The Wellness Queue is here to help you self reflect, learn new strategies, and take steps towards attaining wellness. In order to do so, I have provided the pillars or aspects of wellness that you should assess and/or try modifying to be a healthier version of yourself. Keep in mind, you determine what a healthier version of yourself looks like. Let’s jump right in!
LIFESTYLE
Lifestyle is often thought of as materialistic things, but it’s really literally how you live. In its simplest form, lifestyle is what you do on a daily basis. This includes but does not limit work, relationships, sleep, fitness, recreational activities, perspectives, and the environment you live in. Even your spirituality is a part of your lifestyle because it affects how you think/perceive, feel, connect to others, and find spiritual peace in times of distress.
Assess: What do you do from day to day? Is it beneficial to your health and/or wellness? What can you do today to work towards a healthier lifestyle? Do you need to change your environment, incorporate more exercise in your daily life, or spend more time feeding your spirit? If so, how will you do that?
Strategize: Practice mindfulness. It is okay to set boundaries with work, friends, and family. Taking care of yourself is priority. Do something that you enjoy that is not an obligation or typical responsibility. Read for enrichment. (i.e. The Wellness Queue). Keep reading for strategies on exercise and perspectives.
EATING HABITS OR DIET
Nutrition is what we typically associate wellness with. That isn’t wrong, but there’s so much more to wellness than what we eat. I will discuss the other aspects of wellness in one of our upcoming blog posts, Check Your Dimensions. Be sure to check it out to learn what true wellness is and how to achieve it. PSA: There is no ONE diet for every individual and eating healthy doesn’t necessitate a fad diet.
First, let’s take a moment to clarify the whole food, plant-based diet. Let’s be clear, a whole food, plant-based diet doesn’t mean you HAVE to cut out all meat from your diet for the rest of time. It means eating more unprocessed, plant foods and either not eating dairy and animal products at all, or eating them less often. For example, I love my southern food, but I only eat it on special occasions (i.e. holidays). I eat a lot more whole foods such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, oils, nuts, seeds, and legumes on a daily basis compared to meat and dairy. Some refer to their diet with percentages (i.e. 85% plant, whole foods and 15% meat and dairy). I haven’t completely cut out meat and dairy from my diet. However, this isn’t to say that you should or shouldn’t eat meat or dairy, but more so a moment of transparency so that you can be transparent with yourself when making changes to achieve your own wellness goals.
Why are “processed” foods so bad or what’s so good about unprocessed, plant foods? Unprocessed, plant foods have more protective nutrients that we often lack AND fewer factors that cause disease. In other words, incorporating more whole food or plant foods into your diet decreases risk of heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and inflammation because they are nutrient dense and don’t come with additives, loads of sugar, and excessive saturated fat and calories that are often found in processed foods.
Assess: What are your eating habits? Don’t know where to start with eating healthier food?
Strategize: Maybe you can start by increasing the amount of vegetables on your plate at dinner in comparison to non-plant foods (i.e. meat, dairy, etc.). This all depends on YOU, where YOU are in YOUR wellness journey, and what YOU are trying to achieve. This looks different for everyone. Start with what works for you.
PERSPECTIVE OR WAY OF THINKING
Just to be clear. I am not perfect and I don’t always have positive thoughts 24/7. We are human and we often react to situations without much thought (i.e. an emotional reaction, which is likely to be accompanied by some sort of negative thought). As I have traveled my own wellness journey, that is something that I had to be intentional about not doing. Especially, with being under chronic stress from graduate school on top of the normal stressors of life. Friends, graduate school alone is no joke! It challenges you in ways that makes you question if you’ve made the right decision to even be there. Remind yourself that you’re there for a reason, and that if it wasn’t meant for you to be where you are, then God would not have provided you that seat in whatever program you’re in, whatever job that you have, or business that you own.
Food for Thought: Positive perspectives are not just for when something bad happens or during a moment of distress. We should exercise positive thinking in all aspects of our life. Even when we are thinking of ourselves.
Jalecia Faison
Assess: Do you think in the past, present, or future? Are your thoughts happy? What can you do today to work towards more positive thinking?
Strategize: Here is a start, everyday, take a moment to jot down 3 good things about your day. Also, in unwarranted situations, challenge yourself to find at least one good thing in the situation. These strategies will encourage you to incorporate positive thinking into your daily life.
EXERCISE REGIMEN
Finally, exercise can benefit us in SO many ways. It can help us prevent and/or manage high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, mood, mental health and so much more. It is often put on the back burner due to our busy schedules.
Assess: What can you do this week to improve your exercise regimen?
Strategize: Your goal may be to exercise more in order to lose weight, or prevent or manage an illness or disease (high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, etc.). Well if you don’t currently exercise, a quantum leap from no exercise to running 30 minutes a day/7 days a week isn’t ideal and can cause you to dread exercise as a whole very quickly. It would be hard to maintain that change. Now, if you started with an “exercise snack”, yes I just referred to exercise as a snack. What in the world is that Jalecia?
An exercise snack is a short bout of exercise that can be done in the convenience of work, home, or most places you spend your time.
Stuck at your desk all day for work? That’s okay! Try taking a 10 minute break and walk around the parking lot or office.
Can’t go outside? There’s a solution for that too. You could stand up from your desk and march in place for 5 minutes or so a few times throughout the day. You will hit your 30 minutes of exercise/day before you know it.
I’m sure COVID-19 has already shown many of us that we don’t have to be in a gym to exercise. You can even park further away from the door when you’re out and about just to get extra steps in. Those extra steps add up!
Assessing where you are can be so beneficial to achieving wellness. It is also a great practice for self awareness and mindfulness. The pillars of wellness discussed in this post are pivotal to our Holistic Well-Being.
Let’s LIVE Healthy + Well—Mind, Body, and Soul, together!
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Published by Jalecia Faison, CHC
Certified Holistic Health and Wellness Specialist | Student Physical Therapist | Health and Wellness Blogger View more posts
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