But let's start with the early history of the idea, behind the term. The central concept of wellness is the consideration of the two aspects of life, spirit (or soul) and body, two terms, which are of course much older than the idea of wellness.
The question, what makes a person special, and, what our species of the although physically related, but mentally clearly different animals, has occupied thinkers for millennia.
Looking at humans and animals, so you will find a large number of similarities: both are physical, have specific needs, which are often closely linked to their physical condition, and no doubt they know certain feelings, who should take care of it, spending time getting your needs met. Humans and animals are hungry, Thirsty and need air to breathe; they have the need, to reproduce and survive, and they are too specific, capable of intellectual achievements appropriate for their purposes, who can help you, to face the challenges of their lives.
A wolf can recognize a sheep; he can run fast enough with his legs, to catch up, and he knows certain tactics, to hunt in packs. With his teeth he can do it and feed on it. A sheep can recognize plants, on which it can feed; it can move, to look for other plants. It also has a certain sense of danger, to protect themselves from wolves, and knows the herd association, which is an effective protection against predators.
If you approach these two animals with an open mind, one might get the idea, that they have achieved an intellectual achievement, to solve the problems in their life. The sheep had the idea, to congregate with other animals of its kind, to protect against attackers; the wolf, on the other hand, then made up his mind, that he could separate individual animals from the herd by skillful approach, until he could circumvent this protection of the sheep.
Did he really think that up??
Of course not, they will say, these are instincts. Things, for which people may need a mental achievement, animals do this by instinct – no wolf would think of it, alone to take advantage of a sheep's midday rest or to trigger an avalanche with his paws, so that the sheep will be killed by falling stones. Wolves hunt everywhere the same, and it is very unlikely, that they just had the same "idea" all over the world.
People, on the other hand, solve their problems in very different ways. In the early days there were clans, who hunted mighty mammoths, by dropping them into holes; and there were people, who killed small animals with projectiles. The use of a bow and arrow is also an option, to ensure its survival and make it easier, one possibility though, which not all people in all parts of the world have always used.
Weapon technology has repeatedly made leaps and bounds and improved, and tools have also gotten better throughout history. If only, like the wolf and the sheep, we had a set of instinctive choices, such a change would hardly have happened – in evolutionary terms, modern humans have not existed long enough at all, to justify such changes with genes and selection.
The Idea, that there is one very important factor, that distinguishes us humans from animals, is therefore very close. When a wolf faces the problem, that his habitat is getting colder and there are not enough sheep left, to feed him, so he can possibly expand his hunting ground, to find food at a greater distance - but he will hardly get the idea, to “breed” sheep, so that he can feed himself from “his” herd. Humans certainly can and have done so throughout history, without there being any reason to believe, that raising livestock is in the "instinct" of man.
You can now call this crucial difference between humans and animals “spirit” or “soul” – even if it is difficult to define, it is probably hard to deny.
It has been very likely since the first humans developed culture and language, that they know this difference between themselves and their environment; At the latest in antiquity, however, there was a systematic study of the differences between animals and humans, so with the characteristics, that make us human.
The first important concept, which was developed in this context, is that of the soul. If you look at the characteristic, what differentiates humans and animals, referred to as soul, that's how you attribute a person's special qualities to some kind of divinity. In Christian myth it is God, who gave man the soul, while the Greeks attributed this peculiarity to their pantheon; Hindus don't think so, that only humans have souls, But not animals, and yet of course they know the important differences between the two species.
If you have now developed such an idea, it makes sense, also to create a term for the properties, that we have in common with animals. It has not been identical at all times and in all cultures, but a distinction between body and soul has long prevailed, the so-called dualism, which divides man's nature into these two ideas. We are physical beings with needs and necessities, that are related to the body, but we also have certain characteristics, which are not so strictly connected with our physical nature - namely the mental ones.
The dualism between body and soul is one of the ideas, which is extremely important for the wellness concept today. wellness means, taking care of physical needs as well as satisfying them, that are not purely physical in nature, and for such, which may have nothing to do with the body.
Any kind of work, no matter how complicated and unnatural it may actually be, serves basically the satisfaction of physical needs. Also an industrialist, who hardly touches the products of his company himself, works for the fulfillment of his bodily needs, even if the mountains of paper, which he rolls over during a working day, may have nothing to do with these needs.
And also social constructs, convey security, as well as wealth, Reputation or protection against dismissal and insurance are actually very physical in nature, since they are not only of momentary fulfilment, but also serve to secure this fulfillment of bodily needs in the future.