don's report archive

by Donald B. Ardell, Ph. D.

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

I have been describing the wellness concept for thirty years, starting with High Level Wellness: An Alternative to Doctors, Drugs and Disease (Rodale 1977, Bantam 1979 and Ten Speed Press 1976). Over many years, my descriptions of wellness, including strategies for approaching and sustaining such a lifestyle, have been elaborated in speeches, newsletters and at SeekWellness.com. 

Wellness has been described as a conscious choice and as a lifestyle built upon an ethic of personal responsibility.  

Other characteristics of wellness emphasized over the years include:  

• A multi-pronged approach, including a commitment to vigorous daily exercise.
  
  
• A reliance on sound nutrition based on independent scientific evidence from non-commercial sources, not hype found in diet books or the literature of supplement pushers.
  
  
• A stress on the positive benefits, such as increased energy and sex appeal/performance, not a reduction of cancer or other risks, however beneficial the latter.
  
   
• A focus beyond the physical, to include psychological and meaning and purpose (versus "spirit" or "spirituality").

I often noted that a wellness mindset should eliminate temptations to blame someone else, make excuses, shirk accountability or whine. Ever.

In summary, I always described wellness as an ambitious, exceptional lifestyle that required a major commitment to advanced purposes. It was painted as an alternative to dependency on doctors and drugs, complacency, mediocrity, self-pity, boredom and slothfulness.

Now I have another take on wellness. I still favor all the above aspects of the concept, but there has been one very major change in my thinking. I no longer believe most people can pull it off. Now I urge people to tell themselves, "I can't do it." Icantdoit is my wellness mantra.

Why the shift? Face facts--wellness is too hard to sustain and usually too overwhelming to even contemplate. When thinking about living a wellness lifestyle, most will conclude, correctly, "I can't do it." Wellness is too high a standard; the bar is set too high. By far.

Another big shift in my thinking about wellness is based on a sense that modest expectations enable better results. Seek little, at least initially. I recommend little pleasures, modest successes-at least once or maybe multiple times daily, if possible. The real enemy of good outcomes is over-striving. Trying to do too much, or even being encouraged to take on a daunting role, leads to disappointments and many negative consequences that flow from repeated failures. 

An icantdoit view allows that most people can't achieve at high levels of performance, whether it be at work, in terms of personal fitness and health, as parents, as community leaders and so on. Americans and others have been sold a bill of goods. They have been told they can do anything, go anywhere, be whatever they like. "Just do it," Nike asserts. 

Easy to say, hard to manage.  

My wellness recommendation is to live life as best you can. Try a little bit of a wellness approach, in your own fashion, little by little and bit by bit. Set modest plans consistent with personal responsibility and the other qualities noted above, but be sensible about it.

Don't forget to look on the bright side of life while seeking little pleasures and doing what has to be done.  

(Note: This essay will be filed in the archives in the MEANING DOMAIN under the skill area of applied wellness. 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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