Many times when people write about a topic or theme they go to Webster’s dictionary and define the word1. The problem that exists here is that (a) that only works when different definitions exist and (b) it’s kind of lazy (see previous footnote), lay it out, what does it mean to you?
Wellness, to me, is a multifaceted, interacting set of subjective and objective measures, beliefs, and ideals. They are influenced by nature, nurture, family, friends, and culture—but ultimately at some level they are self held beliefs as to what fluctuating state that individual is in. Essentially, there is wiggle room into what is well from Mitt Romney, that Wendy’s owner who’s most recently trying to convince us to buy her fast food salads2 and to me. Sure, I think most people would agree that there are points at which the majority of people will agree, which is part of what makes up cultural beliefs, but there is no one definitive back of the book answer.
Part of why this ambiguity exists, in my opinion, is due to the many different areas of wellness. It’s not just physical outward appearance or medical record or number of surgeries3. Physical, emotional, and spiritual are my big 3. Physical ties into emotional, and emotional to spiritual and spiritual to physical, etc. The interaction between these ebb and flow, much like life is. Rarely is anything static, day-to-day or even in some cases moment-to-moment. The world has ridiculously fickle moments, where one second you float on cloud 9 and what seems like in no time a flak cannon of bad news shoots you down. Not fun, and yet it’s definitely a feeling we have all had. “Emotional wellness”: not as much, “Life”: a lot. Now that’s just a perspective and I believe that with shifts of attention it doesn’t always feel like that.
That leads me to what I view as the most important aspect of wellness. Where are you rooted? Where is your purpose? What tells you what you are worth? Is it society or other people? The number on the scale or how many laughs your carefully timed jokes receive? Is your worth based on your performance or is it something more?
For me, I root myself in something bigger. My rock is Jesus. Can you be well without my beliefs? Well, since I just spent time talking about how wellness is an indefinable ideology, yeah, I think that’s a possibility, because we define it ourselves. But Jesus helped redefine what wellness is to me. My wellness is no longer fully rooted in how I perform. It’s not contingent on getting the perfect grade, or making everyone laugh, or gaining that extra pound of muscle or losing that extra ounce of weight. Life is more than what is on the outside. What’s on the inside changes how I view the outside and it also changes my outside. It frees me, because of his death and resurrection for me, to live each moment in his grace, not focusing on earning some body’s approval, recognition or love, because who I was created to be is enough. I don’t need to put on an emotional mask and be what culture defines as masculine. I can cry at the funeral of a friend’s mom I never got to meet or when I watch Big Hero 64. It frees me to be who I was created to be and that allows harmony, it allows holistic wellness.
Rooting self worth in the spiritual realm allows for me to not let the ups and downs in the other realms affect me as much. They still do and I still care about them, but not for the same reason others might. I don’t feel like I need to have a particular sense of humor or body weight to fit in situation X or group Y. I, again, can just be who I was created strengths, weaknesses and all.
Now this is not to say that I still don’t have goals or areas where I seek improvement, because I believe that people aren’t perfect, especially me5. . That mindset also allows me the ability to give others grace in their wellness journeys. If I’m not perfect why should I expect them to be? Instead of getting stuck in frustration and annoyance at others it changes to how I can encourage others and build them up.
It’s funny that being an almost Physical Therapist I didn’t talk much about blood pressure readings, number of push ups completed in a minute, or cortisol levels6. Those do all matter; it’s a portion of the physical and emotional health, which absolutely ties into wellness. I just personally don’t know how much they all matter in the grand scheme of things if there isn’t something more grounding you.
Question: What is wellness to you? How can you move forward in giving yourself grace and forgiveness of self, even if you aren’t a Christian, and help your wellness?
Hibbing moment: I am continually laughed at when I ask what there is to do around town, just thought you all7 should know that. I lost my back license plate somewhere between Minneapolis and Hibbing. Dang thing must have rusted off. Luckily Hibbing is big enough to have a DMV, so I purchased new plates and ended up small towning the back one on with zip ties. I feel I have earned more acceptance into the community and now only get 50 weird looks a day, but that could also be because they’ve never seen a man in pants as tight as mine with a pink button down on…
1 You know, most of the time, that if that’s how you’re starting out your paper you’ve run out creative juices. You need to rest, relax, have a Jamba Juice (DQ is also acceptable if you’re feeling more on the ice creamy side, just not Orange Julius—that is not up for debate, unlike the rest of this entry) and restore that depleted creativity tank, that is unless you’re writing at the last second and you can’t come up with anything else, then you might be up a creek without a paddle for the time being. I dunno, maybe pay someone? Go to the weight room and start licking the dumbbells that have never ever ever been cleaned in the hopes that you’ll contract some illness that will keep you out of class, but still able to write…on second thought just start out the paper with the definition.
2 Who goes to fast food restaurant and gets a salad? Aren’t all salads fast? Just make it at home people! So much better anyways. If you people want good salad recipes, just drop me a line. I’ll give you dressings that are on point (aka: very tasty).
3 Some of the most joyful people are far from what most people would regard as healthy or “well” just looking at them. Those people/kids have taught me more than they know about self.
4 Which is a fantastic movie that everyone should see. If you don’t cry that’s ok too, it’s just who you are, unless you feel like you want to cry then you should let it out, Baymax will help you through it.
6 This does not mean that I will not have illnesses, both physically or mentally. I do not believe someone who is well cannot be sick or have crumby moments, weeks, or even years.
6 A hormone found in the human body that in acute portions is not bad, but when it hangs around for more chronic periods of time denotes long-term stress; a big no-no in the wellness realm. Nerd note: you may also see a number of raised interleukins 3 and 6 for sure.
7 All 3 or 4 of you.
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