Healthy Lifestyles (Intro.-To Wellness)

 

What is wellness?

The term "health" and "wellness" are often used interchangeably. The World Health Organization WHO has defined health as, a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. Although Wellness can be defined similarly, some suggest wellness is more active and process-oriented whereas health is more of a state of being. When people are referring to health, they mean physical health and when people say well-being, they are referring to mental health

Basically, Wellness is the act of practicing healthy habits on a daily basis to attain better physical and mental health outcomes, so that instead of just surviving, you're thriving. To understand the significance of wellness, it's important to understand how it's linked to health. Wellness is a somewhat broader term that generally includes both physical health and mental well-being as well as other dimensions like spirituality.

Dimensions for Wellness

Several key areas of your lifestyle are considered dimensions of overall Wellness. They Include social connectedness, exercise, nutrition, sleep, and mindfulness. Each one has an impact on your physical and mental health. By making simple and healthy choices on a daily basis, you will be well on your way towards reducing stress, having positive social interactions, and achieving optimal wellness.

Start with small changes within each dimension and take it one day at a time - you don't have to run a marathon or go on a restrictive diet to implement wellness into your everyday life. Listed below are a few examples for each dimension:

EMOTIONAL WELLNESS

Emotional wellness is what we will cover most on this site. It includes a range of emotional skills like; positive thinking, resiliency, and using our strengths. By developing these skills, we can better manage emotions, cope with stress and live satisfying, meaningful lives.

SOCIAL WELLNESS

Connecting with friends, family, coworkers, loved ones and community is a great way to help improve your physical and mental health. We can improve our social wellness by building skills like gratitude, kindness, and communication. These skills can help improve our social interactions and decrease feelings of loneliness. 

Take 10min out of your day to call someone you've been thinking about. This is a great way to connect and catch up with the people that matter the most to you and connect with new people.

SPIRITUAL WELLNESS

Our spiritual wellness comes from a connection to something greater than ourselves. Our wellness could come from a connection to God, but spiritual wellness can also come from a connection to the planet, other people, and ourselves. We can increase spiritual wellness with strategies like Mindfulness and living our values. By making these efforts, our lives feel more purposeful and impactful.

Do you know that practicing mindfulness is good for the body and mind, and also helps with focus. Take a moment right now to consider your own mind and how you are feeling. The more you tap into your own thoughts, the more you may become aware of how you react to stressful events.

OCCUPATIONAL WELLNESS

Occupational wellness can be found by contributing something meaningful to the world. When we feel purposeful about our work and are appreciated for a job well-done, we feel more meaning. Even if we can't throw caution to the wind and quit our jobs, we can grow our occupational wellness in small ways, for instance; by helping out our coworkers, joining a project we're interested in or building new skills to move into a career that is more fulfilling. Below are a few examples of employee wellness initiatives that can be adopted in the workplace:

• Healthy Lunch and snacks
• Assistance programs
• Community Service activities, etc

PHYSICAL WELLNESS

Physical wellness usually includes diet, exercise, and sleep. Nutrition is perhaps one of the most talked-about areas of wellness. Indeed, it's important to learn which foods to eat for greater wellness and which foods contribute to ill-health.

Exercise is another big topic on its own. Exercise is not only good for physical wellness, it contributes to better emotional wellness as well. Even 20 or 30 minutes of daily exercise can have a positive impact on your overall sense of well-being and help improve your mood.

INTELLECTUAL WELLNESS
Intellectual wellness is all about learning and growing. When we make an effort to be curious, creative, and inquisitive, we get to experience more things that can fuel wellness. For example, we could go to a gallery and be inspired by beautiful art. We can have conversations with people who are different from us and learn new things that might help us re-think our challenges and worldview. Or we might do something creative like photography, making music, or cooking.

ENVIRONMENTAL WELLNESS

Environmental wellness means that we live in a balance, connection, and synergy with our surroundings. This means that where we live is calm, safe, non-toxic, and supportive of our health and well-being. It's important to remember that our environment contributes to our wellness, but we also have some control over our environment.

To improve our environmental wellness, we might opt to get an air filter or water filter to lessen the impact pollution has on us. We might opt to move away from the city to be in nature more often.

FINANCIAL WELLNESS

Although money, doesn't exactly buy happiness, not having enough money can contribute to reduced health and happiness. That's why it's important to learn about money, create a budget, and use money strategically to enhance wellness. For example, research shows that spending money on experiences and other people makes us happier than buying things for ourselves. By understanding the role money has in wellness, we can make decisions that improve our lives.

What to do now that you know what wellness is?

Now that you know the definition of wellness, what do you do? The great thing about wellness is that we actually have a lot of control over it. There are so many things we can do to improve our wellness. We can do wellness activities and build good wellness habits. A good goal is to try to do one thing for our wellness each day, and it doesn't have to be anything big. You could think of 3 things you're grateful for or go for a walk. As you continue to build wellness habits, they'll get easier until they eventually become automatic, and become part of your daily life.

Remember that wellness takes time to develop, so just take the time to grow it and watch it blossom 😊.