Wellness Tips
According to the Global Wellness Institute, wellness can be described as the active pursuit of activities, choices and lifestyles that lead to a state of holistic health. This means that the active pursuit is associated with intentions, choices, and actions that we make towards an optimal state of health and wellbeing.
Wellness is typically mistaken for being healthy, well-being and happy. However, wellness doesn’t refer to a static state of being, like being happy, in good health. Rather, wellness is associated with an active, or outgoing, process of being aware and making choices that lead toward an outcome of optimal health and wellbeing. In other words, wellness is about more than just physical health and it includes at least six dimensions for which we will suggest wellness tips:
Physical – it’s about a healthy body through exercise, nutrition, sleep, and more.
Mental – it’s the engagement with the world through learning, problem-solving, creativity, and more.
Emotional – it’s about being in touch with, aware of, accepting of, and able to express one’s feelings.
Spiritual – it’s about our own search for meaning and purpose in human existence.
Social – it’s about connecting with, interacting with, and contributing to other people and our communities.
Environmental or Lifestyle – it’s about finding a healthy physical environment free of hazards and being aware of the role we play in bettering rather than denigrating the natural environment.
WELLNESS VS WELL-BEING
As said before, wellness is often used as a synonym for well-being. And although they have similarities, they don’t represent the same thing. To put it in simple words, we can say that well-being is a destination and wellness is our method to get there, meaning that wellness is action-oriented. It includes our habits and behaviours. Contrary to wellness, well-being is simply a state of being related to how you perceive your life.
BENEFITS OF WELLNESS
Adopting wellness practices can create a positive impact on your life in many ways, from making you healthier and more physically fit to improving your self-esteem. But also, by adopting a wellness lifestyle you’ll be a more positive person, have more knowledge and be more open to a new point of views, to name only a few!
PHYSICAL WELLNESS TIPS
The physical dimension englobes the physical health, fitness, and our physical appearance too.
Physical Health Wellness Tips
Watch What you Eat
Meals and snacks should consist of a healthy balance of foods. Knowing your nutritional needs, in addition to not eating too much or too little, can lead to better physical wellness. Overall health improves when we are fuelled with healthy foods. This includes lean protein sources, green vegetables, fruit, and then minimizing sugar.
Sleep
When you are sleep-deprived, your body begins to shut down. Make sure that you feel rested from getting an adequate amount of sleep. This will allow your body to function at a consistent and optimal speed every day.
Drink lots of Water
You should drink at least eight glasses of water every single day.
Take Your Vitamins
Supplementing your diet with the right vitamins, ideally prescribed by your doctor, can help improve your overall physical wellness.
Fitness and Physical Appearance Wellness Tips
Exercise
This one is not really breaking news for no one. A healthy person must exercise at least three times per week for a minimum of half an hour. Exercise helps your body to build muscle, lose weight (if needed), and prevent illness and disease.
Stay Motivated
It’s not hard to keep a healthy lifestyle but it’s way easier to give up. In order to see all the results, you wish and to have long term wellness, it’s important to be consistent in your habits and be patient with your journey!
MENTAL WELLNESS TIPS
The mental dimension of wellness includes developing a healthy personal philosophy, maintaining a learning attitude, and establishing a base of useful knowledge.
Eliminate Everyday Addictions
You may think you don’t have one, but the truth is that almost everyone has one small, almost unnoticed addiction that interferes with our ability to be our best version of ourselves. It can be regularly checking Instagram, work, overeating. Think about yours and eliminate it on your daily basis.
Keep Learning
Learning is the perfect exercise for your brain and is as important as exercising your body. By researching, reading, and learning you’re improving your knowledge and opening your mind to new ideas, people and so much more. Also, did you know that many billionaires use the Five Hour Rule, which includes an hour of reading, and claims it helped them become who they are now?
EMOTIONAL WELLNESS TIPS
The emotional dimension includes, of course, our mental health and emotions and feelings themselves. Being aware of what you are feeling can help you to channel your emotions into productive, positive feelings. Achieving emotional balance lays the foundation for total body well-being.
Manage Stress
Stress is powerful enough to damage both emotional and physical wellness. Find an outlet to manage your stress. It can be working out, meditating, writing a journal.
Seek Balance
Your busy environment expects you to make many different decisions daily, which making balance sometimes hard. However, finding a balance between every sphere of your life is crucial for long-term wellness. Be practical about your responsibilities and what you can feasibly accomplish. Also, having a plan and setting realistic goals and priorities is important and helps you see and tackle what needs to be done first.
Be Positive and Accept Mistakes
It’s understandably easy to get caught up in negative thoughts or people. When you feel that happening, try immediately redirect and focus on the positive sides of the situation you’re going through at the moment. Writing positive affirmations can help as well as surrounding yourself with positive people. But don’t forget that making mistakes is normal and you should accept yours because the sooner you address the error, the sooner you’re able to move on forward.
SPIRITUAL WELLNESS TIPS
The spiritual dimension of wellness is perhaps the most personal one and it includes becoming aware of our life's purpose, developing our innate gifts, and using our talents in a positive way and getting in touch with our spirituality.
Explore your Spiritual Core
Ask yourself: Who am I? What is my purpose? What do I value most? These questions will lead you down a road where you will think more in-depth about yourself and allow you to notice things about yourself that will help you achieve fulfilment.
Look for deeper Meanings
Looking for deeper meanings in your life and analysing occurring patterns will help you see that you have control over your destiny. Being aware of this can help you achieve a happy and healthy life.
Express your Mind
Expressing what is on your mind will help you to maintain a focused mind. After a long day or a significant event, you may feel confused and not be able to make sense of your feelings. By writing down your thoughts, you may be able to think clearer and move forward.
Try Yoga
Yoga is a physical technique that can help improve your spiritual wellness by reducing emotional and physical strains on your mind and body. Read about other yoga benefits.
SOCIAL WELLNESS TIPS
The social dimension of wellness includes the careful creation and maintenance of healthy and positive relationships, our contribution and involvement in the community and our impact on our surroundings or environment at large.
Volunteer
Volunteering is excellent for meeting other people with the same interest as you and allows you to help make the world a better place!
Connect with Pets
The love of animals often brings people together. If you have a pet, join a pet club or look for pet events at your local pet centre or rescue shelter.
Nurture your Friendships
Perhaps you’ve been spending too much time with one person, or you’ve been meaning to catch up with some old friends but just haven’t made the time. Take this opportunity to connect with old friends or find the time to call a friend you haven’t seen in a while and rekindle relationships.
ENVIRONMENTAL / LIFESTYLE WELLNESS TIPS
The environmental or lifestyle dimension of wellness includes our work and workplace, our leisure time, and our home environment. As most of us will spend more than half our lives at work, what we do at work matters immensely to our wellness. Another aspect of lifestyle is our finances. If we're not living within our means or riddled with debt, our lifestyle choices can become our downfall.
Our leisure time is another aspect of our wellness that we can control or at least choose wisely so that at any given time we can look back and easily recall a good balance of enjoyment, relaxation time and play. And finally, there's the home environment. Our home, the surrounding area we live in, our shopping habits, and many other aspects can make up a great lifestyle without detracting from our personal or family wellness and in fact, tends to lead to a generally happy and healthy life.