What do we mean by wellness?
According to the Oxford English Dictionary wellness is defined as;
"the state of being in good health, especially as an actively pursued goal."
"measures of a patient's progress toward wellness".
The stand out points for me in this definition are "actively pursued goal", and "progress toward". Wellness can be improved, it is a combination of factors and we can improve our wellness status. It's vital we hold on to this understanding, with regards to health and wellness, we can change little things and create a big difference.
How many dimensions of wellness are there?
It is interesting that when researching this article I immediately saw; "the 3 dimensions"...then "the 4", hang on, "5"' "6", "7".....then "8" pillars or dimensions to wellness. It is obvious that what constitutes complete wellness varies between individuals, companies, groups and goals. Let's look at the list of 8 dimensions as suggested by a university in its support of students.
Physical, 2. social, 3. emotional, 4. occupational, 5. financial, 6. spiritual, 7. intellectual, and 8. environmental.
These, to me, seem well rounded and encompass the main aspects of our health and wellness which many other influencing factors can fall under.
The factors influencing our wellness dimensions.
The list is endless, but here are a few that spring to mind;
Pain
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Stress
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Sleep
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work
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Diet & Exercise
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Anxiety
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Trauma
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Social
Pain - Stress - Sleep - work - Diet & Exercise - Anxiety - Trauma - Social
We could include everything and anything in life on this list. Woah now it's become a huge task, how do we begin to improve all these things and become "well"!?
We need to slow down, and take one small step at a time. Think positively and reflect on your own wellness, what would you like to feel, achieve, improve? Write up to three things and then list them in order of importance and begin with number 1. What most causes you to feel, "un-well", "below par", "not at your best".
For many of us, pain and stress is high up on our list. We have a habit of ignoring aches and pains, of putting ourselves last and neglecting our minds and bodies. Simply put, find some time for yourself, a full body massage is a great way to give your body an MOT, not only will it allow you some much needed rest but a well trained therapist will search out areas of pain, tightness and weakness and help restore balance, reduce pain and improve strength.
If you are feeling stressed and anxious, a good soft tissue therapist will help to give your mind and body what it is calling out for. Stress is a fight and flight response ingrained in our biology therefore it is a reaction to a stimulus the body doesn't like. We need to respond and fight this by calming the mind, easing pain and looking after ourselves. Referring to the lists above, we can do any number of things to reduce stress, although some emotions seem out of our control, taking the time to recover your mind and body is a great place to start.
