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Today’s blog was meant to be about sleep. Well sleep’s been pushed aside until next time. Ironic really. Read on to see why.
Instead I want to explore how we approach work, compared to our wellness and wellbeing. And I’m talking about all work, whether it’s inside or outside the home, paid or unpaid, working for yourself or someone else.
Work Ethic
Let’s start with work ethic. We all have some idea of what it is or isn’t and what it means to us. We know whether we have a good work ethic or we don’t, and so do others. It influences everything from what we do right through to our reputation, and how much we earn. The flow-on can directly affect our emotional health and financial wellness.
Work ethic is the principal that hard work is intrinsically virtuous or worthy of reward’.
Oxford Dictionary
Google ‘work ethic’ and you’ll see 10’s of millions of results about it and how to achieve it. Plus various definitions and descriptions, ways to achieve it and how to assess it.
Wellness Ethic
It’s a different story when you google ‘health ethic’, ‘wellness ethic’ or ‘wellbeing ethic’. These searches bring up no direct results. They’re mainly policy or ethics related.
So from today I want to explore ‘The Wellness Ethic’. It covers health, wellness and wellbeing, because ‘The Health, Wellness and Wellbeing Ethic’ is just too long!
Boundaries
How often does looking after yourself – your wellness ethic – need to take a back seat because of your work ethic? When your’e pushing boundaries everywhere because you just have to meet that deadline, or get to that appointment or meeting?
You’re on the work ‘treadmill’, just until you get ‘this’ done – whatever ‘this’ is. You’ve missed your exercise, skipped a meal, are not getting enough sleep. You tell yourself, it’s just today, so that’s OK…
It affects what you say to yourself when someone asks how you are and your response is most often ‘busy’, or a version of that. Especially in Australia where we’ve developed the habit of wearing stress as a ‘badge of honour’, which it isn’t. Yet it can be an automatic response… and I’m as guilty of this as anyone.
Do this more and more, and your emotional health is impacted if you feel you have no choice, no say, or no voice. and are simply doing what you have to do.
Feeling you are in charge of what you’re doing, and that you have a choice is really important here. Without it, resentments can start to kick in.
And if financial wellness is impacted too, or missing altogether, your ability to focus on your health, wellness and wellbeing can fall even further by the wayside. Because being well costs money. And, ironically, that cost can increase when you neglect the fundamentals and become unwell.
Let’s look at it another way, by comparing our body to a car.
If we put sand in the petrol tank, oil in the radiator or water in the oil, a car stops working. Not gradually over time, after it’s compensated again and again for these mistakes. Immediately. The repair would be costly, inconvenient and possibly may not covered by insurance. Simplest thing of all? Run out of fuel and a car stops. Simple cause and effect. You don’t get a second chance with a car. With a car we know we can’t push the boundaries.
That’s the difference with our body and mind. Our body wants to maintain homeostasis or equilibrium. This balance and stability is continually being maintained by a multitude of physiological processes responding to things like what we eat and drink, or how we respond to things. The boundaries are flexible.
So instead of just stopping when we don’t eat well by putting ‘sand in our petrol tank’, our body makes internal adjustments to process what we’ve eaten. To maintain the balance. Often without us having any idea about what’s going on inside us. It’s the same when we’re tired on our feet and still push through to meet a deadline, or complete a shift at work…
Our body and mind teach us we can push boundaries and get away with it. So we do, even when we don’t mean to or want to, and no matter how disciplined we are.
Which brings us back to our work ethic.
Reality means we depend on the work ethic to earn income to pay bills. That applies to anyone supporting a wage earner too. It also keeps you earning: don’t turn up or do a good job, and you won’t have one. Another boundary.
And no matter what you call it, maintaining health, wellness and wellbeing can be expensive. Especially when your body loses it’s point of balance and you’re unwell.
Balance Points
We’re so much more aware about the impacts of sleep deprivation, sugar, alcohol, lack of exercise… Yet because our bodies keep going, it’s easy to think we’re ‘OK’. Right?
Maybe not. Because, most of the time, we don’t just suddenly get sick. It’s generally something that has been building over a period of time as our body has kept working tirelessly to maintain balance. We’ve missed the warning signs until we are finally forced to see them. Ask anyone who has suddenly ended up in hospital dealing with their ‘new normal’ state of health and they will often say they now realise they saw the signs ‘months ago’. Even a cold. We know we’re run down – tired, not eating well, burning the candle at both ends. We keep going. Until our body stops us with a cold.
Still, there’s a balance point between these two ethics. Work or wellness, there will be times when we need to adjust priorities and focus on one more than the other. Whatever the reason, the key is to do it willingly, knowing this will help get back on track afterwards.
A great example of this right now of is in the response to our bushfires. Our firefighters and first responders are tirelessly looking after communities and homes, often to the detriment of their own. Residents and communities are pulling together to look after each other and the firefighters. The time will come, hopefully sooner rather than later, when the balance point will be able to shift back. When the focus will be on wellbeing for a long time.
Developing the Wellness Ethic
The Wellness Ethic is about developing and maintaining a consistent approach to wellness. Following the same principles as a work ethic, where the boundaries are clear. I’ve always believed it can be done. Still do. And just like a good work ethic, I know a lot of people already do it well. Or are doing it better each day, week or month.
I just think it’s time to identify and acknowledge it more. So I’m interested in your feedback, via email or a posted comment…
- Do you approach your wellness the way you approach your work? If so, how?
- If there is an emotional and financial benefit to having a good work ethic, what would you say this is for having a good wellness ethic?
- Can you develop a strong wellness ethic if the boundaries are there to be pushed, or because you can’t always see the results straight away?
I look forward to your feedback. I’ll respond and keep you updated about it.
And I promise to write about sleep next time.