Abstract

Wellness is a concept at the forefront of health promotion. It has practical and therapeutic benefits applicable across a plethora of life domains. However, to date, there is no agreed-upon definition on what constitutes wellness among researchers in the field. Existing literature has examined the phenomenon of wellness utilizing subjective self-report; however, there is a gap in the literature in terms of objective measures of wellness. Given the link between health and wellness, it is critical to examine wellness domains as they correlate with overall health. Due to the complexity of wellness and its importance in regard to individual and societal health, it is imperative to examine wellness not only from a subjective basis, but also in conjunction with objective explorations. Thus, the objective of this review is to: 1) provide a comprehensive examination of the numerous theoretical models of wellness and 2) propose new research directions in health-related research. Finally, in this review we suggest that combining subjective and objective explorations of wellness and health respectively will provide a more complete picture of the phenomenon of wellness as it relates to health and well-being.