June 2024
Perhaps you think of wellness as feeling fine physically. Or you might think of being content with where you are in your life. The Global Wellness Institute defines it as “the active pursuit of activities, choices and lifestyles that lead to a state of holistic health”. One May 29th, 50+ women gathered for our Herself event, “A Day Of Wellness,” to reflect on wellness and during the lively dialogue, several things became clear.
UNIQUELY INDIVIDUAL – Every person has their own unique vision of what wellness means. These views can be heavily influenced by outside influences like social media, friends, and family. But those who embrace their own personal version of wellness are most likely to feel good about themselves.
IT’S A JOURNEY, NOT A DESTINATION – Wellness is always in motion. To someone in their 20s, wellness looks very different from someone in their 70s. As our bodies and minds change and evolve, we need to accept where we are on each step of the journey and rejoice in the good things while giving ourselves the time and grace to work on areas where we want to improve.
INTENTIONAL – Wellness doesn’t just happen. It takes thought and work and then more thought and more work. But rather than being intimidated by looking at how far away the mountaintop of wellness might seem, we can each make choices that lead us closer to wellness, one step at a time. Small, consistent choices taken with intention are part of success in our wellness journey.
MULTI-DIMENTIONAL – If the goal is holistic health, then it’s important to embrace the many dimensions of wellness. Those dimensions include: physical, mental, spiritual, emotional, social, financial and environmental. Visualize an inflated beach ball. Who doesn’t smile when they see a beach ball? It’s this universal symbol of fun. Every beach ball is made up of multiple pieces attached together to make the whole ball. No one piece is more important than the other and if you take one of the pieces out, you don’t have a nice round ball ready for fun … you have something that is misshapen and incomplete. Think of wellness as your own personal beach ball. Spend time on each dimension of wellness so you are well rounded. Sometimes you’ll concentrate more on one dimension but over time, it’s important to maintain balance between all the dimensions of wellness.
In future articles, we’ll explore each of these dimensions in more depth and share with you ideas about small, consistent steps you can take to move forward on your wellness journey.
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Life Isn't a Straight Line. Enjoy the Journey. by Priscilla Brehm
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