Health and well-being are connected, but they are two different things. Let’s cover them one at a time.

First: what is health? Health can be thought of as the state of being free from injury or illness. Physical health means living in a body that is strong, capable, and free of disease. 

Mental health, meanwhile, means having a mind that is strong, capable, and free of disease. If we are mentally healthy, we can navigate daily life and its setbacks and difficulties without excessive or debilitating stress, frustration, anxiety, or sadness. Taken together, physical and mental health affect everything we do. 

Next, what is well-being? If you consult the dictionary, health and well-being might be described as the absence of “negative” things, like mental distress and physical illness. 

A more positive well-being definition might be the maintenance of physical, mental, and emotional stability and balance — not just the absence of illness.

From a scientific point of view, there are two types of well-being: objective and subjective well-being.