Wellness is more than the simple absence of disease. As such, health can be envisioned as a journey to a state of optimal wellness and not a simple destination. To measure progress on such a journey, defining wellness by measures other than disease risk factors and biomarkers is necessary. Health can be defined by five areas of functionality: metabolic, physical, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral. Indeed, an individual's behaviors are the outward expression of an inward integration of the metabolic, physical, emotional, and cognitive functions in a fully actualized mind, body, and spirit. Personalized Lifestyle Medicine recognizes the importance of facilitating lasting behavioral change but facilitating this change may be difficult and may resist standard practice models. It is our proposal that a major obstacle on the journey to achieving full wellness is the brokenness of an individual's connections to self, to purpose, to community, and to the environment. Programs aimed both at defining an individual's authentic self and providing patient education using Functional Medicine's unique philosophy can facilitate a patient's creation of a lasting vision that is the work of successful behavioral change.
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