WELLNESS

WELLNESS

Hey reader…

Wellnesday is another day to talk about our health, and we will be talking about WELLNESS. Today’s session is going to be very enlightening.

WHAT IS WELLNESS?

Wellness is the act of practicing healthy habits daily to attain better physical and mental health outcomes so that instead of just surviving you are thriving.

The Global institute of wellness defines wellness as the active pursuit of activities, choices, and lifestyles that lead to a state of holistic health. When we talk about ‘holistic health’ it means that wellness is beyond our physical health.

Wellness is associated with actions, choices, intentions as we aim at good health and a state of wellbeing. It is also an active process of growth and change to your fullest health and wellbeing.

Wellness does not refer to being happy, in good health, or in a state of wellbeing. It is an active process of being aware and making choices that lead towards an outcome of optimal holistic health and wellbeing.

By cultivating the habit of a healthy lifestyle, you will reduce stress and obtain optimal wellness bodily.

There are parts of your lifestyle that are considered dimensions of wellness: exercise, nutrition, sleep, mindfulness, and social interaction.

• Social interaction: interacting with friends and loved ones help to improve your physical and mental health. You should try and take out time to call someone you’ve been thinking about; this helps you to stay connected to people you care for.
• Exercise: exercise is any bodily activity that enhances or maintains physical fitness and overall health and wellness. Exercising for about 20 to 30 minutes each day could positively impact your overall sense of well-being and help improve your mood.
• Nutrition: eating foods that are rich in vitamins and minerals is part of the steps taken to become healthy. You could pack different fruits and veggies in your bag to take as snacks this could help you avoid taking junk.
• Sleep: sleep is necessary for good well-being. Make sure you have enough sleep so you can be effective.
• Mindfulness: practicing mindfulness helps you to focus. Take a moment to consider your own mind and how you are feeling.

Some risk factors could be harmful to good health;

1. Drinking a lot of alcohol: could damage the liver, cause cancer, heart disease, and stroke.
2. Extreme sports: this may lead to fracture of the bones.
3. Unprotected sex: having unprotected sex could lead to STDs (sexually transmitted diseases).
4. Smoking: this is common among the youths, smoking leads to lung cancer and other cardiovascular diseases.

DIMENSIONS OF WELLNESS

• Physical wellness: physical wellness comprises several healthy behaviors such as proper nutrition, exercise, enough sleep, staying away from harmful substances. All these healthy behaviors help to increase physical fitness. Being physically fit increases the ability to prevent illness and diseases. You should go for checkups regularly. Exercise activates a healthy mind and body. You could exercise like walking, jogging, hiking, skipping, etc.
• Spiritual wellness: spiritual wellness does not necessarily imply the religion or belief of a person. It involves principles that help give direction to one’s life, it is also a desire to seek meaning and purpose in human existence. The art of caring, forgiving, compassionate, and having a purpose in life helps in spiritual wellbeing.
• Intellectual wellness: intellectual well-being encourages mental exercises and engagement through creativity, learning new things, problem-solving. People who possess a high level of intellectual well-being have an active mind and continue to learn. To attain intellectual dimension, you need to read, learn (or perfect) a foreign language learn a skill, take online courses, etc.
• Emotional wellness: emotional well-being, involves accepting being in touch with and aware of also being able to express one’s feelings and those of others such as happiness, anger, and sadness. Being emotionally well is the ability to love and be loved. Emotional wellbeing comprises the ability to share feelings, optimism, and self-esteem.
• Social wellness: it involves the ability to connect and interact with other people and our communities. It requires you to develop intimacy with others, establish good interpersonal relations, and maintain a long-term relationship with family and friends.
• Environmental wellness: this involves the role we play in improving our natural environment and maintaining a way of life that maximizes harmony with the way and minimizes harm to the environment. It includes taking part in activities that will protect the environment from any harm. To attain optimal environmental well-being, we should minimize chemical use, recycle and learn how to conserve our resources.

It is very important as individuals to constantly evaluate ourselves in every area of wellness in other to determine better ways to get fit. Now that you know the different twists, I can categorically ask “how well are you?”. Knowing your wellness level is key for both mental health and physical health. Get healthy, get fit!

Since we can all agree that knowledge is power, kindly share with friends; you’ll never know who really needs this knowledge.