Fitness & Wellness News Your Source for Fitness News, Wellness News, Health News, and Nutrition News!
by Michelle Sutton-Kerchner
Cultivating a state of wellness is personal and ongoing. Here’s how to make it your daily mission …
A thriving mind and body nourishes wellness. Determine the joys and necessities required for your physical, mental, and spiritual health—everything from a workout to a timeout. Then, persevere to incorporate these into your daily life. Sometimes distractions will interfere. Accept them. Continue to seek health and contentment, despite life’s detours.
Take a Proactive Approach
Wellness is an active process. We have the option to choose to be well every day. Wellness is not the absence of trials and challenges. It does not mean you will be without illnesses or headaches. It does not mean you will be void of stress. Rather, it means you act and respond in ways that lend themselves to your overall contentment.
Be Fluid
Prioritizing your well-being is multidimensional. It involves the standard balancing of all aspects of life—work, family, social, home. By dedicating time to everyday joys, we can inspire success in every aspect of life. Your definition of wellness will shift and evolve, based on everything from personal growth to your kid’s soccer schedule. Prioritize accordingly.
Healthy Body
Here are some negative forces that interfere with physical health, along with ways to combat them.
- Excess weight
- Health conditions
- Injuries
- Poor nutrition
Each of these issues interferes with overall wellness by incurring their physical and mental effects. Use such opportunities to ignite your inner warrior. Schedule appointments with healthcare providers. Establish your baseline health through testing and begin to create a plan for improvement.
Share this information with the Center nurse and a personal trainer during your evaluations. They will guide you through your journey to obtain the best health possible, regardless of your current condition. With a fitness plan customized to meet your physical requirements and personal preferences, you can be efficiently and safely successful.
Healthy Mind
Here are some negative forces that interfere with mental health, along with ways to combat them.
- Stress
- Overworking
- Over-achieving
- Anxiety/depression
- Major life crisis
Caffeine and self-distracting techniques have their limit. Eventually, mental exhaustion overrides even the best espresso and Netflix binge-session. Wellness requires you to be a human being, not a human-doing machine. Dedicate time to your mental health. It will extend to physical, intellectual, and emotional wellness.
Improving mental wellness seems easy. Unlike physical wellness, you may not need a special diet or 100 daily ab crunches. However, for us human overachievers, committing to activities that contribute to mental wellness may seem a waste of time.
A breather amid the day’s chaos may be perceived as downright wimpy. Not according to research! Studies continue to solidify the benefit of downtime to recharge and increase productivity. If you cannot manage a vacation day, revive in increments throughout your busy schedule.
Dedicate time to enjoying a magazine, soaking in the Center’s spa pool, taking a power nap, breathing mindfully, or truly tasting your favorite beverage. Discover a new way to work out. Join a fitness class. Do something to recharge yourself every single day. (A solid six hours of sleep does not count.) This is the stuff that instills wellness. Added bonus: Increased productivity, which builds momentum for wellness in other dimensions of your life.
Fuel with Fitness
Consider how you felt after your last workout. Exercise boosts energy, and diminishes physical and mental tension, usually after only 20 minutes. It combats those negative forces while replenishing with a variety of positives. Fitness multitasks at achieving physical and mental wellness. Add some mindfulness and it may even reach spiritual heights. (Say “om.”)
How Can I Tell If I’m Well?
A heightened state of wellness cannot be noticed in a smaller pants size. It may not be apparent through a tireless smile or endless laughter—neither of which are true to life. Instead, it will be evident in your ability to rise above obstacles and continue to seek that which is best for your being.
Image Credit
Balanced fox: http://www.flickr.com/photos/63435518@N08/7437996872
