Checking In On Yourself: Making Time For Wellness

When was the last time you had a check-in just for yourself?

We live in an increasingly fast paced world that demands a lot of our time and energy. This has become only more apparent in the face of the uncertainty and instability of the past few years. Wellness shapes nearly every aspect of our everyday lives. Yet while many people understand the importance of wellness, few of them make time for it. For some this comes from a lack of time or other mounting obligations taking priority. Others simply lack a full understanding of wellness and how it affects them.?

To address this problem, the first and most obvious step is to gain some insight on wellness and what it means.?

Understanding Health & Wellness

People often use the terms health and wellness interchangeably, but that isn’t really accurate. Though they are closely related and dependent on each other, they are two different concepts with different meanings. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines health as “a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” Meanwhile, wellness is defined as “the optimal state of health of individuals and groups.” So the most basic way of understanding these concepts is that health is the goal, while wellness is the active process of achieving it.?

The Dimensions of Wellness

Just as health is not strictly about physical health, wellness is also a holistic and multidimensional concept that encompasses all aspects of our lives. There are eight dimensions of wellness: physical, intellectual, emotional, environmental, social, vocational, financial, and spiritual.?

• Physical Dimension: Caring for your body to stay healthy both now and in the future.
• Intellectual Dimension: Growing intellectually, maintaining curiosity.
• Emotional Dimension: Understanding and respecting your feelings, values, and attitudes.?
• Environmental Dimension: Understanding how your social, natural, and built environments impact your health and well-being.
• Social Dimension: Maintaining healthy relationships and contributing to the community.?
• Vocational Dimension: Participating in work that provides personal satisfaction and enrichment.
• Financial Dimension: Managing your resources to live comfortably within your means.?
• Spiritual Dimension: Finding purpose, value, and meaning in your life.

By examining our wellbeing against these dimensions, we can more easily identify and address unmet needs and live happier, healthier lives.?

How To Make Time For Wellness

Making the right choices for health and wellness can be difficult. While we usually know what is good for us and how we can do it, putting it into practice isn’t always easy. For some people, common self-care strategies like getting enough sleep, exercising, and meditating can seem unattainable due to a lack of time or financial resources. There’s also the general attitude that wellness is a series of tasks to carry out rather than a lifestyle, which can make it difficult to make meaningful change.?

Here are ten important points to keep in mind to help you build a better relationship with wellness.

• Wellness is an active lifestyle, not a checklist to fill out. If you treat wellness like a chore, you won’t get anything out of it.?
• You’re never truly done with wellness. You can’t take on a spa day and then return to the grind and expect meaningful results.?
• Wellness is a dynamic process that changes based on your shifting needs. Even if you’re doing well now, you might need to change your approach over time.??
• Plan ahead: some people say they don’t have time to take care of themselves, but if you take stock of how you spend your time, you’ll likely find opportunities to make changes.
• Not everything you do for the sake of wellness needs to be a big change. Sometimes even a small act of self-kindness can go a long way.?
• Rest is essential for being truly productive. You can’t deliver your best work if you’re exhausted. Overworking isn’t sustainable.?
• Be open to new experiences. Too many people resist things that could help improve their wellness because it’s “not for them,” dismissing them without giving them a shot.?
• Don’t focus solely on physical wellness. The various dimensions of wellness impact one another, so if you neglect one, the rest will suffer.?
• Find people who can support your wellness efforts. Sometimes having guidance is necessary to make change, so don’t be afraid to seek out help.?
• Respect yourself. One big reason people fail to take care of themselves is because they’re more focused on helping others. But you can only help other people so much if you don’t take care of yourself.?

Embracing wellness doesn’t always come easy and it can take time to develop a routine that works for you. By understanding the holistic nature of wellness though, you can incorporate small changes and reap the benefits over time. And if you need help, the professionals at Light House are here to help!?