The Basic Foundations of Wellness & The Influencers of Health
When you look good you feel good. This catchy marketing phrase coined by Vidal Sassoon in the 80s was a lie! The truth is, when you feel good, you look good. Looking good by society’s standards has little to do with health, since there are unrealistic expectations of size and shape and a hyper-focus on youthfulness.
What is most important is how we feel, not how we look. Feeling good creates health and when we are healthy, we feel good and looking better is just a biproduct of it.
As we mature past the third decade, many start to notice that their health requires attention. We start seeing how our bodies seem to wear down, old injuries come back to haunt us, and we lose some of our vitality and luster. But how much of this is really due to our own negligence?
Vitality requires a bit of maintenance, not a lot, just more than what most give themselves time for. Making oneself a priority is no easy feat with all the demands on our back. Being healthy and well has little to do with merely hitting the gym, there’s much more to it than that.
There are 3 main factors that influence health and wellness:
- The Mindset: cognitive functioning influenced by perception, beliefs, and values.
- The Psychology: emotional patterns and responses to our perceptions, beliefs, and values.
- The Physical Body: expression of both mindset and the psychological functioning.
The good news is that all three of these factors can be adjusted to drop old habits and create new ones in order to improve overall health.
The bad news is that there is no quick-fix to true wellness. However, wellness only requires self-awareness and commitment to our long-term goals, while having compassion for the journey to better health. In health, we learn as we go, and every day, we learn more about what being healthy means to us.
The Influencers
- The Gut-Brain Axis (GBA): The crux of “you are what you eat”, our microbiome has a direct influence on how we nourish our bodies and the way we feel and think. The gut, or the second brain, as the gut is now being referred, is the linked to the central nervous system via the enteric nerves (throughout the digestive system) are direct pathways to cognitive and emotional centers in the brain. Consider the vagus nerve the super highway between the two, also vital to our ability to relax and recuperate from illness.
- Our Stress: Pressure is an unavoidable part of being alive. Too much stress is when we start to feel chronic pain, constant fatigue, and suffer from anxiety, depression, or persistent irritability are the classic symptoms of stress in excess. Having cortisol levels raised too often for too long throws our hormonal balances off, often resulting in frazzled nerves, insomnia and dependance on caffeine and sugar to function. Coping with too much stress is proven to have detrimental effects, so it’s important to lower stress levels in our daily or weekly routine to combat from it wearing us out and breaking us down. Making time for ourselves to recharge our batteries is essential to feeling well and being healthy.
- Our Will: Thinking smarter, not harder is the best approach to the concept of self-discipline. Preparing for our goals and creating dynamics to succeed is key to long term health growth. Planning our strategies, preparing for challenges, and protecting our commitment are fundamental to actualizing our health goals for good. Too many people get discouraged by the idea of a lifetime of eliminating sweets or alcohol, for example, but if we approach it one day at a time, we make it all the way to our long distant hopes and desires. Having a sensible pace to our wellness journey and taking baby-steps to our goals will make it feel less overwhelming, so making incremental adjustments to our lifestyle will serve us better than “all or nothing” thinking.
- Set Smart Goals.
When a goal is too vague to visualize or too lofty to attain, you’re setting yourself up for failure. Setting SMART goals – which are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and set in a Time Frame – makes them much easier to achieve. By writing down exactly what you want, how to accomplish it and benchmarks for measuring your progress, you set yourself free from the fear of failure. You’re able to chart a course toward the extraordinary life you deserve. - Visualize the Desired Outcome.
Accomplishing goals doesn’t start in the physical world – it starts in your head. When you learn to control your emotions and thoughts, you’re empowered to accomplish anything. Visualize the outcome you desire, then think and behave like you’ve already achieved it. Your actions align with what you want to accomplish, and everything else falls into place. Feel how that success affects every part of your life. - Create a Massive Action Plan.
To learn how to achieve goals, you must create a roadmap for every objective. Think of yourself as your own coach. You’re your own cheerleader and master strategist. For every objective you’re pursuing, create a Massive Action Plan that not only details your results and a sequence of activities, but also connects your purpose to the goal. When you align your emotions with achieving goals, you’ll activate your brain’s ability to focus on what means the most to you. - Hold Yourself Accountable.
If you don’t take total accountability for your life, you’ll never master how to achieve goals. Accountability means understanding that you are the only person in control of your life. It means taking responsibility for the decisions that got you where you are today – and learning from them. Without accountability, you’ll always blame your circumstances on forces beyond your control. If you have trouble holding yourself accountable, consider reaching out to a professional, or even a trusted friend who can help you stay motivated.
Belief is the most powerful influencer of action. Nutrition effects our cognition, our beliefs. Here lies the mind-body connection in practical terms.