Wellness 10 A Curriculum Guide for the Secondary Level

What is Wellness?

Wellness is a concept that broadens, extends, and reaches beyond the traditional ideas of fitness and health. It is a way of doing – a way of being – that not only adds years to our lives but also improves the quality of our lives. Wellness is:

the quality of life we enjoy when the physical, psychological, social, and spiritual dimensions of our lives are in balance – when no dimension is being neglected or overemphasized.
those little favours we have done for ourselves this week multiplied 10,000 times over the next 30, 40, or 50 years. The stretch breaks during the day, eating a healthy breakfast, the five-minute break to watch the sunset, walking or cycling to school/work, and other activities.
the quality of life we enjoy when we adopt and maintain “wellness-enhancing” behaviours and avoid “wellness-risking” behaviours.

The Wellness 10 curriculum is designed to enable students to attain and maintain optimal wellness by providing opportunities for them to improve their ability to:

balance the physical, psychological, social, and spiritual dimensions of their well-being (Dimensions of Wellness)
weave together Physical Activity and Fitness, Stress Management, Healthy Eating, Relationships, and Leisure in order to maximize their effectiveness (Strands of Wellness)
assume responsibility for personal, local, and global wellness (Spheres of Wellness)
practise wellness across the perspectives of active living, movement, and personal-social-cultural (Physical Education Perspectives)
design, implement, and evaluate action plans for wellness that are realistic, achievable, and worthwhile (Health Education Decision-making Process).

An outline of Wellness 10 within the framework of K-12 health education/physical education is shown on the following page.