Wellness Wednesday

Early on in my blogging I indicated that Wellness is more than merely physical health, exercise or nutrition. It is the full integration of states of physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. Which is what I indicated to a friend of mine who recently joined a fitness group because according to her…….. “She wanted to be healthier!” Yet despite joining this group she was continuously complaining about being depressed, tired, overwhelmed by work, family and having to be discipline her routine, in order to fit in the very thing she thought would make her life better. FITNESS and WELLNESS!

The argument came when I told her, she may have introduced fitness into her life. But she had yet to introduce WELLNESS. She couldn’t understand that wellness is a whole, not a part of the overall picture! You can improve your physical imagine and health with a workout. But your mental well being could still be in shambles.

Here are the key points I introduced to her………There are many others, as mentioned, most of which I’ve blogged about previously.

• Social Wellness (a term which she had no idea existed) is the ability to relate to and connect with other people in our world. Our ability to establish and maintain positive relationships with family, friends and co-workers contributes to our Social Wellness.

 

• Emotional Wellness is the ability to understand ourselves and cope with the challenges life can bring. The ability to acknowledge and share feelings of anger, fear, sadness or stress; hope, love, joy and happiness in a productive manner contributes to our Emotional Wellness.

 

• Intellectual Wellness is the ability to open your minds to new ideas and experiences that can be applied to personal decisions, group interaction and community betterment. The desire to learn new concepts, improve skills and seek challenges in pursuit of lifelong learning contributes to our Intellectual Wellness.

 

• Physical Wellness is the ability to maintain a healthy quality of life that allows us to get through our daily activities without undue fatigue or physical stress. The ability to recognise that our behaviour have a significant impact on our wellness and adopting healthful habits (routine check ups, a balanced diet, exercise, etc.) while avoiding destructive habits (tobacco, drugs, alcohol, etc.) will lead to optimal Physical Wellness. This one she did know by heart. But the others were nonexistent to her. Which beg me to ask. How is it that so many people out there are still involved in rigorous exercise, or hitting the healthy living band wagon, WITHOUT introducing complete wellness into their life?

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