Dr. Huber and I continue are discussion on health and wellness from where we left off in Part 1. We pick up on the the christian and biblical perspective of what "wholeness" is. Which is defined as the state of being perfectly well in "body, soul (mind, will and emotions) and spirit. God's original design for man before sin entered the world was to be completely whole without sin, death and sickness. Our conversation continues on the biblical concept of the word "Shalom" coming from an article written by Dale Fletcher on his insights from reading a book titled, "Health Care You Can Live With" written by Dr. Scott Morris. The biblical concept of "Shalom" is a powerful argument that God cares about the well-being of people. It is mentioned in the Old Testament more than 250 times. Doug Hershey defines the true meaning of "Shalom" to be safe in mind, body, or estate. It speaks of completeness, fullness, or a type of wholeness that encourages you to give back. Dr. Huber and I discuss a couple of bible verses including one of Dr. Huber's favorite verses that he mentions is 3 John 2, Dear friend , I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well. Additionally, we discuss why it is important that God puts a strong emphasis regarding wholeness or wellness.
We look at "wellness" expanding on the idea of good health to include living a rich, meaningful, and energetic life. Beyond the simple presence or absence of disease, wellness can refer to optimal health and vitality--to living life to its fullest (source: "Connect Core Concepts In Health," by Insel, Roth and Insel). Dr. Huber uses the analogy of a "teeter totter" in discussing "The Wellness Continuum". How wellness is dynamic and how the choices we make on a daily basis will move us up the continuum toward optimal health or down the continuum toward sickness and disease.
Our discussion continues with the nine dimensions of wellness: physical, emotional, intellectual, interpersonal, cultural, spiritual, environmental, financial and occupational and how these different dimensions are interrelated and may affect each other. None of these dimensions or components of wellness works in isolation but work closely together. Although the dimensions of wellness are interrelated, practicing healthy behaviors related to one dimension of wellness is not a guarantee of a high level of total wellness, rather, total wellness is only achieved through a balance of all all the these different dimensions together.
We close with a remark by Rebecca Donatella, people who are healthy in their forties, fifties, sixties and beyond aren't just lucky, wealthy, or the beneficiaries of good genes. In most cases, those who thrive in their later years prioritized health in their early years. The health choices you make--beginning right now--will help determine whether your story is filled with good health, happiness, great relationships and fulfillment of your life goal.