Wellness is defined as the healthy balance of the mind, body and spirit that results in an overall feeling of well-being and good health. It’s not something that one can do or achieve in one day. Rather, it’s a cyclical, active process which involves being aware and making choices toward the direction of a more successful existence and life. There are at least seven areas of our lives in which we could and should strive for optimal wellness.: Intellectual, social, physical, spiritual, occupational, emotional and environmental. Often, people are under the impression that if they give all their attention to one facet of their lives, that everything will be okay. Unfortunately, this is a misconception that many have and the prevents them from achieving optimal wellness. For example, and individual might have a solid workout regimen in place but, their diet and the emotional and environmental parts of their lives might be a mess. There’s no way to achieve optimal wellness without addressing the whole. Let’s compare optimal wellness to a car. You wash your car every single week and it looks shiny and pristine. Yes, well… what about the inside? Or, you change the filters on your car regularly, but never give any attention to the engine or other vital parts of the car. Let’s say you do an average job with keeping up with the overall maintenance of your car, but every single day, you drive your car through construction site which in turn, ends up damaging the tires and making your car unsafe to drive.
Optimal wellness is important because when everything is in alignment, you feel better and you ARE better. If just one or two things are imbalanced in your life, it will likely affect your entire life but most importantly, your overall health. In America, over half of the population seeks natural health and wellness support in one way or another. Regardless where you are in your life or how bad you may think it is, you can achieve optimal wellness if you desire to do so. Implementing holistic/natural health and wellness approaches into your daily life is definitely a good first step.