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Wellness in the Headlines
(Don's Report to the World)

Exuberant Skepticism, Worksite Wellness & REAL Wellness
Friday March 19, 2010

Plato taught the idea that philosophy begins with wonder. REAL wellness is a philosophy, a positive way of viewing life choices. An introduction to REAL wellness should create a climate of wonder, a time of awe, astonishment, surprise, admiration, marvel—in short, wonder. 

Contrast this, the expectation for REAL wellness, with the agenda for the worksite norm of traditional, disease management program offerings (e.g., risk assessments, testings, appraisals oriented to cost savings, absenteeism). Where is the wonder to be found in that

Any topic, skill area, concept or idea associated with living well, with a disciplined mindset and behavioral pattern consciously shaped to promote good mental and physical health and high quality of life values, fits logically in the four elements of REAL wellness. The letters R-E-A-L in REAL wellness represent four elements for this philosophy: reason, exuberance, athleticism and liberty. These four elements encompass all that quality of life education should address. The phrase worksite wellness has been employed for decades for programs that manage risk and reduce costs; REAL wellness can and should define the next generation of programming. 

The goals?

1. To engage and inspire employees to glimpse possibilities, shape and manage effective and satisfying choices. 
   
   
2. To guide employees into a diverse range of explorations that will lead to new and satisfying ways to increase life quality. 
   
   
3. To stimulate people to think about how we choose to live our lives, what sort of people we are and wish to become, what kinds of work we can do and how we might explore our potentials and spend leisure hours experiencing the most joy and happiness.

A REAL wellness agenda of wonder and joy includes guided explorations of topics like meaning and purpose, happiness, environment consciousness, global responsibilities, effective decision making, individual freedoms and social responsibilities, human rights, ethical explorations and much more. REAL wellness is about great ideas, not eliminating health risks or lowering blood pressure. Medical management has far too long been the focus of worksite wellness, which of course was never wellness in the first place. Medical management by some name remains a worthy mission for organizations and should be continued by medical managers. However, it seems wise not to confuse medical management of risks with REAL wellness—multiple life topics, skills acquisition and familiarity with and consideration of mankind's great ideas. The latter will engage more employees and prepare people to artfully manage life problems and possibilities.

There is, of course, no established, proven protocol for worksite REAL wellness, at least not yet. This is a strength of the idea, not a barrier. With no established precedents, there are no limits or expectations—let the educational sessions begin with explorations of justice, temperance, wisdom, truth and beauty. For starters. Plato called these topics or questions about them license questions—because they gave those who asked and pondered such matters license to stick your nose into everything. Worksite REAL wellness can stick its nose into theoretical and practical subjects in order that employees can work through issues themselves on the road to charting and fine-tuning quality of life pathways.

In traditional worksite wellness, employees might, on a good day, be stimulated to better understanding consequences of a high fat diet and an aversion to strenuous exercise; in REAL worksite wellness, the agenda might guide them to what A.C. Grayling termed "a better understanding of the world and how to live in it more sensibly." In REAL wellness, bottom-line questions are always on the agenda, such as, "What gives life meaning?" The answers are infinite and must be individually chosen, if only in the sense that one says, I'll go along with what they're having. (This is what religious leaders count on—and why there are religious schools.) That won't do for a proper philosopher—Mr. Grayling's own choice is that our response to beauty, attachment and friendship is what gives our life meaning.

REAL wellness must, to the extent possible, be evidence-based and open to the search for truth, knowing how difficult it is to confirm a claim to truth.

However, in the spirit of exuberant skepticism, a REAL wellness outlook about the true path to quality of life might be sensed in Voltaire's remark on the subject: I love the man who seeks the truth and hate the man who claims to have it.

Employees are likely to be more interested in REAL wellness than the medical kind. One reason: more are likely to prefer thinking about life than dealing with sickness and fears of premature death.

Choose wellness—and whether at the worksite or elsewhere, please make it the REAL kind. By choosing the focus on quality of life, risk management should take care of itself.

Be well. Look on the exuberant, skeptical and REAL wellness side of life.

Note: The quotes attributed to A.C. Grayling in this essay can be found in an interview published in the Australian Age newspaper written by Barney Zwartz in an article entitled The God Botherer, March 13, 2010.

(Note: This essay will be filed in the archives in the MEANING DOMAIN under the skill area of meaning and purpose. Additional articles related to this theme may be found there.)

(Ed. Note: Views expressed in this and other columns are those of the author and not necessarily those of the SeekWellness Editorial Board.)

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