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We work hard to get wealth and in the process many acquire an additional component-Stress!

Stress is one of the worlds' silent killers. Remaining in the background for years,it rarely shows its physical ravages under its own name, but rather makes itself evident through other chronic ailments. This makes it the hospitals best friend and means you spend more of your hard earned wealth trying to regain health.

One seventh or $1.5 trillion, of the U.S. economy today is devoted to the healthcare business, what Paul Zane Pilzer; New York Times Best Selling Author refers to as the "Sickness Industry." The most effective response to these chronic, sometimes avoidable illnesses is early intervention. This early intervention can then be termed as Proactive Wellness.

The concept of Proactive Wellness is that persons will take their own potential health risks into consideration and find ways to minimize at risk behaviours. These behaviours normally arise out of the self, the realization of relational self and cause the resultant impact on the physical self. Eliminating stress and its stressors will lead to improvement in health and ones' feeling of well-being.

If one considers wellness to be the unity of the mind, body, and spirit, in order to achieve greater mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual health, one must begin with a personal commitment to wellness. This commitment entails making choices which enhance our individual functioning and development. Through, these conscious, voluntary, and positive lifestyle change choices, one can discover greater overall health for oneself. This positive health change should result in a corresponding reduction in the probability of acquiring certain illnesses and better feeling of positive self worth due to good health.

The good health of an individual reflects on the society positively as it means reduced health care costs on the country, as well as the positive impact on family and support group. The concept of relational self is the self in relation to significant others. An individual's relational self is a source of interpersonal patterns involving affect, inspiration, and self-evaluation. A person who enjoys good health especially if they have to alter lifestyle to accomplish it and are now reaping the benefits, are motivated by feelings of benefiting his/her significant others, and will encourage others to follow suit, thus impacting positively on the community. "One's role thus becomes that of participant in a social process that eclipses one's personal being." --Ken Gergen, The Saturated Self, p.156. A community in itself is not insular but has reaching effects into the society and culture.

If the idea of Proactive Wellness is promulgated, as it has been recently in the news, special reports and advertisements, then we find shifting attitudes to proactive health choices, which results in a shift in societal values on health and health related matters.

Recently, in Jamaica it has been noted of a shift towards healthier eating choices, exercise and the advent of stress management workshops in many different forums. The resistance that use to be meted out in earlier years have dwindled as more Jamaicans realize the benefit of not only keeping their physical bodies intact with exercise, but that good nutrition, and care of their emotional cognizance, is also important.

Society is the one that stands to benefit most from increased wellness, as its people enjoy good health, it will be translated into increased productivity which benefits the bottom-line of the country; its economy. but it doesn't hurt that while we keep health our wealth will be left for other things such as investing. More wealth anyone?