Take a moment and reflect upon your quality of life. Do you consider yourself healthy? What habits do you have that contribute to your quality of life? Your quality of life is a result of both your well-being and your wellness. You have heard the terms wellness and well-being before, but what do they mean? Read on as we explore the differences between the two and discuss ways you can harness both for a better quality of life.
What is Well-Being?
Well-being takes into consideration how you rate or perceive your quality of life. Positive well-being means you perceive that your life is going well, and you have a good quality of life. Positive well-being not only means that you feel healthy, but it means you are satisfied in life, at work, in your finances, and in relationships.
Well-being is associated with longevity, healthy behaviors, social connectedness, and productivity, however, not everyone feels a strong sense of well-being. For example, research shows that only 30% of adults strongly agree that on most days they feel a sense of accomplishment from what they do. Well-being is often poorly rated by the average employee. This begs the question: how can you increase your well-being? That’s where wellness comes in.
What is Wellness?
You can think of Wellness as the ladder to get you to a higher sense of well-being. It’s a holistic combination of actions that leads to physical, mental, and spiritual health. Wellness involves adequately fueling the body, engaging the mind, and nurturing the spirit.
There are eight dimensions of wellness: physical, intellectual, emotional, social, spiritual, vocational, financial, and environmental. Let’s explore some of those dimensions below.
Physical wellness involves exercising and eating nutritious meals to keep your body healthy.
Intellectual wellness is about growing your mind, being curious, learning something new, and responding positively to challenges.
You can achieve emotional wellness when you take the time to understand your feelings, values, and attitudes. Along with physical and emotional wellness, you can achieve social wellness by making strong connections. Research has shown that social connections are linked to improved mental health, a healthier body mass index, and a decrease in cardiovascular mortality.
Finally, having spiritual wellness means finding purpose, value, and meaning in life. Studies show that both spirituality and health-related behaviors are positively correlated to psychological well-being.
Climbing to Well-Being
How do you put wellness into practice? Here are some action steps you can take to climb the steps of wellness and achieve well-being:
1. Self-regulation: Learn to control your impulses by deciding when and how to act in the short-term to avoid unwanted consequences in the long-term.
2. Helpful Habits: Habits are key to wellness! Develop a routine and create rewards for yourself. Not sure where to start? Begin by setting a bedtime for yourself and sticking to it, or setting an alarm to remind you to take a walk at the same time every day.
Embrace the present and consider the future because wellness is an ever-changing process. Even small changes to your wellness routine can make a giant impact on your overall well-being
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