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Last Updated: Oct 23, 2019
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General Wellness - It Is Time You Pay Attention!

Dr. Santosh Kumar SoniGeneral Physician
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The term wellness is much more than just physical health, exercise or nutrition though has been applied in many different ways. Wellness is a developed process of achieving one’s full health and well-being potential.
There are several models of wellness. A few known and accepted ones postulate six or seven aspects:

  1. Social
  2. Emotional
  3. Spiritual
  4. Environmental
  5. Occupational
  6. Intellectual
  7. Physical wellness

Wellness actually involves a personal perception of general wellness by the self. We score our wellness from 1-10, with 1 being worst ever and 10 being best ever score. We may all have different answers when our doctor asks us. How are you feeling today on a scale of 1-10?

So what can we do to enhance our general wellness? This is where a health or wellness coach comes in. Think of wellness coaching like this, many of us have health goals that we would like to achieve or a disease that we want to overcome, but a lot of times do not know where to begin making changes to reach those goals. Hence we need handholding to reach our wellness, health and weight loss goals- all of which the coach does for us. A wellness coach helps by challenging patients to develop their inner wisdom, identify their values, and transform their goals into action.

General wellness coaching in hospitals - What to expect?
A health and wellness coach is available in most hospitals today. An initial visit with the coach will help you set realistic goals especially if you are grappling with a health issue like diabetes, hypertension, heart problem or stress. The coach will also do an analysis of your current routines and habits, followed by recommendations for healthy changes designed around your particular lifestyle. Follow-up appointments will be conducted to monitor your progress and ensure that you stay on track. The health coach will help you to continue with slowly implementing healthy changes into your daily routine.


Wellness coaching uses principles from positive psychology and the practices of motivational interviews and goal setting.
A wellness coach can help you with

  1. Weight loss and weight management is as we know is very helpful for people with diabetes, osteoporosis and heart disease.
  2. Eating right can help manage various disorders. This will include tips to cut down on bad cholesterol generating foods and low-fat foods for heart patients and low calories and low sugar foods for diabetics.
  3. Improving physical activity helps in managing diabetes, heart disease and improves joint pains. The coach will guide you towards the programme that will help you manage your health condition in the best possible manner.
  4. Strength training helps people with poor muscle tone to develop a better frame. It is highly recommended for older people.
  5. Coach will tell you what to eat and how much to eat for lowering blood pressure.
  6. Wellness coaching is an important link between you and your doctor so go ahead make an appointment with one right away to optimise your wellness. If you wish to discuss about any specific problem, you can consult a general physician.