Introduction: What is Wellness?

Because the term wellness has been used indiscriminately for decades, many have abandoned it for more generic labels (eg, health promotion). Yet others, especially those who embraced and used it decades ago, continue to describe wellness as a positive lifestyle for anyone seeking to thrive, flourish, and maintain vitality and well-being. Wellness advocates and promoters do not confuse the term, first used in the 1950s by physician Halbert L. Dunn with topics related to prevention, health education, alternative medicine, the spa business, product promotions or other unrelated industries.

However, since so many doctors, businessmen, alternative medicine advocates, spa promoters, and assorted New Age hippie hippies like actress Gwyneth Paltrow have adopted the term for their own disparate interests unrelated to personal responsibility, I decided decades ago to create a brand for authentic wellness

To distinguish my work that promotes a positive model for improving lives based on the true nature and logical dimensions of positive wellness, I added the REAL modifier to the word wellness. REAL is an acronym; the four letters REAL that represent reason, exuberance, athleticism and freedom.

How is this form of wellness different?

REAL wellness is about positive approaches, perspectives and possibilities to improve quality of life. Risk reduction, medical management, prevention, and everything else designed for cost containment in corporate wellness programming are all very well, as are medical services, medical tests, and most health care services usual. But it is better not to confuse such offers with the original and genuine form of well-being. The latter implies a focus beyond (and not included) the absence of ills, dysfunctions and discontent.

REAL wellness invites continuous learning and advancements toward life-affirming matters, including but not limited to happiness, positive passions, meaning and purpose, joy and affection, effective decision-making, and expansion of personal freedoms. It’s about living the kind of life you want to enjoy while being in top shape both physically and mentally.

If you’re going to invest time and energy in taking care of yourself, don’t settle for gadgets, diets, dilettante endeavors, or anything shy of REAL wellness.

Protection of the integrity and meaning of the concept

You can share my idea that other uses of wellness without this modifier are more likely FALSE wellness. I am pleased to announce that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has granted me a registered trademark for REAL wellness ® .

The first person I told about the REAL wellness trademark award was Dr. Grant Donovan, the Halbert L. Dunn of Australia who popularized wellness in the 1980s and 1990s Downunder and with whom I have worked closely ever since. . This is what he wrote in a congratulatory email:


Wellness has become a catch-all marketing term, on a very long continuum, for everyone from medical and pseudo-health groups to resort owners, spa promoters, and tour operators. In fact, it can be difficult to find a more bastard word, in any language.

So, in a completely meaningless, randomly assembled world that is overpopulated with humans, who are here by chance and not by choice, I see a wellness lifestyle as a fun way to fill the time between birth and death, not a way to keep people alive to experience an insane or painful ending. That’s not REAL wellness.

Good luck getting well. I hope that REAL wellness helps at least some people find a fun path to the abyss.

Don’t be fooled by those who sell services and products as if there is a shortcut or an alternative to adopting a philosophy and creating/tuning a lifestyle that keeps you mentally and physically fit. There are no short cuts or effortless possibilities for genuine wellness beyond the limiting norms of the general population. To be on the timing of your game—that is, winning at life in all the most important ways—settle for nothing less than REAL wellness.