Feeling healthy is not just a matter of your physical state but also your mental well-being and spiritual activity. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), health is defined as a "[...] state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." [1] But as no one could claim to be completely free of adverse effects, according to this definition everyone would be viewed as being ill. What is more, it takes no account of human resilience, and the strength and ability to overcome illness or to deal with adversity. The focus should therefore be moved from pathogenesis, in other words the question of what makes us ill, to salutogenesis, with the question of what makes us healthy. Based on a salutogenic concept of health, in 2014 Machteld Huber completed her doctoral thesis in which she published her concept of "positive health". It has already been taken up in the Netherlands by the Dutch Municipal Health Services (GGD Nederland) [3]. The way in which a person experiences their own state of health is shown in six dimensions of life (bodily functions, mental well-being, meaningfullness (the spiritual and existential dimension), quality of life, participation (social and societal), and daily functioning) in a web diagram. This is depicted as a hexagon (see Fig. 1). Each dimension of life is scored on a scale of 0-10 and, by joining the dots, gives a personal health area.

Read More (PDF)