HEALTH, WELLBEING, AND WELLNESS – what’s the difference?

And how do you get them???

We sorta talk about these three things as if they’re more or less interchangeable. But they’re not.

You might look perfectly ‘healthy’ on the outside, but how’s the inner you?

The World Health Organisation says that health is “a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” It’s a holistic thing. A state of being.

You might be totally fit and physically asymptomatic, but actually feel quite crappy within yourself – maybe work’s not all that; maybe your relationship’s not quite as it could be; maybe there are some family issues causing you some stress. So, your wellbeing isn’t all that it might be. It’s your experience of your life, right?

Where does wellness fit in to this, then?

Wellness is what you DO. It implies some ACTION.

But isn’t this landscape just SOOOO confusing???

You want a slice of the wellness pie, please and thank you – but what’s the best thing to actually DO???

Do you exercise more? Do you try to get more/better sleep? Do you eat ‘healthily’? (Don’t even get me started on that can of worms…) Do you meditate?

It’s enough to drive a body to drink. (Oh, but that definitely WOULDN’T be healthy, now, would it? GAH.)

Doesn’t it depend so much on who you ask?

Who CAN you ask? Who’s unbiased?

Let’s use drink as an example. If you ask Coca-Cola, Coke is a perfectly ‘healthy’ beverage. In fact, they’ve made it even ‘healthier’ by removing the sugar from it. Because sugar’s ‘bad’, isn’t it? In fact, they’ve reduced the sugar in their various drinks by 52,000 tonnes. Over what period of time, they don’t say. But you can certainly ‘have a Coke and a smile’, can’t you?

Weeeell, maybe. Maybe not.

Your amazing body drinks the sugar-free version and tastes sweetness – even if it’s aspartame – and it does what a body reacting to sugar does. The same thing, pretty much. The pleasure centres in your brain light up. You’re a sugar-junkie without even tasting sugar. And, no surprises, it stays on your shopping list for next time. It’s all very positive, as experiences go.

Your gut, however, reacts to the artificial sweetener negatively – because all those bugs need things to stay a certain way to continue blooming down there and doing their awesome job of chemical production so that you can stay well. It’s the engine room of your body – why wouldn’t you treasure it? But it’s not the sugar that does the damage; it’s the substitute. The thing that makes the drink ‘healthy’ causes your gut to be UNhealthy.

Oh, and guess what? Because their taste buds still register massive sweetness, your kids will still demand Coke with menaces, despite Coca-Cola’s virtuous standpoint of not targeting their advertising at anyone under the age of 16. And that’s why our hospitals are packed with children aged 5 - 9 having their decaying teeth removed. No smiles there, I think.

You can totally listen to the European Food Safety Authority, though, can’t you?

Well, they base their decisions on evidence provided by studies done by … whom???

90% of the studies that say Aspartame is ok, for example, were funded by large chemical companies that manufacture and sell it. That’s the evidence the EFSA is using. Hmmm.

All the studies that suggested it might not be so good for you were funded by non-commercial, independent sources.

Sherlock Holmes I’m not, but it doesn’t take anyone with a mind palace to see what’s going on here.

Can you listen to me? Am I biased? Do I know what you can do to create wellness?

Of course I’m biased. I want you to ask me for help. This is how I pay my bills.

But more than that, it’s my WHY.

Above all things, I detest unfairness and inequality. It’s not right that the poorest people in our society should have no choice. Because when you have no choice, you have no freedom.

You’re trapped in a vicious cycle of UN-health. You have no wellbeing. And you don’t have the option to DO wellness, because it’s too expensive.

You believe the half-truths of Big Beverage and Huge Hyper-Processed Food with its smooth -mmmm- mouthfeel and its expensively written copy designed to light up your pleasure centres and make you WANT. Why on earth wouldn’t you?

I have the heart of a teacher, and now I use my skills to inform myself to the best of my ability about what gives people health. What makes people unwell. How we can ACT to create wellness for ourselves and for others.

Because when everyone CAN choose wellness, why on earth wouldn’t they?

If you have the knowledge, you have the freedom to CHOOSE wellness; to DO the things that make it happen, for yourself, for your loved ones, for your employees.

It's a virtuous circle.

ADHD is a blessing for me, in this instance, as I love to dive down rabbit holes and learn fascinating facts. The dot-to-dot picture’s a huge one, and I have a LOT of the wellness dots in my possession. But the more I find out, the more I know there is to learn and if even the experts don’t quite know what’s what, I’m going to err on the side of caution and eat and drink the things I know (currently) don’t bring me harm.

I make that choice because I’m privileged to have had an education and a life in a context that’s allowed me to do so.

I have health, and wellbeing, and now I DO wellness. I do it as well as I possibly can. For myself, and for you, and your people. So that you can know what I know, and have choice.

Because choice brings freedom. Wellbeing. And health. The holistic kind. 💚

DM me if you want to talk about this stuff – I've got you.