Wellness and How to Achieve It
My super simplistic definition of Wellness is holistic self-care. Traditionally, Wellness is the practice of daily healthy habits based in multiple areas of your life (physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, etc.). However, I’m not a big fan of complicating the idea of Wellness with a ton of categories because it’s not a “user friendly” way of encouraging people to delve into these routines.
Most people are easily overwhelmed by the all the things they need to do in order to achieve wellness. Even when I began my self-care journey, I felt overwhelmed by how much I needed to incorporate into my routine. That led me to feel like I was failing at attaining wellness before I even really began. I realized early on that I was NOT taking care of myself in any of those categories. I didn’t eat well and I didn’t exercise, so physically I was in bad shape. I wasn’t taking care of my mental health, and at one point had no idea where to begin. I was emotionally detached and had no idea how to connect with my feelings. Spiritually, I was defeated and questioning my faith.
“Wellness”, at the beginning of my journey, meant operating at 100% in all areas. I left no room for slacking or bending. Since I looked at Wellness as a goal, I felt like creating a list of ways to hold myself accountable was crucial to achieving it. In hindsight, that hindered me from getting to where I was working so hard to be.
This is what a day in my life with “Wellness” at the core looked used to look like:
Wake up
Meditate
Gratitude exercise
Prayer
Morning Routine (brush my teeth, shower, etc)
Skincare
Eat a healthy breakfast
Workout
Read on my commute to work (to keep myself intellectually stimulated)
Work at 100% (Part of Wellness for me was financial wellness which I knew depended on my performance at work)
Commute home
Cook and eat a healthy meal
Clean my house
Pick out my clothes for the following day
Nighttime Routine
Meditate before bed
Get a full, 8 hours of rest
None of that even involved any of the many roles I played in life. I wanted to operate successfully as a daughter, sister, aunt, partner and friend. So that involved me calling and checking on everyone, spending time with people, making sure my family ate and managed their health, amongst other things.
To say the least, I was EXHAUSTED on a daily basis. I couldn’t figure out why I was working my ass off to achieve Wellness but still feeling like shit.
Eventually I had to look at Wellness through a completely different lens. My first step in really achieving Wellness was giving my mental health some TLC. It wasn’t until after many therapy sessions that I realized my mental health was the foundation of my wellness journey. When anxiety and depression had a tight grip on me, EVERYTHING else in my life suffered. I didn’t have energy to take care of myself in any area.
That being said, therapy gave me a strong foundation to continue my journey, with the perspective of BALANCE as the key word for achieving Wellness.
We can’t always operate at 100%. That leaves us burned out. Our bodies are made to be in balance but we so often throw ourselves out of alignment. We don’t fuel our bodies so they can physically get us through the day and we don’t allow ourselves enough rest to replenish our energy.
Once I realized Wellness needed to be simplified, holistic self-care became a piece of cake for me.
First, I changed my frame of mind from having a to-do list. Instead, I looked at the activities in my day as doing something good for myself, not a chore. When my morning ritual went from rushing out of bed to preparing myself to handle the day, everything changed. I challenge you to look at all that you do in a day and switch your frame of mind if you can. For example, it’s not a chore to workout. It’s an opportunity for you to give your body something it needs, exercise to keep moving. Thank yourself for doing something good for your future self. Allow yourself to indulge in a type of exercise you enjoy. Not everyone is built for the gym. Try dance or yoga if it suits you.
Wellness has become simple for me now. I care for my mind, I care for my body, and I care for my soul. Those are the 3 things I achieve every day. It’s not always something major that needs to be achieved either.
Sometimes, a simple shower meditation helps keep my mind and thoughts centered enough to tackle the day. I used to think I had to workout for an hour every day, but some days, it’s not an intense, 1-hr workout at the gym. Caring for my body can be eating a salad and taking a 20-30 minute walk. During that walk, I can connect with nature and tend to my soul.
Wellness isn’t this daunting practice of perfecting each area of your life. It’s flowing with how your needs change. Achieving Wellness is as simple as asking yourself, “How will I care for my mind, my body, and my soul today?” That takes your to-do list from 1,000 things, to 3 simple tasks. That shift alone is life-changing and stress-reducing. We need to challenge ourselves to be more gentle and alleviate the pressure we often pile on without cause.