How is wellness shaping the culture?
We often hear the term wellness, regardless of the topic in question. It's connected to health or self-care epiphanies. Everyone in some way has spoken about wellness and their understanding of it. Additionally, I believe we live in a time where up-and-coming adults gravitate to spaces that amplify self-discovery and inner contentment. These lifestyle changes and models are influencing both younger and older generations to take back control and take charge of their life. You're investing in yourself --- trust that it's not for nothing. Before you can realign your health goals or create new ones, I want to ensure you get started on the right foot. Understanding the foundations of health and wellness can alter the inner parts of your mind. This change can generate achievable goals and promises to yourself. In return, you're more likely to honor these commitments. When you prioritize your needs, your self-care routine grows exponentially. You are courteous to yourself. You treat yourself with compassion. You are intentional about habits of rest and recharge. You gradually begin to reaffirm the amazing person you are and fix the filter in which you view yourself.
📢Speak this over yourself: You are an asset; not an unstable liability.📢
No matter how many times others tell you of your greatness; if you do not shift your self-perception, you will have a difficult time believing this truth. What is the truth? The truth is — you bring value to any environment and any room you stand in. As you mature, your mind highlights what is unfavorable than what is favorable, what we dislike over what brings us joy. For this reason, the first thing you see when you examine yourself is everything you dislike; Everything you want to change about yourself.If you never see yourself as valuable (lacking in any good trait or quality) or not worth the time and investment, you will have less motivation to change the things you have the power to change through daily, smart choices. I will not force you to change anything you're not ready to change, nor is it my agenda to influence you into a 30-minute self-pity talk or a downward spiral. The purpose of this blog post is to initiate and prioritize a conversation with yourself, increasing your self-awareness in your current position.
What is wellness?
If you research the term wellness, a list will populate with both healthy-based definitions to scientific definitions. For simplicity, let’s agree to the definition from the Global Wellness Institute. Wellness is defined as “the active pursuit of activities, choices, and lifestyles that lead to a state of holistic health.” Holistic health is another term for the inclusion of multiple areas of the body. Physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health are all areas that require your brain. Another element I want to emphasize is the health and fruitfulness of your environment. Our environment plays a crucial role in how we acknowledge our feelings and the feelings we allow our bodies to process and navigate through. You must dissociate with slow-killing, self-destructive habits. We remove any satisfaction from suppressing our emotions.
- Spirtual and Emotional Health
Let us begin with the first two areas — your spiritual and emotional health. These two areas are directly related whether you believe it or not. When undergoing arduous challenges in your spiritual life, your ability to compartmentalize and regulate emotions becomes more burdensome. The state of your spiritual health heavily influences your brain and heart. For example, imagine a time when you felt distant from life and distant from God. For this example, it is safe to say life feels like a revolving door without an exit; you deeply desire to crawl out and experience a change. However, it's impossible. In these moments, we are aware that our irritation is heightened. Our disappointment in various things and people is dangerously high. If you're an excessively honest person, you've accepted your emotional cup is about ¾ full of pure FED-UP. Every morning, you start your day with a more dense emotional spectrum. There is no room for you to handle the extra surprises of feelings and unfortunate life events that are inevitably bound to pop up in your week. A problem is present in your wellness, and this is sign #1!
- Mental and Physical Health
Next, let’s cover our mental and physical health. More often than not, humans, including myself, need to witness some change in our physical health to embrace the need for change. Our eyes help us accept our current reality, and how we process this information drives our ambitions and next steps. Have you ever heard the saying, how we look is a peek into our mind? Here's a common American colloquial phrase: how someone treats their car shows you how they would treat and care for their home. Maybe even their life and any environment they are responsible for. How you think of yourself is fed into the treatment and care of your temple. Weight gain or weight loss is not the only sign to hint at this. The emotions most prevalent in your life influence your fashion choices, the type of diet you curate, and so much more.
- Your Environment
The last bit to discuss is your environment. Your environment can enhance your well-being and add to you. Your environment can guide light, youthful, and positive energy into your being. Conversely, it can take away every ounce of hope, goodness, and sustainability rooted in you. It can amplify darkness (inability to hear), emptiness (the lack of pursuit to uncover YOUR why), and confusion about your worth and identity. It can gradually expel everything innately good about you.
The place you call home or most frequently engage in the necessities of life is where you "should" be able to be, to exist. In other words, it’s a place where you can exist with no outside influence or pressure. You should be able to sit in your identity and own who you are. If it is more taxing and energy-depleting to reenter yourself at home than live outside in a busy congested world, something is seriously wrong. A problem is present in your wellness, and this is sign #2! You should not feel more drained and depressed in the place you call home. Your environment helps you prepare for the emotions you'll broadcast into the world. Your environment can either build a driven, optimistic human or a non-ambitious, anxious human. Our environment includes more than our home. It includes the 5 most frequented places for us. Think of your workplace, your church, and your safe friendships.
What can you do with this information?
At this point, I must challenge you to be a better nurturer and keeper of yourself. Otherwise, what's the point of reading this blog post? I challenge you to assess each area of your life on a scale of 1 to 5. 1 is equivalent to absolutely not; 5 is I’m content and radiating peace. Rate the tranquillity of each area. Is your mind at peace and happy? Is your spirit and relationship with God radiating peace right now? Is your temple (body) content and satisfied with what it reflects? Continue to adjust the questions for each part of your health. At the end of your ratings, commit to uncovering the areas with the highest ratings. Only two areas at a time, s’il vous plait (please)!
Ask the questions that prompt you to recognize heavy feelings. Ask the questions you’ve silenced because "it's just not the right time." There will never be a perfect time. The side effects you’re experiencing are coming from at least one of these areas. Do not coach yourself to be okay with negligence. Stop neglecting the things God said you are in control of and all that you have dominion over.
You are ready to feel and see something different in YOU.
Your wellness is your solution.
Jaime Garrett🪴