What is Wellness Living.
What is Wellness Living?
In over 25 years working with people in their homes, it’s become more and more evident to me that just dealing with the surface, the appearance, of a home alone does not give the occupants the comfort and peace they seek.
With the increasing awareness of how our environments directly impact our lives, I’ve been giving a lot of thought to how my profession can help clients get what they need from their homes, and the more I study and research, the more I’m convinced that the solution is a combination of at least five areas which must work in unity to create a harmonious, healthy home.
What got me started thinking about this in earnest was a course I recently took about clutter. What it is, (it’s NOT what you may think), how to deal with it, and how it influences a wellness-centered home. It’s not about organization, it’s not just throwing out a lot of stuff, it’s not about placing restrictions on purchases.
A wellness-centered home is the goal, after all. That’s what we’ve been striving toward for years. It’s only recently that we’ve had a name for it, and qualifiers that determine it.
It’s wellness living, and I believe there are five areas of our health that are the determiners of our success or failure at living well.
1.Mental Health
This is the health of your psychology. It includes the health of your relationships, and one of those is the relationship you have with yourself. It’s about how you have trained yourself to think about your emotions, about your cares, your needs and your wants. It’s about how our relationships with others influence our own wellness.
2. Physical Health
It’s rather difficult to enjoy a whole life if your physical weight holds you back. Or your lack of activity has led to muscle strength loss. Or if your diet contains substances that cause adverse reactions, maybe just small reactions, but coupled with a lot of other intolerances, can present as ill-health. We know how to achieve physical health. Anyone with a TV or a smartphone has the answers at the fingertips. Then why aren’t we all peak physical specimens?
3.Intelectual Health
We know that exercising a muscle keeps it from atrophying. That means it doesn’t lose its’ effectiveness, it can still perform at optimum levels. And it’s surprising how many of us know this, from personal experience, but we don’t connect this simple adage ‘ if you don’t use it, you’ll lose it’ to our brain. Keeping a brain healthy, keeping your intellect at optimal levels, is just as important as keeping your body healthy.
4. Financial and Business Health
Your business was, perhaps, once your dream. You were convinced it was the road to your happiness. Maybe it’s slowly, ever so slowly, losing ground. Maybe it doesn’t give you the sense of satisfaction it once did. And you know you’d like to get it jump-started, but you don’t have the knowledge, or the money, to ‘hire’ the knowledge, to get it moving again. Your business health has a direct, immediate impact on your physical, emotional, and intellectual health. And if you consider the financial aspects of your life as a business, as you should, you can see how that impacts your wellness, too.
5. Home Health
“Your environment, where you live, and how you shape your surroundings is the biggest, most important, and most impactful thing you can do to favor your own happiness.’
Dan Buettner, The Blue Zones of Happiness
It’s more important, now than ever before, to make sure you are living in a physical environment that fosters wellness. And no, that doesn’t mean you MUST only use organic products, or you must replace the drywall because of the paint. But it DOES mean you will live a better life if your home is healthy, too.
