Health and Wellness

Health is the most precious thing on earth, but its value is usually ignored until one lost it, or started to have a serious health problem. WHO defines a healthy person in a holistic way. Wellness implies a balanced state in which a person is healthy not only physically, but also mentally and socially. Nowadays with easy access to health information on the Internet, we can get much more health advice and knowledge about health care than ever before. On the other hand, we no longer find ourselves have enough time to listen to the signals of our body, or to take better care of ourselves. What a pathetic paradox!

There are multiple approaches to health care: the conventional western way, alternative methods, and the oriental styles of which the most popular is probably the Chinese traditional medicine. Which should you follow? It is your choice, of course, for ultimately you have the most responsibility for the wellness of your own body.

One of the alternative approaches is Integrative Medicine (IM). It is a multidimentional approach to health care, as it attempts to combine the best of conventional western treatments with selective but less mainstream therapies all over the world. It focuses on the patient's self-directed and proactive role, rather than the physician's reactive directions. It is healing-oriented, not disease-, nor technology-oriented. This approach considers the patient as an integrated whole, the body, the mind and the soul.

According Dr. Tracy Gaudet's Consciously Female: How to Listen to Your Body and Your Soul for a Lifetime of Healthier Living, (2004), a person's health and healing status can be evaluated in five different domains:
1. Movement or exercise
2. Nutrition and your relationship with food, drink and supplements
3. Mind or your mental state
4. Spirit or the connectedness that takes you beyond your self
5. Sensation or sensuality and sexuality

Based on this framework, the person can reflect on the five domains, and check his/her health status daily, then record it in a journal.