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July 11, 2025 15 mins

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Dr. Pete speaks about the difference between wellness & well-being. Learn how to take control of your life and mental health and live a life of wellness. 

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Speaker 1 (00:17):
Hello, welcome back to On Air with Dr Pete.
I'm your host, dr Pete Economo,and today, if you're tuning in,
you're going to hear aboutwellness versus well-being, and
I wanted to bring it to youbecause I think that there are
so many people that are focusedon their wellness today.
This is cool, right, recordingthis in 2025.
I'm going to talk a little bitof the historical context of

(00:37):
this, but they're used assynonyms, even though they're
not.
So, wellness versus well-beingwhat's the difference and why it
matters?
That's what I'm bringing youtoday on air with Dr Pete.
So welcome to the episode.
It's more than semantics.
This is really how it shapes ahealthy culture.
We need to improve policies andpersonal practices.

(00:59):
There's lots of informationtoday with the web.
It's both a blessing and acurse.
So there's dis, there'sdisinformation and
misinformation, uh, and so notthat this is going to really
cause too much harm, but I willsay that there's a lot of people
that are trying to benefit, tocapitalize on, you know,
wellness and wellbeing, and I'mall for that.
People should be making money.

(01:20):
Um, it's just that you want todo it in a morale way.
I guess I'll say those are mymorals, but you want to, and for
me it would be, the morals ofit would be scientifically
driven.
You know it can't be one study,it can't just be anecdotal, and
so this is the scientism thatsays you have to be able to have

(01:40):
, generalize your findings andrepeat them.
So very basically, uh, wellnessare behaviors and wellbeing is
a feeling.
That's kind of the really mostbasic way of differentiating.
So wellness is usually actionoriented, it's a physical
activity that you can partake infitness, uh, self-optimization.

(02:03):
So there are behaviors that youdo and you create.
It could be budgeting, could bepart of your wellness, which
I'll touch upon at some pointthroughout this episode Whereas
well-being is more about themental, emotional, social and
existential health.
So sometimes they just talk toit about joy.
If you can talk about innerpeace or joy.

(02:23):
That's one of the things thatthey would often say is
well-being, it's, it's, it's.
I would say it's alsosubjective, you know.
So well-being is how somebodyfeels, so not necessarily like I
feel achy, but when I do, Ifeel accomplished.
You know, do I feel well?
That's your well-being, am Ihappy in that way?
So the wellness movement kindof started in the 70s with

(02:53):
corporate America, and I thinkthat there's another movement
that's happening now, wherethere's lots of people that are
benefiting from this.
Again, I think social mediareally brought it to us where we
are able to, you know, promotedifferent resources, tools,
exercises, things like that toimprove one's well-being.
So in the 70s, corporateAmerica started to do it.

(03:14):
There was a fitness boom, likeRichard Simmons type stuff, like
.
All of that was about, you know, trying to improve well-being.
Alternative medicine was moreexplored, I think, you know, I
believe that's when some of thepsilocybin or, you know, some of
the other sort of alternativemedicines, integrative Chinese
medicine, were, you know,introduced to the West.
Well-being is really rooted inpsychology, sociology, you know

(03:40):
some global health frameworkslike public policy, so you'll
read a lot about well say in theworld health organization.
Psychologically, you know, asyou know, as a psychologist,
I've been reading about,studying and working on people's
wellbeing for, you know so,quite some time, and so that is
the biggest sort of historicalcontext to see where these two

(04:03):
terms were born.
I want to look at a few of thecore differences, so the scope
of it.
So, like I just said, wellnessis a little bit more narrow, you
know, because it's aboutnutrition what you're eating,
your diet, if you're engaging infad diets, exercise regimens,
taking supplements.
For me, I do a lot of Chinesemedicine and so I'll take lots

(04:28):
of different supplements thatare all natural, not regulated
in any kind of way, but oftenthey're just grown so they're
herbs.
So lots of different teas thatyou can drink, recording this in
2025,.
This past winter was the firstwinter in a long time that I was
not sick, and this winter,pretty much every day, I had a

(04:49):
special, really natural tea atnight.
So wellness is more narrow.
Wellbeing is holistic.
It's kind of the scope of it.
So it's about purpose, yourvalues, relationships.
I mentioned budgeting before,so financial security is a big
piece of well-being andresilience.
There's there's uh, I don't sayexercises per se, but behaviors

(05:12):
that might foster resilience.
But a feeling of beingresilient would be well-being.
Um, you know, buildingconfidence, giving you know,
starting a podcast, giving somepublic, public talks that would
be the behavior for the wellness.
But all of that might improvewell-being.

(05:32):
The approach is a bit different.
The core difference therewellness's approach is proactive
.
It's individualistic and it'soften co-modified, meaning that
you might be doing it with agroup or kind of thinking about
ways that you can modify things,but it's proactive and that's
key and that's one of the thingsthat's always gravitated me
towards wellness, because Idon't want to be reactive, I

(05:53):
want things to be proactive.
Wellbeing is integrative, it'scontextual.
So that's another piece of whypsychology has learned and
studied a lot of aboutwell-being, because contextual
behaviorism is a big thing nowand it's community-centered
often, so well-being reallyrequires an entire community.

(06:14):
The measurement of it is also acore difference.
Wellness is often measuredbiologically, so there's some
biomarkers like BMI.
Blood pressure, performance canbe measured as well.
Weight I mentioned BMI, butweight can also be one thing
that they consider as part ofwellness, whereas well-being
trying to measure that isdifferent.

(06:36):
It's life satisfaction.
How do you measure lifesatisfaction?
And that ebbs and flows, Stresslevels there's subjective
reports of stress levels.
Now the wellness the biomarkerwould be cortisol, but the
well-being would be a subjectivereport of stress.
So there's some measures likein psychology we'll use, like a
perceived stress survey, pss,because the way someone

(06:59):
perceives it has a direct impacton their physical health or
their wellness, their well-being.
But another piece of well-beingalso for measurement is the
social connection.
Clients over and over againwill say when they're not
feeling well, they isolate.
The wellness industry is a $5trillion global industry.

(07:20):
Is that helping or harming?
I don't know.
We're not here to talk aboutthat.
There are certainly lots ofdifferent news articles and
research around how it's helpingor harming.
Just notice sort of what you'redoing.
You don't have to.
Yes, it can be expensive to behealthy, but you don't have to
spend a ton of money to behealthy.
There are just walking outside,drinking lots of water and,

(07:44):
again, some of these things docome with privilege, but there
are ways that you can do thiseconomically.
Also, the other culturalinfluences and commercial
influences are the aesthetics ofit.
So, instagram, when you look atpeople that are promoting
wellness and well-being, theyare very fit, potentially.
You know I've done episodes onbody dysmorphia, eating

(08:06):
disorders not to say that theyhave them, but it's.
You know, we still.
I mean I remember in the 90s agood friend of mine and working
international model and just theimpact that it has on one's
body.
And even for myself, when I wasmodeling, there was one of the
agents I was working with waslike, well, you have to lose

(08:26):
like 10 pounds and I was as fitas I could be.
Like I was really, really fit.
It was swimming and if I lost10 pounds I wouldn't have been
able to swim, you know.
And so there is thisexpectation and I think that's
the negative downside of thewellbeing sort of cultural
commercial influences there,because that also has an impact
on our emotional fun, uh,functioning so um.

(08:46):
And then there's also like anexclusion of some marginalized
groups, you know where uh,there's body shaming and uh
other things that go on thatreally exclude, you know,
certain people from there.
One of the things that'shappening a lot in terms of
well-being is in the workplace,and so you see a lot of

(09:07):
workplace well-being programs Ioften reference in a lot of my
articles or classes about, say,silicon Valley that really
understood the importance ofwell-being in the workplace,
where you'd have a meditationroom, and I know that that gets
a lot of judgment.
But times change.
You know people women used tonot be able to work, or if they
went to work they're wearinggloves or you know things shift

(09:30):
and we don't like change.
But workplace well-beingprograms are essential.
You don't need to have a lot ofthings you.
You know, sometimes it's justlike contributing to a gym
membership or putting gyms inthere.
A lot of my financial clients,um, silicon valley clients.
They have cafeterias, they have, you know uh, tons of uh

(09:53):
hydration stations and and allof that uh, gyms and meditation
rooms, lactation rooms, you knowall things that are there to
make sure that you can becomfortable at the workplace.
We also have an understandingthat there are, just like
policies, and so public policyis really important around
well-being and practice.
So can wellness exist withoutwell-being?

(10:15):
So no, you know, they go handin hand and so that's why
they're often used like synonyms.
But remember, wellness are thebehaviors or the actions.
Well-being is a subjective,reported experience.
And so when you're looking atyour own well-being, what's your
wellness plan?
And so for a wellness plan I'vetalked about this before a

(10:37):
colleague friend, peggySwarbrick there's eight
colleague, friend PeggySwarbrick.
There's eight dimensions ofwellness that Peggy Swarbrick
wrote about in the 80s.
Think about them today.
Just take a little bit ofinventory on your emotional
wellness.
So what activities you have toimprove your emotions?
Environmental wellness,intellectual wellness, physical,

(11:00):
occupational, spiritual, socialWellness.
Intellectual wellness, physical, occupational, spiritual,
social and financial.
So I mentioned that on theonset.
So environmental wellness, youknow, do you want to some upkeep
or landscaping, you know,around your house?
Plant some flowers, have aplant around the house.
I was doing an event last weekin New York and one of the
speakers, trish Barilla.
She said have a plant aroundthe house.
I was doing an event last weekin New York and one of the

(11:21):
speakers, trish Barilla.
She said get a plant and nameit.
What's your intellectualwellness?
You have a plan to stayenergized.
You do crossword puzzles.
Do you do something that kindof helps your brain and
exercises for your brain andintellectual faculties?
It helps us for preventing anykind of cognitive declines in
the future, but also just helpsus kind of create some more of

(11:42):
that wellness and improve ourwellbeing.
Physical wellness so what's yourphysical activity?
Your diet, sleep, nutrition?
Occupational wellness what doyou get from work?
You know what are you doing.
What projects are you workingon?
Don't wait for it to come toyou.
Um, if you're just kind ofgoing through the motions, you
might want to challenge that alittle bit.
Spiritual wellness meditation,prayer, whatever activities you

(12:05):
can do, journaling, readingthese are things that can help
improve your well-being bycommitting to your spiritual
wellness.
Social wellness connection weneed the connection.
We are social beings, so tryingto stay and developing a
support system.
And then your financialwellness.
What kind of budgets do youhave?
Are you staying committed tothat?

(12:25):
And so these are things that Ithink for you as listeners, just
reflect on that, and are thereany steps you can take from this
episode to maybe improve yourwellbeing?
That's my job.
My job really is to help people.
My job's not to have a job.
You've heard me say that.
But ultimately, how do I helppeople optimize their
performance and improve theirwellbeing?
And so one way that you have todo that is identify if there's

(12:48):
any unhealthy behaviors that youhave.
In that same event, last week inNew York with Trish, I asked
people.
The first thing I said iswhat's your unhealthy coping
mechanism?
Rather than starting off withthe like, let's impress each one
another.
No, what are we doingunhealthily?
And for me, any listener that'stuned in before you know that
I'm going to say Oreos, creatingbalance.

(13:11):
Life is all about balance.
Improved well-being will createbalance, and so you don't want
to be in this all or nothingworld.
You really want to make surethat you are just committed to
finding equanimity.
That's what we say in the Zenworld.
So ask yourself this am Ichasing wellness or are you
cultivating well-being?
So you don't want to chasesomething that is unattainable,
but you can start today tocultivate some well-being,

(13:34):
evaluate your own well-beingholistically, taking some steps
towards that, and so I thinkI've mentioned to you the eight
dimensions of wellness.
You might consider that as wewrap up today's episode on
wellness and well-being andthat's one tip that I have for
you If you can think about thoseeight dimensions, start with
one of them.
I think about them as buckets.

(13:55):
Some are overflowing and someare empty, and so you want to
have some balance between them.
And so notice some of them thatmight be a little empty today
and see if you are willing totake some steps to try and
improve that.
So I really am so thankful thatyou tuned in today.
I hope this was helpful to hearabout wellness, well-being.
I did talk a little bit ofgossip around sort of the some

(14:17):
of the negative aspects of it,but overall you know you don't
need to spend a ton of money onit.
You don't need some reallyexpensive supplements.
You just need to commit to somebehavior that you notice makes
you feel good, which is yourwell-being, that feeling.
So thanks again for tuning in.
I'll see you again next weekbecause we're so thankful that

(14:38):
you were here today to supportus and, as always, as you know,
like follow and shareeverything's at official Dr Pete
, so I'll see you back next week.
Until then, spread a littlekindness and stay well, thank

(15:07):
you.
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