August is National Wellness Month.
What is wellness and how do you achieve it?
This week we were joined by Christine Murphy, Executive Producer Bryce Murphy's mother. She is a certified yoga instructor who has extensively studied yoga and wellness. This was part one in a two-part series on wellness and yoga.
We started by defining wellness as described by Good Therapy.
For a visual representation, I offer the following from Student Health and Counseling Services at UC Davis:
In order to achieve the eight dimensions of wellness, one may spend a great deal of money or one may not. The global wellness industry is enormous. The Global Wellness Institute has a wonderful graphic that details the wellness economy:
GoodTherapy.org suggests the following steps you may take to increase your overall wellness and many don't cost a dime.
Surround yourself with positive and supportive people.
Weed out things and relationships that do not support you.
Have what you want AND want what you have.
Practice gratitude.
Care for your body: eat well, sleep well, exercise.
Know your values, and live them.
Find activities that give you a sense of purpose and connectedness.
Not all changes must be made at once. In fact, doing too much at once may derail your efforts. GoodTherapy further notes the following insights and tips:
Don’t expect to make and maintain huge changes all at once (that rarely works).
Set up small goals for yourself for each area that you want to work on, and have someone you trust keep you accountable.
You can always change and refine your goals. The important thing is that you get started with them.
Make sure that you look at your schedule and time commitments, so that you’re not setting yourself up for failure.
Remember that each area you change will have an impact on the other areas. For example, if you want to increase your social activities, you might have to cut down on some work time or alone time.
Most importantly, you don’t have to work on all of these at once. Start slow, and make sure to recognize your small changes.
The Arbitrary Random Stat (ARS) has nothing to do with wellness. Well, I guess it might. It has to do with birthdays and birthday celebrations around the world. My advice in this regard would be to embrace age! You can't avoid it so work with it. And celebrate. My favorite is ice cream cake. And wine. Though not together.
Mental Floss details the birthday celebrations in seven different countries worldwide. Which is your favorite? (I like the piñata and noodles.)
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