Wellness Tips: The How-To For Your Body, Part 1
As people, some of us have this little flaw that makes us think that we have to push our bodies to the breaking point and just keep going. Completely disregarding our personal well-being thinking there are no consequences.
Just push and push to achieve our goals,
our honey do lists,
to impress others,
then wake up and do it all over again.
I used to be one of those people. I would push to be perfect at everything I did.
My body could handle it.
I was so wrong!
Only being diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder had the power to stop me. Hopefully, your choice to take care of your body doesn’t have to take such drastic measures as with me.
Oh well, so the question is, now what? I mean, why should we be so concerned with our wellness, what’s the big deal?
Short, sweet, end of the story version… Taking the time for our wellbeing allows our minds and bodies to function at an optimal level. That’s it and really shouldn’t that be enough?
“Wellness is a holistic integration of physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. Although it always includes striving for health, it’s more about living life fully, and is a lifestyle and a personalize approach to living life in a way that… allows you to become the best kind of person that your potentials, circumstances and fate will allow.”
(Stoewen, 2017)
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8 Wellness Dimensions
Taking care of our well-being takes us to 8 “dimensions” that work together to achieve optimal function. They are dependent on each other and it is delicate folks, I don’t think anyone would question that. If we chronically neglect one or two then over time it will throw us off, start to negatively affect the other areas then ultimately our quality of life.
Staying balanced isn’t impossible because we don’t have to give equal attention to each and every one. To achieve balance or harmony within oneself is very personal. It will look different to everyone because it is influenced by our aspirations, ambitions, priorities, how we see life. (ncbi.com)
To be successful requires us to learn or rather relearn how to tune into our body’s needs and adjust as necessary along the way. So what are they?
- Physical– caring for our bodies: exercise, food, staying hydrated, etc.
- Intellectual– openness to always learning, accepting of challenges and learning how to overcome those challenges in a positive way
- Emotional– being mindful of our emotions, feelings, attitudes, and being able to manage them while being respectful of others’ feelings.
- Social– developing and maintaining relationships whether intimate or friendships, a concern or caring for others, and letting others care for you. Willing to be a part of a community.
- Spiritual– living life with meaning, higher sense of purpose outside yourself
- Vocational– preparing for a job or career that is personally satisfying and enriching. Using talents and skills to improve yourself in your field or job.
- Financial– live within your means while making informed decisions about short-term and long-term goals, investments and even emergencies
- Environmental– being aware of your effect on the environment and the world around you through your habits and interactions as well as the effect your environment has on your own health and well-being.
Having 8 aspects of life to worry about might seem daunting but I would bet that as you were reading through this list a couple of them stood out to you. Focus on those that stood out to you.
The question becomes where do you go from here?
Intellectual, Social, Spiritual, & Emotional Wellness
I put these together because they are so intertwined. I could separate them but… there’s such an overlap that we would cross a new threshold for redundancy. All of these fall under what I would deem an umbrella term of mental health.
When these dimensions are out of whack possible symptoms that arise can be depression, anxiety, anger, resistance to change, feeling the urge or need to control our environment, low self-esteem and/or self-worth, etc.
However, perhaps the first tip in this journey of harmony or learning how to tune into your body and figure out where you are right now is to ask yourself a few questions. The only way we can make the most impactful changes is knowing where you are now and where you want to go.
Questions to ask about your wellness…
- What are the first feelings that you experience when you wake up for the day?
- Are you a night owl, morning person, or productive afternooner (probably not a word but I like it)?
- How many hours of sleep do you need to feel “rested”?
- Does socializing with others whether with family, friends and/or strangers vitalize you or leave you feeling tired?
- What activity do you enjoy doing and allows you to let go of your stress for a time?
- When was the last time you engaged in this stress relief activity?
- Can you remember the last time you had a full meal?
- When was the last time you took a walk or just enjoyed being outside?
- What makes you full belly laugh?
- When was the last time you laughed?
- What’s thought or worry is taking up your headspace?
- Do you feel content most of the time or do you spend most of your time anxious or worried about something?
- Are you a “glass is half full” kind of person or the “glass is half empty” type?
Why is it important to assess your current state of wellness?
Being honest with ourselves and gauging where we are helps us get a true picture of ourselves.
For example, perhaps you feel like life is going great but you are just tired all the time and can’t figure out the cause. Asking these questions and others that pop in your head that you feel are relevant to you can open your eyes to the actual problem.
Like “Do you feel content most of the time?” Initially, you might say, “Absolutely!” but as you go through your day you realize that you spent most of it anxious because you are swamped with a project at work or worries about your kids or one child in particular. Perhaps your debt and finances were on your mind most of the day.
Because you asked yourself if you feel content, your brain becomes more aware. So then you ask yourself, was this day an outlier? So you start paying attention for the next few days and realize that you spend most of your day worried or anxious because of either your current situation or whatever stress has grabbed your attention. Therefore, you actually aren’t content with your life and found a possible cause for your tiredness. There is a correction needed.
When you recognize a problem then you can move forward to fix it. An important note when trying to figure out how to fix your current concern is to be true to yourself, there is no answer fits all.
“Change becomes much more achievable if you pay attention to who you are and insert routines that take advantage of your strengths, tendencies, and aptitudes. With self-awareness, you can cultivate the habits that work for you. Consider, for instance, differences in circadian rhythms. Circadian rhythms reflect our natural tendencies for sleeping and waking and influence our energy and productivity at different times in the day.
The odds of success to improve your fitness won’t increase if, for example, you decide to rise an hour earlier to exercise each day when you happen to be a “night owl” rather than “morning lark.” Self-awareness includes knowledge about other aspects of self as well, such as whether you are a marathoner, sprinter, or procrastinator; under- or over-buyer; simplicity or abundance lover; finisher or opener; and familiarity or novelty lover. It also includes whether you are promotion- or prevention-focused, and whether you like taking small or big steps.”
(Stoewen, 2017)
Be honest with what your tendencies are, even if you may not like it. Honesty with where you are at right now can be the catalyst you need to incite change you want. Leading you to where you want to go and be.
Tips to improve mental wellness: Develop a positive attitude
A negative attitude hardly ever propels us forward, to become better than we were yesterday. More often, it immobilizes us, telling us we will never be more than what we are today.
I love this quote from the movie Akeelah and the Bee:
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.”
Marianne Williamson
Fabulous! Gives me the chills every time!
I know it’s deep and maybe too deep for some but the point is that true change comes from having a positive attitude toward life and yourself. So how do we go from being a negative naysayer to a little ray of sunshine?
Have gratitude
I know we hear this all the time! But I promise this isn’t just a phrase to say just for the sake of saying it.
It might seem simple to suggest that expressing gratitude can lead to true change in our well-being but we have the science to back up saying it one more time. Over the years scientists have had the burning question of the impact of gratitude, does it make a difference or can it improve our mental health?
Around 2015, a study was done on the effects of gratitude writing for psychotherapy clients. The claim was that the majority of studies done before on gratitude were done on individuals that were reasonably functioning, their well-being was well off before the study.
Now the question was this… could be expressing gratitude to improve the mental health of an individual who was not functioning well. They enlisted 293 participants who were already seeking out therapy due to their mental health concerns and divided them into three groups; one group writing gratitude letters while receiving therapy, a control group who only received therapy, and a third group who also received therapy but engaged in writing about their thoughts and feelings about negative events in their life (Wong et al., 2016).
Those that participated in the gratitude writing exercise reported significantly better mental health at the end and the effects lasted at least 3 months after the study was conducted.
This is just one example; there are several great studies and resources if you need convincing that gratitude can help cultivate that positive attitude.
- Robert Emmons, Ph.D
- A Grateful Heart is a Nonviolent Heart: Cross-Sectional, Experience Sampling, Longitudinal, and Experimental Evidence
- 2011 Applied Psychology: Health & Well-Being
- 2007 Rene Dickerhoof
- 2014 Personality and Individual Differences
- 2012 Personality and Individual Differences
- Gratitude and Well-Being, 2010
For me, I didn’t need a whole lot of convincing because the logic made sense to my brain. A positive attitude helps power you through that difficult part of the change, reminding you why the change is necessary and important. Whether that change is of a very personal nature, breaking a bad habit, or taking a risk in the hopes for a better life. Expressing gratitude is a way to fuel a positive attitude and keep the fire going. Lucky for us there is more than one way to do this.
How to express gratitude
- Writing a letter of gratitude to someone who helped you at any point in your life.
- Keeping a gratitude journal
- Take a few minutes in the morning, evening, or both to run through the good things in your life even if it’s just I am glad to be breathing or I have another day to be better than I was yesterday.
- Write down a grateful list or journal, listing all that you are grateful for in life.
- Say thank you more
- Find ways to give service, don’t underestimate helping an elderly person cross the road
- Compliment those around you
- Find something once a day that you like about yourself
- Write yourself post-it notes affirmations such as:
- I’m the captain of my ship, I control me.
- I am going to let go what I cannot change
- Breathe in good and exhale the bad thoughts
- I deserve peace in my life
Give kindness to yourself and others
This goes along the lines of service but giving kindness doesn’t have to be flashy or time-consuming or even thought out. Just give a little love to those around you without expecting in return. I believe this is key, you expect a return for your efforts then you will be sorely disappointed most of the time.
Go about your day looking to do good for someone just to bring them joy. Soon you will be able to open yourself up to the possibility that you are a force of change for yourself and others. You may never know or see the ripples your act of kindness starts but we all know that nothing good comes from doing nothing or worse being mean to others.
Even just committing to smiling to those you pass is a small act that any one of us can do. Just listen, if you feel the urge to help then do it. It might be hard at first because most of us aren’t used to going out of our way to help but the more you get out and help the easier it will be. Just remember to be safe and listen to your body. If you feel unsafe, don’t ignore your body’s warning.
Find a Reason to Smile
Did you know that it takes more muscles in your face to maintain a frown than smiling? My wonderful professor in one of my Speech Therapy classes in college taught me that one. It takes significantly more effort to frown than it does to smile. So we should let go and smile more!
I know sometimes easier said than done when times are hard and you feel like there isn’t a light at the end of the tunnel. However, there is something to be said of just taking it one step, one day, even one hour at a time.
Have you ever noticed when you make the effort to smile at someone you are passing like at the mall or grocery store, most of the time instinctively they smile back?
Or have you ever stopped to evaluate the feeling you get when someone smiles at you and you are the one that smiles back? It just makes you feel good all over and you never know why but it puts a little lift in your step. Almost seems that a small burden has been lifted off for a little while.
Simply put by Mark Stibich at verywellmind.com:
“Smiling can trick the body into helping you elevate your mood because the physical act of smiling actually activates neural messaging in your brain. A simple smile can trigger the release of neural communication boosting neuropeptides as well as mood-boosting neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin. Think of smiling like a natural antidepressant.”
(Mark Stibich, 2020)
To have a positive attitude you must overcome your fear
Faith grows in the absence of fear likewise faith cannot exist with the presence of fear. To change a bad habit or to develop that positive attitude we keep harping on (broken record anyone?) you have to have faith that you can achieve that goal. Just a little, tinsy amount is enough to get started.
You would be surprised how much fear of change holds you back; fear that life will get worse, fear of losing who you are, fear of failure, take your pick.
When we have decided what changes we want to make in our lives then it would be prudent to identify your fears for moving forward. By doing so you can develop strategies to overcoming those fears along the way. I would love to tell you that you just have to overcome that fear once and it will be smooth sailing from there.
Truth is, fear is very powerful so more than likely you will have to cross that obstacle several times but good news, as you continually and successfully employ those strategies that work for you to overcome those fears, it will get easier. Why? You are rewiring your brain each time you refuse to let the fear control you and that fear has less of a hold because you are putting something better in its place.
What holds me back
Personally, there have always been two things that have held me back when it has come to becoming better. One, fear of the unknown. What will I do if I stop relying on my old ways of dealing with stress or anxiety? It is silly really because what I was doing wasn’t working well for my well-being to begin with hence why we are here.
But it makes me…me… We are afraid if we make the change we will lose a critical part of ourselves. We have to have faith that while it will be painful and uncomfortable and even a little uncertain at times, we will be better for it.
Two, fear of failure. If you never try then you can’t fail, right??? It’s humiliating to fail. There’s that unspoken expectation that if we go for something new we need to execute it perfectly the first time. One way to live, I suppose, but it also means you will never be more than what you are today.
If you are wondering if these are the only ways then I have news for you, there’s more, so much more that you can do. We have only covered a portion of how to take care of your “mental” wellness (our social, spiritual, emotional, and intellectual dimensions). If you are interested in more or none of these seem to work for you then head on over to Part 2 of Taking Care of our Mental Wellness.
Wrap up of Wellness Tips: part 1
Like we have said before there isn’t a one size fits all when it comes to wellness, everyone is different: ambitions, priorities, life goals, etc. As well as what we consider our harmony or balance will vary from person to person.
Like we mentioned earlier in this post there are eight dimensions so maybe you feel like you need help in another dimension, feel free to jump over any of the posts listed below to learn how to listen to your body and achieve your optimal health and wellness.
Click here for the next segment: Mental Wellness Part 2 or head back over to our Wellness Menu
Related Posts: Seven Sure Fire Ways for Stress Relief
References
Stoewen, D. (2017, August). Dimensions of wellness: Change your habits, change your life. Retrieved July 01, 2020, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5508938/
Wong, Y., Owens, J., Gabana, N. T., Brown, J. W., McInnis, S., Toth, P., & Gilman, L. (2016, May 03). Does gratitude writing improve the mental health of psychotherapy clients? Evidence from a randomized controlled trial. Retrieved July 02, 2020, from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10503307.2016.1169332?scroll=top
Mark Stibich, P. (2020, February 04). Top 10 Reasons to Smile Every Day. Retrieved July 02, 2020, from https://www.verywellmind.com/top-reasons-to-smile-every-day-2223755
31 Tips to Boost Your Mental Health. (2020). Retrieved July 03, 2020, from https://www.mhanational.org/31-tips-boost-your-mental-health
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Smith, M., M.A., Segal, R., M.A., Robinson, L., & Segal, J., Ph.D. (2019, June). Building Better Mental Health. Retrieved July 03, 2020, from https://www.helpguide.org/articles/mental-health/building-better-mental-health.htm
Wong, J., & Brown, J. (2017, June 6). How Gratitude Changes You and Your Brain. Retrieved July 03, 2020, from https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_gratitude_changes_you_and_your_brain
Ackerman, C. E. (2019, August 24). 28 Benefits of Gratitude & Most Significant Research Findings. Retrieved July 03, 2020, from https://positivepsychology.com/benefits-gratitude-research-questions/
Gratitude Definition: What Is Gratitude. (2020). Retrieved July 03, 2020, from https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/topic/gratitude/definition
Publishing, H. (2020). Giving thanks can make you happier. Retrieved July 03, 2020, from https://www.health.harvard.edu/healthbeat/giving-thanks-can-make-you-happier
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100 Ways to Express Gratitude and Boost Happiness. (2016, November 19). Retrieved July 03, 2020, from https://www.virtuesforlife.com/100-ways-to-express-gratitude-and-boost-happiness/
Selig, M. (2016, May 25). The 9 Superpowers of Your Smile. Retrieved July 03, 2020, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/changepower/201605/the-9-superpowers-your-smile
The Real Health Benefits of Smiling and Laughing. (n.d.). Retrieved July 03, 2020, from https://www.sclhealth.org/blog/2019/06/the-real-health-benefits-of-smiling-and-laughing/
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