Last week, I described wellness as a philosophy founded on personal responsibility and quality of life, a concept with multiple dimensions, skill areas and interpretations. I also noted that organized efforts are underway by the National Wellness Institute (NWI) and leading wellness promoters outside the US to promote quality of life globally, in a manner beyond the traditional medical model of (what I called) UNREAL wellness. The hope by some involved in this effort, including yours truly, is to see emerge elsewhere a form of wellness promotion much more ambitious than seen here, in America, in our 30-year history of wellness promotion.

It is no longer satisfying or sufficiently productive to offer wellness as a prevention-based, disease focused, cost reduction oriented risk management series of programs. At least that's my point of view, shared by many others. Nor is it sufficient anymore to employ the term in an omnibus way for treatments of a holistic nature, or for spa or other product marketing. Instead, we have an opportunity to think of wellness (the REAL version) as a philosophy for advancing health AND much more, including organizational effectives, quality of life, science and rational thinking, human rights, the pursuit of happiness, personal satisfaction, better relationships, improved decision making and successfully looking for love, meaning and exuberant living. For starters. The issues facing human populations are too important to settle for less.

To paraphrase JFK, it is time to ask not what wellness has meant so far, but what it can become on a global scale in the years ahead.

Frank Rich, in a New York Times Op-Ed column recently (February 3, 2008), quoted Richard Goodwin on JFK's challenge in the 1960 campaign for the Democratic nomination for president: He had to touch the secret fears and ambivalent longings of the American heart, divine and speak to the desires of a swiftly changing nation - his message grounded on his own intuition of some vague and spreading desire for national renewal...Kennedy needed two things. He needed poetry, and he needed a country with some desire, however vague, for change.

Well, wellness promoters need a rallying point - and social advancement might be a vital part of it. Other parts might include:

• The adaptation of secular ideals, such as the promotion of reason, compassion and methods of science to describe a good life, here and now, on Earth for the living.
• The promotion of goodwill, altruism and other values as common decencies. Paul Kurtz includes happiness, self-realization, joyful exuberance, creative endeavors and excellence, the actualization of the good life as part of such decencies. Are these qualities not part of the wellness mindset? If not, then let's make them so.
• The encouragement of aspirations that are not only good for the individual but as well for the greater community. In many parts of the world, moral decencies are associated with quality of life, as are the civic virtues like democracy, the right of privacy, the belief that every individual has equal dignity and value, equality, tolerance, the principles of fairness and justice, the peaceful negotiation of differences and the willingness to compromise.
• The enlargement of personal freedoms consistent with the above values.
• The advance of environmental awareness and actions to heal damages to ecosystems around the globe. The agenda for what some call "planetary ethics" might well be included in the quality of life agenda, for there is little chance for such unless we can mitigate disease and poverty, peacefully adjudicate conflicts and find some level of prosperity for as many people as possible.

All this would not deny the value and merits of physical fitness, sound nutrition, stress management or other wellness initiatives to date, but quality of life requires so much more. Everyone who cares about and is affected by the great issues of our day has a personal stake in REAL wellness matters (more so than with disease management and risk reduction corporate programming). REAL wellness, I maintain, is a philosophy and mindset that addresses the concerns and issues noted so far in this essay. After all, who does not care about such things? I'm sure JFK did, and I believe we as wellness promoters should care today.

With the advent of global wellness leadership and new directions abroad, the profession is at a crossroads. One road leads to proven ways to address the needs of corporations for moderating costs and increasing profitability; the other to quality of life promotions for people everywhere. The latter represents an interpretation of the wellness philosophy nearer to the original notions of Halbert L. Dunn more than half a century earlier, as well as my own suggested applications in the mid-70's. (Some of this kind of agenda was expressed in my first book, High Level Wellness: An Alternative To Doctors, Drugs And Disease, Rodale, 1976). It is also consistent with the World Health Organization's Prerequisites for Health identified in 1986 in the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion. The fundamental conditions and resources for health listed in the Ottawa Charter are peace, shelter, education, food, income, a stable eco-system, sustainable resources, social justice and equity. Thus, this call for a shift from ordinary wellness American-style focused on medical matters and physical well-being is not really radical or new. It's just a bit of an expansion of a mandate already articulated by visionary leaders all over the world.

When we speak of global wellness, therefore, we should be clear that the subject is quality of life, not medical concerns, life extension, physical fitness, stress management or nutrition. Sure, these are important matters that can and must be addressed, but the larger focus of wellness must be clear. In this respect, wellness promoters, like JFK, can recruit poetry to speak for universal longings. A wellness mindset can and should be a vehicle for renewal in the face of current fears, concerns, longings and desires in a rapidly changing world.

(Illustration: Felice Giani (1760-1823), The Arch of triumph built at the St. Angelo bridge for the Federation Day celebration, 1798.)

Let's put things in perspective. An analogy might be helpful. Compared with the size of Earth, the gas giants in our solar system (Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus) are big, but compared with our sun, not so big. The sun? Now that's enormous. But, compared with other stars, not so big.

Wellness is a bit like that. Compared with preachy health education and defensive prevention, wellness ideas expressed so far in companies, at conferences and in other forums are huge. However, in relation to what is possible, what might be, not so big.

A new perspective on a global scale for REAL wellness in the years to come invites an agenda that promotes broader values, goals, ways of thinking, outcomes and purposes. The following list is not exhaustive, only suggestive of areas of involvement for REAL global wellness. It does hint at where REAL international wellness could go. Why settle for a less inspiring or consequential vision for our expanding profession?

• Independent thinking to diminish the toxic influence of superstitions, extremism, fundamentalism and other dysfunctional forces which are obviously harmful to the quality of lives and universal human rights.
• Support science and reason, democracy, the arts, philosophy, tolerance and pluralism as clearly related to quality of life and thus the wellness agenda.
• Address the most pressing issues of the day, including global warming.
• Support in all cultures the separation of church and state, freedom of conscience and the secularization of ethical values. States should be neutral about religion, allowing freedom of conscience and diversity of opinion, including the right to believe or not believe. (In this country, most Protestant denominations defend separation, as do secular Jews, liberal Roman Catholics, Unitarians and most other denominations.)
• Promote inspiration but emphasize forms of inspiration drawn from science, reason, philosophy, literature and the arts - rather than exclusive reliance upon ancient religious dogma founded on revelation, faith and the like.
• Encourage exposure of children to many systems of thought, learning, skepticism and discoveries.
• Encourage a critical analysis of paranormal and pseudoscientific issues (e.g., ghosts, miracles, paranormal phenomena, etc.)

It is said that, the heroes of our history are the scientists and thinkers who explored new horizons and thus improved our understanding of humanity. Darwin's evolutionary principles changed forever our perception of the human species and the nature of life. (Source: The Center for Inquiry Transnational, E-mail invitation to Darwin Day, February 9, 2008.) Are the agenda issues noted above not new horizons left for today's international wellness leaders to explore?

Can contemporary wellness promoters contribute to an improved understanding of the nature of a higher standard of quality of life? Can they guide or otherwise facilitate major increases in the number of people across the globe who realize better lives in measurable terms?

In a paradoxical fashion, might the current low points of functioning (e.g., unprecedented chronic diseases, obesity, global warming, economic dysfunctions, disquiet, etc.) render more likely such a breakthrough in the evolution of the wellness mindset? The latter might be possible because of a greater openness to change in norms and customs, expectations and ambitions than in more satisfying, less restive times.

Wellness advocates can put forward a view of humanity that is based on science, reason and evidence. They can seek to better understand and explain why we are as we are and how we can become better at humanity, gain more control of our fates, take better care of ourselves and each other. Such evolutionary possibilities added to the wellness agenda will lead attention not only to matters of better physical health, but more consequentially, greater exuberance in living, improved life satisfactions, better stewardship of the environments and more.

REAL wellness leadership throughout many nations might bring about major changes for the good in terms of who we think we are and seek to become? The mediocrity of lifestyles seen today may be occasioned by our outdated and inadequate view of human nature, which after all has not been consciously shaped for such benevolent, coherent and positive purposes in the past. Why not in the future? The present challenges and opportunities invite nothing less.