New You! Inspired and Ready for Wellness
Pick up any lifestyle health magazine, and there will always be an article with references on finding balance in your life. From apps that assist with getting to sleep, superfoods that nurture you and products that make your skin glow. These cover some aspects of our lives and generally suggest that if you take on just one change, your whole life will be forever improved.
To enable us to live a whole and balanced life, we need to embrace all parts of our wellness.
There are basically "8 Pillars of Wellness" that need our attention. Social, emotional, occupational, nutritional, environmental, intellectual, financial, and spiritual.
A brief overview of each one will give you some insight into why embracing all eight pillars is essential to living a life full of vitality, joy, and balance.
Social: Developing a sense of connection, belonging, and support with others
Emotional: Coping effectively with life and creating satisfying relationships
Physical: Acknowledging the importance of physical activity, nutrition, and sleep
Occupational: Finding personal satisfaction and enrichment in one's work
Environmental: Maintaining good health by occupying pleasant, stimulating environments that support well-being
Intellectual: Recognising creative abilities and finding ways to expand knowledge and skills
Financial: Feeling satisfied with current and future financial situations
Spiritual: Discovering a sense of purpose and meaning in life
These are all within your reach, and once you recognise the missing link in the chain or piece of the puzzle, your next step is to take the action required. None of us wants to live a lonely life, constantly battling with our weekly budget or being unable to sleep well.
So, let's look at each one.
Social Wellbeing
Our social contacts include friends, family, colleagues, and casual acquaintances. Whilst there are times in our lives when we would like to step away, take time out to be quiet and have some "me" time, our social connections are vitally important for our mental health. Social media can form a part of this, but don't underestimate the importance of physical contact. A lot is happening in our lives, so plan to make time for coffee catch-ups, cook dinner for friends, schedule a bush walk, a date night with your partner, or bike ride with the kids.
Write these into your diary just as you would a work meeting, so the time is allocated, and you are committed.
Emotional Well-being
Coping effectively with life and creating satisfying relationships is fundamental to being emotionally well. Effectively managing stress is now recognised as a fundamental part of the emotional health spectrum. This is particularly so in our current pandemic environment, where many aspects of life are uncertain. It affects how we connect with others and manage our feelings.
It impacts on our physical well-being, because when we are emotionally drained the first thing that goes out the window is how well we sleep, eat, and move. Our lives can go out of kilter, and we lose any sight of balance as well as a passion for life.
One of the most important aspects is to stay connected with those in your life who support you and those you know you can always count on.
Physical Well-Being
Acknowledging the importance of physical activity, nutrition and sleep is vital for a healthy body and mind. From birth to old age, we have differing needs in all three areas, which can also be affected by our body type. While it is not a one-size-fits-all, you must spend time looking into how you manage these aspects of your wellness. Not everyone likes gyms, and I know people that would run a mile before they went into a yoga studio.
The key point here is to find some activity that you enjoy so that you will do it regularly. Getting a good night's sleep and eating well affects how our bodies function on so many levels.
This is a complex one that needs our vigilant attention to ensure optimum health.
Occupational Well-Being
After sleeping, the next most significant portion of our life is spent working. For those over-committed to their career, it can switch places! For those that follow their passion, their work life can be bliss but for most, a job is a means to an end. I heard a speaker recently saying that finding your life passion is not a viable option for most.
I tend to agree, as it takes a lot of work and effort to uncover and develop our life passion. A skill a lot of people would not even know where to begin without guidance. The speaker was espousing that we should be working hard at the job at hand, looking at the facets that we enjoy and working very hard to be exceptional at these.
That is how you find your passion, and you will either remain in your current position, fulfilled, or move on using your new-found skills. Alternatively, many choose to move on without acknowledging their skills; it is a rinse and repeat.
Let's look at how you can start changing this.
Environmental Well-Being
An overused but appropriate phrase is "consider your environmental footprint." Sometimes we feel like our little effort doesn't make much difference. But what if everyone did just a little – imagine the impact on our world. This can begin with shopping locally, recycling, not buying goods that are overly packaged, using green household cleaning products, taking your own bags to the shops, carpooling, reusing grey water, and growing some of your fruit and vegetables, to name just a few. Pick one or two to get started. Once you feel they have become part of your daily life, move on to another.
Intellectual Well-Being
If you don't use it, you lose it! And that goes for our brain as well. We constantly use our brain power at work but need stimulation in other parts of our brain space to keep it fully engaged. So give yourself a regular brain blast by taking online courses or look at learning a new skill or language. Read different books to those you would usually read. If you normally like fiction, find a non-fiction or autobiography of someone that interests you. If it is the reverse, lose yourself in sci-fi or romance for an hour a day.
Mix it up, and your brain will thank you.
Financial Well-Being
Feeling satisfied with current and future financial situations is so different for everyone. The critical factor here is that this is so very personal, and everyone will have a different story and idea of what they classify as financial comfort.
Most people have had times when they have struggled with paying bills, and life throws us those curve balls. Usually, once people get past these moments, they revert to bad habits rather than using that experience to begin to form better money habits.
This is easier said than done but essential to reach a balanced wellness in your life.
Spiritual Well-Being
We cannot know our path without understanding our purpose in life and our values. There are many online courses and classes you can take to help with finding your spiritual path, but I believe the underlying practice of yoga and meditation is at the core of your spiritual pillar. Not just the physical practice of yoga but also practising and living the virtues of yogic life.
With a better understanding of the Yoga Sutras, we can find constructive ways to incorporate these practices into your life. With that comes more joy, love, and peace.
Stay connected with us
Stay with us as we offer insightful conversations, make connections, and build a community of those that want more from life and believe that the "8 Pillars of Wellness" are precisely what you need to achieve an amazing life!
We can't do this for you, but we can offer guidance and some great tools to help you along the way.