Driving Health and Wellness

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There’s an incredible opportunity in front of us right now. One to be seized!

It stems from the continual bubbling and building of emotions, where it’s easy to feel you’re not in charge of your life or health.

So, what’s the opportunity? It’s to embrace the Wellness Ethic. I wrote about it back in January 2020, before our world changed.

Being well and staying well doesn’t happen because of one thing we do – or from obsessing about it. It doesn’t happen overnight or because we want it to. It happens when we focus on it. When we do enough things – often small things – consistently to make a difference.

The challenge is, it starts with believing you can feel in charge of how well you are. Notice I said ‘feel in charge’ not ‘be in charge’?

Feeling in Charge

There’s a lot of benefit in ‘feeling in charge’ when life is in chaos, especially when it comes to emotional and physical health and wellbeing. And, no matter how impossible it may seem or the health challenges we face, we are all able to feel in charge of our health.

The other option is to not feel in charge. Very easy right now, with so many unknowns and so much fear-driven information. Feeling anxious, uncertain, overwhelmed – or any other of the emotions we’re experiencing – takes a toll. It impacts our bodies and our minds. It affects our mindset.

Drivers and Passengers

Put another way? You can approach life as a Driver or a Passenger – something else I wrote about last year.

When you’re a Driver, you’re in charge of where you go. You join other Drivers when you’re heading in the same direction, separating when you want to change course – or make a different decision.

When you’re a Passenger, someone else is in charge. It’s easier because you don’t have to think – and there’s someone else to blame if things don’t turn out. The trouble is, they decide on the direction and make the decisions.

So, the only way to head in the direction you want, or make your own decisions, is to become a Driver. 

Immovable Parameters

Immovable parameters are a fact of life and everywhere. Simple examples are work times or hours that have no flexibility.

Faced with them, each of us decides whether we’ll accept them and do what we’re directed to, ask questions to see if there is flexibility – or fight them. Ideally we make a decision by weighing up the information we have, pros and cons, risks and benefits.

Once again, the challenge is to feel in charge of your decision. For your health’s sake.

Your Wellness Ethic

Like your Work Ethic, you know what it is or isn’t and what you’d like to change. Whether you do or don’t change anything is up to you.

Unlike your Work Ethic, it’s easy to think your life won’t be affected if your Wellness Ethic needs improving. “What does it matter if I make unhealthy food choices, do no exercise, or stay up all night?” Occasionally? Probably not much. Most of the time? It matters a lot!

We’re being bombarded by so many messages about the likelihood of getting sick. So, why not flip that and put the focus on being well? Work on building your arsenal of defence on top of what else is available to you? 

Is there ever a disadvantage to feeling healthier and building your health status, in addition to following mainstream protocols laid out?

Bringing it all Together

Embracing your Wellness Ethic helps in two main ways. It gives you a sense of feeling in charge of your life and health – amidst whatever situation or circumstances present themselves. It also takes some pressure off medical professionals and the health system because we’re not relying on them for all the answers or a ‘magic pill’. 

Developing your Wellness Ethic is about taking small steps to move forward. Here are some tips:

• Set your mindset to feeling in charge – believe you can, and you will.
• Watch what you say to yourself – talk about being well, calm, feeling in charge of your life and health.
• Be aware of yourself – no one knows your body or your mind as well as you, so pay attention.
• Fuel your body – understand optimal food and hydration options for you.
• Keep moving – our bodies are meant to move to keep our body and mind strong, fit and well.
• Rest and relaxation – slow down to recharge and be ready for what life throws your way.
• Do a daily reset – whatever did or didn’t happen is in the past, so take the learning and move on.

Your Wellness Ethic underpins your approach to feeling unwell. It determines whether you own being sick, or an illness, or whether it owns you. It prompts you to seek out qualified professionals in their fields. It directs you to start with a medical diagnosis, then ask questions and explore options for treatment, prevention, or maintenance so you can make informed decisions.

Ultimately we all decide – consciously or unconsciously – to be a Driver or a Passenger in life. To feel in charge or not. It’s personal.

The thing is, no matter how chaotic life may be when we’re not feeling in charge or taking ownership, we’re putting our life and health and wellness in other people’s hands. I know who’s hands I want my life to be in. How about you?

Until next time…

Anne