The best way to maintain health is to preserve it through a healthful lifestyle rather than waiting until sickness or infirmity to address health problems. People use the name wellness to describe this continuous state of enhanced well-being.
Wellness promotes active awareness of and participating in measures that preserve health, both as an individual and in the community. Maintaining wellness and optimal health is a lifelong, daily commitment.
Steps that can help people attain wellness include:
• eating a balanced, nutritious diet from as many natural sources as possible
• engaging in at least 150 minutes Trusted Source of moderate to high-intensity exercise every week, according to the American Heart Association
• screening for diseases that may present a risk
• learning to manage stress effectively
• engaging in activities that provide purpose
• connecting with and caring for other people
• maintaining a positive outlook on life
• defining a value system and putting it into action
The definition of peak health is highly individual, as are the steps a person may take to get there. Every person has different health goals and a variety of ways to achieve them.
It may not be possible to avoid disease altogether. However, a person should do as much as they can to develop resilience and prepare the body and mind to deal with illnesses as they arise.