Wellness can be defined by four important areas of your life: Health Balance | Mental Balance | Financial Balance | Relationship Balance.
If out of balance, collapse can occur. Maximizing a wholistic approach to Wellness during stressful times can lead to your increased happiness, health, and productivity.
Your Health Balance
During the last few months, we’ve had incredible opportunities to improve and increase personal health and hygiene and I’m sure you’ve done that! Good job. What steps have you taken to improve your health and immunity? Hopefully, you’ve learned to cook new dishes or found a great meal delivery service that helps you plan and cook meals more easily. Have you been able to stay active physically? Perhaps you’ve taken up a new activity or sport. Lots of people are out walking and cycling and I love seeing more of my neighbors enjoying fresh air and movement. This morning I met a neighbor and had a wonderful exchange with him. On my return walk, he was mowing his yard – what a great way to exercise, work up a good sweat, and the grass looks terrific!
Your Mental Balance
We’ve also had ample opportunity to find ways to stay centered, avoid fear and panic during the last number of months. I invite you to flip-flop some of your recent thoughts and emotions. If you’ve been focused on yourself, look outward and see how you might connect with others. If your primary focus has been on others, try to spend some inward time checking in on how you feel, what would make you feel better, and how you might improve things. I mentioned meeting a neighbor. I find that waving and saying hello to neighbors while walking is a fantastic way to connect with others while enjoying nature. At the outset of our quarantine time, I felt like people were scared and unwilling to look at or greet others. That felt frustrating and isolating to me. As we have become accustomed to wearing masks and giving others a wide berth, it seems like we have become more comfortable connecting with people again. An ideal balance would be to have lots of good emotions within your heart and soul, and positive relationships with others, both personally and socially.
Your Financial Balance
There have been so many ways to reflect upon your Financial balance and Wellness during this COVID-19 experience. Many of you are underemployed, unemployed, or facing dramatic structural changes, like your place of business closing, partially opening, or alternating days in the office in order to minimize viral exposure. If you are having financial stressors, I encourage you to reach out for guidance and support. You may have a certified financial planner. If not, there is plenty of information available on steps that can be taken to improve your finances. There is also an abundance of investment information to help navigate through current trends and forecasting for both short and mid-term developments. Take things one step at a time, learning and re-organizing should feel comfortable and accomplished, not scary or out of your control.
Your Relationship Balance
So much togetherness since March! Boy oh boy, if we haven’t gotten to explore our current relationships, we never will. We know that many relationships have been strengthened by the adversity of the COVID-19 experience giving us gratitude for our human existence. In other cases, relationships have changed or ended. I am a big believer in the strength and value of good relationships, as I urged you to examine your emotions and mental balance earlier. This time of quarantine and work-life change offers plenty of opportunities to figure what matters to us. Hopefully, you’ve created a balance of connecting with people you care about and people who care about you!
My diagram that is centered around Wellness is built upon balance and the dynamics of how you live your life. Nothing is ever perfect or static for very long. You may figure something out financially and find that it opens up a relationship door. During this time, tap into your inner voice, your feelings, and creativity. While there are plenty of stressors, there are also plenty of silver linings. Find one for your self today!
