Wellness. It is the state or condition of being in good physical and mental health or a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. Todays world is busier than ever! Our simple lives are now filled with technology disruptions, social events and growing workloads. So much that its easy to forget to have a form of balanced lifestyle to prevent lifestyle induced illnesses and diseases.

 There are about eight dimensions of wellness including Physical, Emotional, Spiritual, Social and Intellectual. When these few area of wellness are taken seriously we are able to enjoy life to the fullest and improve your overall wellness.

Physically 

It is very good that we exercise at least thrice a week for about 30mins. A brisk walk is all you need to accomplish this if you can’t make time for the gym and use all the equipment’s. This also involves our overall physical health; drink lots of water, sleep well, eat healthy food, i.e more greens (Nontonmire, Dandelion, Borkorborkor) fish (Salmon, Tuna) and fruits (Sour Sop, Mango, Tangerines).

Emotionally 

it is striving to meet emotional needs constructively. It is the ability to respond resiliently to emotional states and the flow of life events. It’s the ability to handle our fears, anger, stress or sadness positively so it doesn’t affect us adversely. I will simply say let go of the past and stay focus on the future. Don’t beat yourself so hard over an offense, disappointment or failure. If you focus on them the more harm they could cause. A look at a positive future, learning from mistakes and forgive oneself helps in emotional wellness.

Spiritual

Spiritual Wellness is the quest for meaning, value, and purpose resulting in hope, joy, courage and gratitude. It encourages one to develop a personal faith and to seek God in all things. Being grateful and staying positive improves your spiritual wellness. If you are only seeing the negative and ungrateful for the little things you have, you become weak spiritually. Identify your purpose, values and visions in life and run towards them. Also have a personal relationship with God is in the right direction to a complete spiritual wellness that we need.

Socially

are you too busy to have some quality time with family, friends and loved ones? Too busy to make time to have your hair done or enjoy hands and feet treatment, too busy to have a me time once in a while? Has your lifestyle become monotonous and routine? If you answer yes to any of the above then you need to look at your social wellness. Take your family out once a month, be with a friend or some friends one in a while, have your Me time at the spa for a massage, manicure, pedicure, hair shampoo in an relaxing environment for someone to care for you is key to help your social wellness.

Intellectual 

 Intellectual Wellness is having a curiosity and strong desire to learn. It is a lifelong process of creating and reflecting upon experience, staying stimulated with new ideas, and sharing.  An unbridled curiosity to seek new and diverse experiences/challenges. Ability to successfully learn, apply new learning, change, and adapt. So I will simply say read something new every now and then to stimulate your mental activity.

Now let’s take a look at what affects our wellness or wellbeing. When you come right down to it, Stress affects every aspect of wellness. Work, emotional, family and physical stress affect your wellness. Research has shown that stress can make you more susceptible to illness and increase your risk to certain health condition.

 In our next article we will delve into stress and how to manage stress levels to be more productive at work, home and life in general.

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