How is your overall health and wellness?
How is your health and wellness?
We are all different people with varying morals, values and goals. Although we all live unique lives, at the end of each day- our innermost want, need and goal is the same. HAPPINESS & PEACE. We all want to be happy and feel peace and harmony. When we feel happiness, we feel at peace, content and complete; our lives feel balanced, controlled and worth living. Why then do we not live our lives in a way that will enable us to achieve this universal but basic want, need and goal?
Living a healthy and balanced lifestyle means to live your life to the fullest. It means taking responsibility for the way you live your life. It means taking healthy action towards achieving your goals, and in doing so, achieving that innermost goal we all retain, HAPPINESS and PEACE. This means that we need to work on, nurture and balance all the aspects of our heart, mind and body that make us human.
This also means, that for us to be considered healthy and well, all these aspects need to be aligned.
Health has many faces!
Connectable Life 6 health categories
Healthy does not simply mean the absence of disease. Health means more than just how you feel physically. Your physical body and health is essential, but it still only comprises one piece of the health puzzle. Your physical health refers to being fit and free from illness. This requires regular exercise, quality sleep and good nutrition- what you feed your body is, after all, what you feed your mind.
Another major part of health and wellness is emotional wellness, which has a direct impact on your physical health and wellness. Our body and mind are connected and interrelated. What affects one, affects the other. This means that our actions determine our thoughts and feelings, and our thoughts and feelings determine our actions. This also means that we can use our body as a tool to counsel our thoughts and feelings. By performing specific bodily movements, we can trigger certain hormones and chemicals to restore harmony and balance- both psychologically and physiologically.
Think of it this way: When you’ve experienced an emotional trauma but not dealt with it appropriately, it can start to creep into other areas of your life that do have an impact on your physical health. You may have persistent headaches or gastrointestinal issues. When one refers to feeling stressed, not only do they feel it emotionally or mentally- but they feel the tension in their jaw, neck, shoulders or abdominal. That’s why expressing your emotions and learning to manage them appropriately is a huge component of overall health, wellness and happiness.
Your psychological well-being means acquiring appropriate coping mechanisms, problem-solving skills and decision-making skills so to avoid psychological distress. It is also having the ability to acknowledge your emotions and deal with them in an appropriate manner-by putting what you are feeling into words and being in control of them.
We are also not a person without other people and meaningful relationships. We need to feel belonging to reach our full potential. Humans are social beings. To be our best selves, to thrive- we need other humans. Meeting people, getting along with people, maintaining, and retaining healthy relations- these are the things that make us feel a part of something, fulfil us, fuel us and our self-image. Close friends and family bonds who provide unconditional love, support and care make us who we are. It is imperative that these relationships have healthy boundaries. The most important relationship to cultivate in your life is the one you have with yourself, but knowing you have people you can depend on goes a long way in helping you to cope with the everyday circumstances of your life.
Another two important aspects to consider are our spiritual and occupational wellness as both these narrate our emotional and mental health. To nurture one’s spirituality, one needs to spend time following the spiritual, religious or belief system of their choice. It is being mindful of one’s spiritual values and morals and nurturing these by living them out in your day-to-day life. It means reading, praying, reflecting and/or meditating. Outside of sleep, we spend most of our time at work. We need to feel fulfilled in our jobs and careers. We should have obtainable and achievable goals to work towards. Feeling appreciated and valued is the driver that gets us up and to work with a smile on our faces. Many people feel as if they are trapped in occupations or professions they don’t feel are rewarding or that they are valued, and that is a drain on you emotionally and physically. You can’t be happy and healthy when you dread going where you spend most of your waking hours during your work week.
You can thrive, not just survive!
When you have all these aspects of you and your life balanced, then you will be truly healthy, and you will thrive.
Health and Wellness is an active process of choosing to live a healthy and balanced life. Wellness is not simply being free from disease and ‘healthy’; it is accepting that we all need growth and to take part in our own evolution by making healthy choices and responsible decisions.
A great way to measure where you are at in terms of your overall health and wellness is to write down what you currently do to nurture each of these aspects of yourself. You may find that some have blank spaces or that there is definite room for improvement in others. Focus on these areas by creating goals while not neglecting the areas you are already doing well in. You will absolutely notice a difference in your overall health, wellness and happiness.
Not sure where to start? Something holding you back? Connectable Life has specialized counsellors and coaches in each of these areas. Start by taking our quiz https://www.connectablelife.com/employeewellness/how-is-my-overall-health-and-wellness
