Do you ever wonder just how healthy you really are?
Everyone has times when they feel fit and healthy and others where they begin to wonder if there’s something wrong with them.
But often we can become fixated on a single aspect of our health. So when we set out to improve our wellness we focus on improving just one aspect and overlook the others completely. When we look at this differently, from a wholistic perspective we gain clearer insight to our true level of wellness.
What Is Wellness?
Wellness is the process where a person becomes actively aware of, and then makes careful choices to support, a lifestyle designed to bring about their highest potential for wholeness and wellbeing. Wellness can lead to better health, a more positive outlook, a calmer state of mind, and much more.
The key is ‘wholeness’ because it’s only when we achieve wellness on all levels of our being that we can really feel wellbeing in health.
By measuring someone’s wellness in all areas of their life and personal experience, in their physical, emotional, mental (cognitive) and spiritual body, we can guage which parts are out of balance. This provides a guide to how to consciously create greater wellness and growth in all areas of their life.
The past couple of years have brought many infringements on our ability to nurture our wellness. But they have also brought opportunities to improve it, and provided us with an excellent chance to examine whether we are living in a way that either supports or undermines our wellness.
While lockdowns and restrictions have limited our ability to live as we were in so many ways, they have also opened us to discover new possibilities. For example, rather than spending hours in traffic driving kids to after school activities many walked in their neighbourhood with their kids and pets, strengthening family bonds and enjoying the fresh air.
Now as the world begins to emerge from isolation it’s time to re-assess our wellness and decide how we can begin to change any practices and habits that were not serving us.
This is the perfect time to determine what it would look and feel like if you were at your optimum level of health and wellness.
Rather than focusing on the details a Wellness Overview helps us see where the gaps in our wellness lie, right across our whole life. Armed with this picture we can then initiate changes that really will create Wellness in Wholeness.
Measure Your Wellness
The first thing to determine is how you have grown your wellness over the past year.
Perhaps you eat more fruit, or organic produce. Maybe you cut back on coffee or eat less sugar, or less fried food. Are better at keeping hydrated? Perhaps you now go for a walk, frequently and regularly. Have you taken up yoga or qi gong? Are you reading more books? Talking to friends more often? Have you taken up a hobby, or discovered your creativity in another way? Maybe you meditate every day – even just for five minutes. If you’re working from home are you now getting up from your work every hour to move around? Perhaps you are making sure to get 7-8 hours sleep . . . every night.
It’s amazing how quickly we can improve our health and wellbeing just by making small changes in our life.
Many people think that changing exercise and diet is enough when they want to improve their health and wellness, so they may be surprised at the range of healthy changes listed above. But these are only the start of building great health and wellbeing.
True wellness encompasses much, much more than food and exercise. Sure they matter, but on their own they are not enough to create sustainable long-term wholistic change because wellness is affected on all levels.
How’s Your Wellness?
Think about how you were a year, or five years ago, compared to today, and mentally list all the habits you have changed to become healthier. Then give yourself a pat on the back.
In the daily humdrum, it’s easy to overlook all the little things we’ve changed that all come together to build our health and wellbeing.
Wellness is created and impacted on all levels. When you neglect any of these levels you undermine your wellbeing and open yourself to illness.
Ask yourself these questions…
Physical health
Look at your exercise and diet.
Do they support you?
Are they appropriate for your time of life?
Do you breathe correctly?
Do you make a practice of staying grounded?
Do you do movement activities such as dance or yoga or rock climbing (not gym circuits, weights, etc) that you really enjoy and simply do for the love of it?
Are you suffering from inflammation in your body, causing you significant pain?
Emotional health
Do you release strong emotions or hang on to them?
Do you have a strong support network?
Are you practicing self-care?
Do you get sufficient quality sleep?
Do you have a strong circle of family and friends?
Mental health
Are you running the same old limiting thoughts and beliefs?
Do you have good boundaries?
Do you constantly criticise yourself?
Is stress causing illness?
Are you able to identify and clearly express your needs?
Spiritual health
Do you regularly nourish your creative being?
Do you meditate regularly? Or you may practice mindfulness instead, or as well.
Do you have a form of spiritual practice to nourish your soul? This refers to anything that nourishes your inner soul rather than organised religions.
Do you frequently connect with nature?
Do you schedule time alone to be with yourself?
Energetic Health
What drains your energy?
What boosts it up?
“Keeping your body healthy is an expression of gratitude to the whole cosmos
— the trees, the clouds, everything.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh
Wellness Clarity
If after considering those questions you found that one aspect of yourself is suffering from low levels of wellness examine that area in greater detail with these following statements, in order to gain more clarity.
Physical
+ I exercise regularly
+ I do not smoke.
+ I do not abuse alcohol or binge drink.
+ I am aware of, and regulate how much caffeine, sugar, processed food I consume
+ I regularly participate in recreation, leisure and sport activities
+ I eat nutritious foods (for the body and soul) and avoid processed foods
+ I move my body for exercise, relaxation and pleasure
+ On average I sleep 7 – 8 hours every night and wake feeling refreshed
+ I avoid being sedentary
+ I know and practice abdominal breathing
+ I regularly do activities that ground me
Emotional
+ I am able to reach out and ask for support when I need it
+ I am comfortable expressing my feelings with others.
+ I take responsibility for my own behaviors.
+ I care for myself and include practices that nurture and relax me part of every day
+ I have practices in place to help me release strong emotions
+ I practice forgiveness
+ I can effectively express both my positive and negative emotions
+ I am aware of my emotions and can identify my feelings easily
+ I spend time with an animal for connectedness and unconditional love
+ I congratulate myself on achieving something especially when it’s challenging
+ I feel secure going places where I may not know anyone.
+ I spend quality time with my family and friends
+ I do not abuse drugs, alcohol or other addictive pastimes including technology or shopping
Mental/Cognitive
+ I know and use healthy ways to deal with stress (social support, exercise, relaxation)
+ I deal with stress calmly and assertively
+ I make up my own mind about things
+ I feel interested in new things
+ I am able to focus and make decisions with clarity
+ I keep my mind sharp by educating myself and learning new things
+ My past does not define me. I recognise and challenge my automatic limiting beliefs and self-sabotaging thoughts. I am not governed by them
+ I set and maintain healthy boundaries easily
+ I am able to assert myself when necessary
+ I know how to set and reach goals and objectives.
+ I am able to communicate with others effectively.
+ I make attempts to expand my awareness of different groups – ethnic, racial, religious, gender, social groups.
Spiritual
+ I like some private time, but do not isolate myself
+ I take time for spiritual growth and development
+ I regularly spend time communing with nature (not just going to the mailbox)
+ I feel compassionate towards mankind, or all sentient beings. I feel one with everyone and everything
+ Gratitude is at the heart of my beliefs. I am able to find happiness easily in my life whatever my circumstances
+ I regularly practice a form of meditation to support my spiritual growth
+ I exercise mindfulness in my daily life
+ I regularly nurture my creative nature
Energetic
+ I surround myself with others who energise and support me
+ I engage in activities that work toward a greater purpose and create something better
+ I enjoy and seek new ways to think and act creatively
+ I consistently enjoy what I do and do what I enjoy
+ My immediate surroundings support my personal growth and wellbeing
+ I am able to speak out about what does not support my health and wellbeing
After considering how these statements apply to you and how much they contribute to your wellness levels write down the ten things that have changed over the last five years that have had the most impact on improving your wellness.
Now write down three things that have changed over the last year. They may be a change in thinking or attitude rather than a physical action. They can be big or small, every change we make helps.
Although after doing this quiz you don’t have a number score out of 100 showing your wellness level, you should by now have a pretty clear picture of where your wellness stands and where the gaps lie. With this knowledge you can now move forward and take the necessary steps to make change.
Start with a long-term goal. Rather than choosing something specific to one aspect of yourself like “lose weight” or “eat healthier” or “get out in nature more often” you’ll find you get more traction by approaching this in a different way.
Think about what “Wellness” feels like to you. Decide how you will feel when you have optimal wellness and wellbeing? It may be light, or safe, or freedom, or joyful, or flexible or many other feelings. It’s important to identify the emotion that’s connected with wellness for you. This is unique for everyone, but you must know what it is for you.
Once you have identified your “wellness emotion and feeling” you can reverse-engineer it to achieve it.
Instead of working out the actions, you want to take to create wellness, focus on doing whatever makes you ‘feel’ like your own wellness emotion. It might be taking actions that make you feel safe, or free, or joyful, whatever that emotion is for you.
What’s amazing about approaching it like this is that without even planning a course of action, without having to force yourself to follow rules, you’ll find that things begin to shift. You instinctively begin to make choices that support your wellness without having to create a framework or a plan of action. Your intuition and inner wisdom come onboard and begin to guide you automatically to make changes that achieve the outcome you desire.
This week begin your Wholistic Wellness Journey by setting yourself the goal of doing three things that truly make you feel that emotion of wellness you identified. And have fun!
