Wellness: The journey of a lifetime
Article by Cindy Jackson featured in NTx Connect
We live in a world full of quick fixes. Microwave dinners, ever increasing internet speeds that still seem to test our patience, and single click shopping. Thinking about solutions to anything that doesn't involve instant gratification is almost unheard of. When we approach wellness with the same "quick-fix" philosophy, a dichotomy of panic and acceptance occurs.
On one end we are panicking because we know we need to be healthier, take our wellness seriously and we rush around trying to find something, anything to make us look and feel better. But after the exhausting rush, following health tips that seem absurd, and our inability to navigate the latest and greatest advice, we give up, telling ourselves, it's too hard and there's no way to maintain that level of commitment. This is the fertile soil most unused gym memberships are created in-maybe you can relate.
Wellness in its essence is balance. A rhythm and pace to life that creates adjustments and compounds in its benefits overtime. Just like we wouldn't expect money in the bank to have accumulated interest in a day or two, we cannot expect health decisions to reap long.
To enhance health and wellbeing, I encourage folks to start with realistic changes, perhaps more like shifts to what they are already doing.
Honestly assess your current life and start with small changes. This creates sustainable change. Maybe you can't exercise for 30 minutes, but you could manage three, 10-minute walks each day instead. Or instead of cutting out all sugars and carbs in one swoop, stop buying dinners that have a barcode and opt for a few "fresh" meals each week. Try going to bed ½ hour earlier and cut out the "bedtime" snack. Little adjustments that end up having compound interest over time will produce the energy needed to create even more healthy decisions.
The five areas that we all should consider when it comes to sustaining health and creating wellness are: Sleep, Nutrition, Fitness, Stress and Purpose.
We will each have a different vision of what good nutrition looks like or what gives our lives meaning and purpose. Intentionally, assessing our current state, where we want to be and some steps to bridge this gap are needed for this marathon called wellness. Pause, reflect-Where are you in life now? How is your health, your wellbeing? How do you see your future?
Are you happy with the choices you are making? While we cannot change the past, we can change our direction in life. Our health ends and begins with us.
It's hard not to approach healthy living like trying to figure out a Rubik's Cube that hates us, giving up after a few quick tries. Wellness is a journey that does require a longitudinal approach and quick fixes don't exist. Health isn't about chasing an impossible body image or being in a constant state of denial. It's about finding a livable balance. You will make mistakes, you won't be perfect, and you might even find that you were following some nonsense advice. Striving each day to be intentional about your health and make healthy decisions, gets you not only farther down the road, but on the right path to begin with.