The 1946 World Health Organization’s definition of health has been used as a foundation for the contemporary term of wellness. "Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity" (cited in Dunn, 1977, p. 1).
	Dunn (1977) defined high-level wellness as "an integrated method of functioning which is oriented toward maximizing the potential of which the individual is capable. It requires that the individual maintain a continuum of balance and purposeful direction with the environment in which he is functioning". (pp. 4-5)
	Wellness is a context for living. (Johnson, 1986, p.109).
	"Wellness is a lifestyle approach to personal excellence. It is a deliberate, conscious decision to pursue optimal well-being. It encompasses the body, mind and spirit. It is a positive choice pursued because it is judged to be a richer way to be alive." (Ardell & Langdon, 1989) This is a working definition that was created with the purpose of helping people prepare to define the concept of wellness in their own way.
	A definition of wellness specific to teachers was "the energy that empowers each woman to enact her vision of teaching." (Armstrong, 1995, p. 22)  In a qualitative study of five middle-age, female teachers in Ontario, Armstrong concluded that the three dimensions of wellness for her subjects, which included herself, were Self-care, Support, and Empowerment.
	Schafer (1996) defined wellness as the "process of living at one’s highest possible level as a whole person and promoting the same for others ...a continuing challenge, rather than something attained and them forgotten." (p. 33)
	The Canadian Oxford Dictionary (1998) states that wellness is "the state of being well or in good health." (p. 1650).
	The National Wellness Institute (USA) offers that wellness is an active process of becoming aware of and making choices toward a more successful existence. (retrieved from the World Wide Web, January 5, 2002,  http://www.nationalwellness.org/home/definitionofwellness.asp)

The continuum presented in Figure 1 below offers further information in defining wellness.  Ardell and Langdon provide a Worseness/Wellness Continuum to explain the oxymoronic nature of the term health. "Most health systems aren’t; that is, they are sickness systems" (Ardell and Langdon, 1989, p. 10).