No matter what part of the country you live in, this winter has been especially hard on everyone. We have seen an extended season of cold temperatures, snow and ice. Places where winter weather usually doesn’t occur reached record breaking numbers! Plus, it seemed like you couldn’t turn on the news or scroll through social media without reading about yet another tragic flu-related death, and, chances are, everyone you know had at some point been bed-ridden because of this year’s strain. Needless to say, this winter has us all longing for spring.
Today, spring is officially here. Like you, we are hoping Mother Nature will give us a break and not let it come in like a lion. This time of year, can be described as magical. As temperatures rise each one of feels a renewed energy source that had seemed to have left us during the winter. The sun shines longer and appears more often helping our bodies receive desperately needed Vitamin D. Flowers, grass and trees begin to blossom bringing color back to dreary landscapes. And baby animals remind us of how amazing new life is. With the world around, us coming back to life it’s a perfect time for us to spring into wellness.
Why is wellness so important to achieve? Well wellness is defined as ‘the state of being in good health, especially as an actively pursued goal.’ Therefore, if more people focused on wellness care, instances of the flu would have been seen less this past winter. But it doesn’t stop at the flu. Seven out of ten chronic diseases that kill more than half Americans annually are preventable by living a wellness lifestyle. And five of those seven chronic illnesses are reversible. If we want to have a QUALITY long life, functioning SUCCESSFULLY in the world then we NEED TO BE WELL. To achieve those goals, we need all seven dimensions of wellness to be well maintained because if any one of them is diminished, the others suffer too.
WHAT ARE THE SEVEN DIMENSIONS OF WELLNESS?
- Social Wellness 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.
- Spiritual Wellness is the ability to establish peace and harmony in our lives. The ability to develop congruency between values and actions and to realize a common purpose that binds creation together contributes to our Spiritual Wellness.
- Environmental Wellness is the ability to recognize our own responsibility for the quality of the air, the water and the land that surrounds us. The ability to make a positive impact on the quality of our environment, be it our homes, our communities or our planet contributes to our Environmental Wellness.
- Occupational Wellness is the ability to get personal fulfillment from our jobs or our chosen career fields while still maintaining balance in our lives. Our desire to contribute in our careers to make a positive impact on the organizations we work in and to society as a whole leads to Occupational Wellness.
- Intellectual Wellness is the ability to open our 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 recognize that our behaviors 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.
WHAT ARE THE STEPS TO HELP ACHIEVE YOUR WELLNESS GOALS?
If you google “Steps to Take to Achieve Wellness” more results appear than we are probably expecting. When we make goals to achieve wellness we are, in actuality, changing our daily habits and creating new ones. This can seem like a daunting task when a recent study published in the European Journal of Social Psychology concluded that on average it takes humans 66 days to form a new habit. This information supersedes all the information we have learned before, that states new habits are formed in 21 days. What the researchers also found while conducting the study is that “missing one opportunity to perform the behavior did not materially affect the habit formation process.” Why is this such good news? Because it doesn’t matter if you mess up every now and then. Building better habits is not an all-nothing process. The following steps are tailored to allow you to “mess up” yet still achieve your wellness goals.
- Set the goal. Make it very specific and measurable: Instead of saying “I want to drink more water”, be more specific by saying “I will drink 8 (8oz) glasses of water each day. You can keep a journal or download on app on your phone.
- Write it down: Make your goals visible so you have a consistent reminder.
- Break it down into smaller, very specific and manageable steps: Some goals are large and the process to achieve them has many pieces. Breaking down the goal to smaller achievable steps allows you to track progress easier.
- Schedule it: Once you have your goals broken down into specific steps/tasks, you can add them to your monthly calendar and daily to-do list. You can even set an audible reminder on your phone, tablet or watch.
- Allow yourself a day off each week: Whatever your goal/challenge, allow yourself off a day each week that way you don’t become burned out or discouraged.
- Set a reward for yourself: Do not overlook this step because it is crucial. Choosing the wrong reward or not having one at all can be the difference between achieving your goal or giving up.
- Get Accountable: Accountability plays a major role in the success of any goal/challenge. It’s not easy to hold ourselves accountable so have a friend that can help you or some people even document their journeys on social media in order to have their online friends hold them accountable.
- Get Support: Find a loved one or friend who wants to achieve the same goals/challenges as you or who has been where you are at. Being able to talk through the obstacles helps you feel like you are not struggling alone.
- Track your progress in some way: You could keep a daily journal with you or on your phone, have a written log on the refrigerator, blog your story or use wearable technology to track your progress.
- Don’t get discouraged: Nobody is perfect and your goal is not perfection. Allow yourself to make mistakes and have a bad day once in a while.
- Reward Yourself: You made the effort to actually choose a reward so don’t skip and not do it. If you don’t reward yourself at the end, you may just affect the outcome of future goals as well.
Imagine waking up one day and going about your routine without complaining about how your body is feeling? Achieving wellness does not have to be an overwhelming way of life that seems out of reach. You don’t have to start with big changes all at once because that will lead to failure instead of success. Just simply drinking more water, cutting down on sugar, adding fruits/vegetables to your diet in larger portions and moving more are the easiest ways to start on the path to wellness. To help succeed in your goals, make sure you take time daily to slow down in this high stress, fast paced world by unplugging from technology. Creating healthy habits are not like a fad diet, they are a lifestyle change. The changes may not come immediately but the rewards are lifelong. Now doesn’t that sound like a great way to spring forward!
By: Liz Loy, Chiropractic Assistant