An Idea of Wellness

What does "wellness" mean to me? When I first think of wellness, I tend to think of health and constitution. How well am I doing, in terms of health? What level is my constitution at? If I can appropriately estimate that level of health and constitution, then I can probably know what level of wellness I am at. That is what I first thought wellness meant. I continued to explore the meaning of "wellness".

When I look up the definition of wellness, I see a citation that refers to "an approach to healthcare that emphasizes preventing illness and prolonging life, as opposed to emphasizing treating diseases." Wellness seems to be the defensive aspect of the body's health. Wellness does not actually describe a relationship with a disease, but rather a relationship with healthcare that prolongs life.

Another entry for wellness says "The condition of good physical and mental health, especially when maintained by proper diet, exercise, and habits." Wellness seems to be easily controlled by the human body. For some, though, wellness is not easily controlled, or understood.

These definitions as well as my own insight lead me to believe that wellness is a combination of both mental and physical exercise that prevent illness and prolong life. Wellness does not necessarily provide a cure for treating diseases, but Benjamin Franklin once said, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." This means that with a moderate amount of wellness, preventing illness and harm from befalling us, we are just as safe as with an extreme amount of treatment of disease. Wellness means wearing warm clothing, as opposed to waiting until you get sick with the flu and hoping that there is a vaccine for it. Being healthy and disease-free is a sure sign of wellness. How else can you increase your wellness? Of course, by practicing an exercise such as Tai Chi!

Tai Chi is also a path to wellness. With Tai Chi exercise, stress can be reduced, helping to promote wellness. The body, mind, spirit, finances, emotions, environment, career, and social paths in life are all of concern. We know that illness and suffering can be remedied through Tai Chi. Also, this promotes harmony and wellness together. With easy to learn techniques like "Wave Hands Like Clouds Drifting By", and "Embrace Tiger Back To The Mountain", stress can be relieved by almost anyone who is willing to practice and exercise! That is why Tai Chi is an ideal choice for the improvement of wellness.

Tai Chi exercise complies with the idea of holistic wellness, which includes the 8 areas of wellness. This includes the body, mind, spirit, emotions, career, finance, social area, and environment. Since the exercise provided by practicing Tai Chi complies with the idea of holistic wellness, people who would otherwise needlessly suffer can improve their lives and levels of wellness by practicing an exercise that improves their overall wellness like Tai Chi. Tai Chi movements and physical therapy emphasize stress reduction, as well as the upper limbs, neck, back and shoulder, lower limbs, waist, hip and knee, flexibility coordination, balance, and sleeping problems. With all of this observed, and practiced correctly, harmony can be achieved.

As we know, martial arts have become a way to achieve cardiovascular exercise. Tai Chi, as an exercise, does not put the joints, ligaments, and muscles at risk. That is one of it Tai Chi's strong points. The same techniques which can increase the health of the body can also be used to defend oneself and compete in the world.

Those that want to focus even more can look at Cardio Tai Chi. The six benefits of Cardio Tai Chi are stress reduction/management, physical therapy, total fitness, self-defense, cardiovascular health, and movement art. Aside from these major benefits, numerous other benefits include: relaxation, bolstering coordination and balance, increasing flexibility, improving circulation, lowering blood pressure, increasing muscle strength, and also easing arthritis pain!

As you can see, wellness and Tai Chi inter relate in several different areas. The body, mind, and spirit benefit from Tai Chi exercise. Also, emotions are more stable with the exercise, which can help to enhance a person's career, finances, and social prospects. The environment will also benefit from these modifications in a person's outlook on life. The only way to better understand wellness is to increase the level of wellness you experience. One way to do that is through Tai Chi exercise, which builds up wellness in terms of the body, mind and spirit. Through those paths, the remaining petals of holistic wellness also improve.