When I returned to a chilly December in England after a tropical expat childhood, I was amazed at how dark a grey the skies were. Hearing my complaints my father replied briskly, “Don’t be silly, the weather’s fine.” “Fine – how can it be?” I responded in complete amazement. “In Britain,” he said firmly, “if it isn’t raining, it’s fine.” In much the same vein, the question, “Are you well?” used to be an enquiry as to whether you were suffering from some sort of illness, whether communicable or not. But no longer. Being well, or wellness, as it’s called, has now a much larger focus than the avoidance of disease. Wellness is a global industry whose net worth is approaching a trillion dollars annually. It encompasses products and services in the fields of anti-ageing, fitness, weight loss, meditation, and life-extension. Gone are the days when you could buy a couple of supplements (ever hopeful, I’ve got an unused drawer full of them – the supplements are unused, not the drawer just in case you were wondering), have an early night, and trust to luck. Wellness is more than just not being ill. It’s a positive striving towards improvement and it in all sorts of areas of your life— emotional, occupational, environmental, physical, financial, social, and intellectual. Blimey, that’s quite a list. It could be a full-time occupation to cultivate wellness.

Whether it’s a job or not, wellness has certainly invaded the holiday market. No rest then from it, not even on vacation. At the recent launch of the new “Wholistic Wellness” package at the Rasa Sayang the health and well-being glitterati of Penang were out in full force. We were treated to some of the delicious food and drink that the Rasa does so well. Only trouble was that it was so delicious, that it surely couldn’t possibly be healthy. Healthy is green juices, raw food, and fasts. Not very appealing as a way of life to a hedonist like me. But of course fashions change when it comes to what’s thought to be good for you. All through the 1980s and 1990s when I was living in the UK, we were bombarded with propaganda from the British government about what you should eat (I believe this sort of ‘nanny knows best’ advice still goes on but as I don’t live there, I don’t get to hear it, thank goodness). Not more than eight eggs a week and choose a low-fat spread (a chemical mix made out of synthetic ingredients) instead of proper cow’s butter fresh from the field was the edict. I didn’t believe it and so merrily ate both butter and eggs and am now vindicated. Butter and eggs are both fine, it seems, according to the latest research. But that may change again so perhaps I shouldn’t be too complacent.

It isn’t all down to the individual’s choices either, as Dr Robert Kirby, Malaysia’s Global Wellness Ambassador, tells me, “The world we live in nowadays should carry a health warning. The water we drink, the food we eat, the air we breathe, and stress at work and at home is causing an alarming increase in major diseases such as cancer, diabetes, obesity, heart-related illnesses, as well as stress and depression.” We have to fight even harder to get well or stay well than we did. And it’s not just physical health, I’ve now got to worry about all the other areas of my well-being as well. Take social well-being, for instance, which is about friendships and positive relationships in general. I have always thought that they’re are vital for well-being and it turns out that I am right about that one. Current research from the University of Chicago has found that social isolation and loneliness are even greater predictors of premature death than either obesity or smoking. Phew – I can relax a bit about my BMI (or Body Mass Index then). And, as I’ve never smoked, I am starting to feel quite good about things.

Actually, that might be a bit premature as I recently got married and research again shows that romantic relationships tend to edge out friends. It seems, according to Professor Dunbar of Oxford University, that entering a partnership costs you at least one close friend. It is true, I do seem to have less time to socialise than I did before. One person who spoke passionately about wellness in the face of what we might consider the double whammy of both loneliness and disease was the 13th century English mystic, Dame Julian of Norwich. She lived alone as a hermit and suffered a series of visions when critically ill after which she famously declared, “All shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.” It’s easy to dismiss such as statement as wishful thinking but these simple but affirmative words have a generosity of spirit and a broadness of care for others that has resonated throughout the centuries. Perhaps wellness isn’t about doing the right things but thinking the right thoughts. Maybe it’s less important to eat right, exercise regularly, and so on than it is to care that others are well too. That’s perhaps the real meaning of “holistic” that we recognise that we are part of the whole, not that we are separate atomic beings. As Wayne Dyer, another of my heroes who has just passed away, put it, “Remember than illness starts with ‘I’, whereas wellness begins with ‘we’”.

Read more:

• Having Tea with the Pure Lotus Hospice in Penang
• 5 Child-Friendly Activities in Penang
• The Hakka Heritage in Penang

Source: The Expat magazine October 2015