans, who are here by chance rather than by choice, I see a wellness lifestyle as a fun way to fill in the time between birth and death. , not a way to keep people alive to experience a painful or insane ending. That is not REAL wellness.

Good luck getting your well-being back. I hope that REAL wellness helps at least some people find a fun path to the abyss.

Don’t be fooled by those who sell services and products as if there is a shortcut or alternative to adopting a philosophy and creating / perfecting a lifestyle that keeps you in peak physical and mental shape. There are no shortcuts or effortless possibilities for genuine well-being beyond the limiting norms of the general population. To be in the moment of your game – that is, winning at life in all the most important ways – don’t settle for anything less than REAL wellness.