What Is Health: Health Is Well-being

To Be or Not To Be Well. That is the answer if the question is: What is health?

During the previous nine years I have been developing a new Holistic Health concept with an evidence-based approach to holism.

What is health?

Let’s start out with defining that health is well-being in three domains: physical, mental and social.

In my Holistic Health concept I have five domains also including political and spiritual well-being. The extra two can be viewed as superstructures to social and mental well-being respectively.

Well-being is to be well. This makes it easier to do well, but well-doing is actually something else that well-being and therefore something else than health. When it comes to ‘doing’ true health is more about the values and aims of the doing and not the doing in itself.

1. Physical health

Your physical health is about the well-being of your body. This requires development of physical health awareness including body signals and the effects of various lifestyle choices and behaviours.

2. Mental health

Mental health is about the well-being of your mind. This requires development of mental health awareness including delveopment of positive mental qualities such as humor, passion and robustness.

3. Social health

Social health is about the well-being of your personal relationships. This requires development of social health awareness including development of healthy, oxytocin-boosting intimate relationships.

4. Political health

Political health is about the well-being of the power relations in your life and society. This requires development of political health awareness including working for healthy political values such as freedom, justice, democracy and peace.

5. Spiritual health

Spiritual health is about the well-being of your spirit. This requires development of spiritual health awareness and working towards healthy spiritual values such as truth, loving-kindness and mindfulness.

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