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Wellness is so much more than just physical health, which is generally how people define it. Wellness also includes mental and social well-being. A holistic approach to health that nourishes the body, stimulates the intellect, and nourishes the spirit is known as wellness.
Although pursuing health is always a goal, it’s more about living life to the fullest. According to this definition, it’s “a lifestyle and a personalized approach to living life in a way that… allows you to become the best kind of person that your potentials, circumstances, and fate will allow.”
For our own sakes as much as the sake of the people we care about and who care about us, wellness demands strong self-stewardship. Wellness is both a professional and a personal obligation for those working in the helping industries, like those of us in veterinary medicine.
We have an ethical responsibility to take care of our own health and wellbeing in order to provide patients and clients with high-quality services. No circumstance or person, according to the Green Cross Standards of Self Care Guidelines, can excuse neglecting it. Sufficient self-care keeps us from injuring others we serve.
Physical, intellectual, emotional, social, spiritual, vocational, financial, and environmental wellness are 8 interrelated dimensions. All of the dimensions must be taken into consideration since, over time, ignoring one will have a negative impact on the others and, eventually, on one’s health, wellbeing, and quality of life. However, they are not required to be equally balanced.
Instead, we ought to aspire for the “personal harmony” that seems most true to us. Naturally, everyone of us has different goals, strategies, and objectives, as well as different ideas about what it means to live a full life.
It might be difficult to choose the best course of action for your health and wellbeing. Although we are aware of what is best for us and how we can improve, we may choose not to do so or, if we do, we may eventually revert to our old habits. Many things affect human behavior, including what we do, how we do it, and whether we are successful. Two of these things, self-regulation and habits, are particularly important when it comes to wellness.
Self-regulation
Effective human functioning is largely dependent on self-regulation. It is “our capacity to direct our behavior and control our impulses in order to satisfy certain requirements, accomplish particular objectives, or fulfill particular ideals.”
It enables us to make decisions that are in line with our core principles and our long- and short-term best interests. There is only one drawback: Self-regulation consumes mental energy, and the brain is constantly seeking methods to save energy.
Habits
Contrarily, habits use up very little energy. Every action that can be automated into a routine saves us time and energy from having to consciously consider and choose it. With the cognitive economy and performance efficiency of habits, the brain can save self-control power to concentrate on life’s big decisions and free us to do intelligent things like think back on the past and make plans for the future.
Habits have great power. Habits determine our basic existence and, eventually, our future because they account for around 40% of our repetitive daily activity. In actuality, the key to wellness is habits. Habits have a significant impact on one’s health, wellbeing, and quality of life, for better or worse. You must consider habits if you want to enhance these because if you can improve your habits, you can improve your life.
A habit is defined as “a behavior that is repeated, cued by a particular context, frequently occurs without much awareness or conscious intent, and is acquired through frequent repetition” in the technical sense.
“When I see cue, I will do routine in order to get a reward” is a formula (or “habit loop”) that the brain automatically follows. According to studies, habits are encoded in brain structures once they are created and can only be strengthened by forming new, stronger habits. They are extremely challenging to alter because of this. It involves more than just willpower. It involves rewiring the brain. You must establish new routines in order to break a habit: Keep the previous cue and present the preceding reward while introducing a new routine.
It’s challenging to introduce new routines. Despite our best efforts and knowledge of what is healthy for us, habits often force us to continue acting in the same way.
Any of us can attest to the fact that they are challenging to change. But by focusing on two key components—self-awareness and strategies—we can increase our chances of success. Both are necessary for effective habit formation.
Self-awareness
If you pay attention to who you are and incorporate routines that capitalize on your talents, habits, and abilities, change becomes much more attainable. You may develop the behaviors that work for you by being self-aware. Think about variations in circadian rhythms, for instance. Circadian rhythms influence our energy and productivity throughout the day at various times of the day and represent our natural tendencies for sleeping and waking.
If, for instance, you choose to wake up an hour earlier each day to exercise when you happen to be a “night owl” rather than a “morning lark,” your chances of success in improving your fitness won’t increase. Self-awareness involves understanding of one’s other characteristics, such as whether one is a sprinter, procrastinator, under- or over-buyer, lover of abundance or simplicity, finisher or opener, and fan of familiarity or novelty. It also covers your preference for taking modest or large measures, your focus on promotion, or prevention.
Strategies
If you select tactics that increase your chances of success, change also becomes more attainable. Because it takes 66 days for new habits to take root, the more strategies that are used to establish a single new behavior will have the greatest chance of success.
Change your behavior to improve your life.
Change might take a very long time. Repeated failures and experiments are sometimes necessary. However, the efforts are undeniably worthwhile for ongoing improvement, and one success frequently leads to another.
Consider the following while considering your habits, wellness, and the level of health, happiness, and quality of life you desire: “Are you going to accept yourself or expect more from yourself?” “Are you going to care about yourself or overlook yourself?” and “Are you going to embrace the present or consider the future?”
Wellness is a dynamic, fluid process that is constantly evolving. It is a way of life, a tailored approach to living that enables you to develop into the most positive version of yourself that your capabilities, environment, and destiny will permit. The decisions you make today will determine your present and future because the past is history. Don’t stress about doing things perfectly; just start, and develop into the greatest person you can be.
Dimensions of wellness: Change your habits, change your life