Notes

Health - a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity
Health Promotion - the science and art of helping people change their lifestyle toward an optimal state of health.
Health Protection - is defined as those professional activities designed to prevent or reduce occupational illness and injury as well as enhance health and well-being.
Wellness - is defined as a dynamic process of becoming aware of and making conscious choices toward a more balanced and healthy lifestyle.
Physical Wellness - is the process of making choices to create flexible, cardiovascularly fit, energetic, strong bodies. The choices we make are related to exercise, nutrition, rest and sleep, intentional and responsible sexual choices, stress management, management of injury and illness, and the responsible use of alcohol and other drugs.
Social Wellness - is the process of creating and maintaining healthy relationships through the choices we make. It embraces relationships at home and work, friendships, and our relationships with all people and future generations.
Emotional Wellness -is the process of accepting our worth, creating, recognizing, and expressing our feelings, and talking to ourselves in healthy ways. Creating and maintaining a positive, realistic self-concept is also part of this process, as is realistically assessing potential and limitations.
Spiritual Wellness - is the process of discovering meaning and purpose in life, and demonstrating values through behaviors. Spiritual wellness includes acceptance of the concepts of wholeness, unity, diversity, individual uniqueness, and the need for community
Career Wellness - is the process of making and maintaining choices related to work which include choosing a job for which we are well-suited, well-trained, and from which we gain satisfaction. Career wellness also requires balancing work with the rest of your life.
Environmental Wellness - is the process of making choices which will contribute to sustaining or improving the quality of life in the universe. This dimension includes responsible choices regarding the use of air, water, land and energy so that future generations of each species may survive and thrive.The Social Aspects - Your relationship with others; family, friends, co-workers, teammates, teachers, other members of the community are as important to your overall health as the physical aspects. It is not crucial to be popular and have many friends but it is important to have a few special people with whom you are comfortable sharing your thoughts and feelings so that you will have social health in balance. Maintaining healthy relationships is one way to care for your social health needs. Using good communication skills through listening to others, showing respect for yourself and others, being inclusive and open-minded in your relationships and showing compassion and care for others are also ways to enhance your social well-being.

The Mental Aspects - Mental health is sometimes called emotional health. Mental/emotional health deals with how you cope with the challenges of life. It is about your feelings and thoughts concerning yourself and others. Mental health includes your ability to cope with stress and the challenges of everyday life in appropriate ways. Are you able to make responsible decisions and have a positive attitude when challenged with difficult situations?

The Physical Aspects - Your physical health includes how your body functions and must be cared for in a variety of ways. Exercise, nutrition and rest are the most common and notable aspects of physical health. However, many of the social and mental aspects have an impact on your physical health as well. Use or misuse of alcohol and drugs due to peer influence may lead to risk of injury. Handling stress appropriately is important in avoiding blood pressure issues due to prolonged stress on the body.

It is important to try and maintain a balance in the three aspects of the health triangle. While each has its own set of characteristics they all are interrelated. This triangle needs to be an equilateral triangle with all the sides equal. At the point when all the sides are equal, a person is considered "healthy." Are you healthy? Are all three sides of your triangle in balance?

In the additional resources provided you can examine the scope of each side of the triangle. The social and mental sides of the triangle are many times overlooked, pay particular attention to these aspects of the triangle and the possible short and long term effects these may have on the physical side of the triangle.

Read the following article as a resource and keep track of how all three aspects of health are connected.

http://healthtriangle.org - Health Triangle

As our definition states, health is comprised of physical, mental and social well-being.