#wellness wheel

[tinarosewallingtoncoaching]

The wellness wheel

Download your free copy of the infographic today

[wisterianwoman]

You've Waited Long Enough: It's Time to Prioritize Your Health

We all want to live a long and healthy life, but many of us tend to put off taking care of our health until later. We think that we have plenty of time to exercise, eat healthy, and get enough sleep, but the truth is that there's no time like the present.

Note: This article is one part of a multi-part series called “How To Be Successful: A Young Adult’s Roadmap.” Prioritizing Health is STEP 7 out of 10, and I would greatly encourage you to read the full roadmap and its accompanying articles to have all the tools to create your own success. young and invincible Do you remember your teenage years fondly? Making reckless decisions, eating junk food…

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[aedee]

MY HOLISTIC WELLNESS ACTIVITY

This semester, one which I truly aimed to focus on was improving my physical well-being through healthy habits. I set a goal to eat regularly and I managed to stick to it, most of the time, throughout the semester. I also aimed to take vitamin C daily, like Poten Cee, and I achieved that too. In terms of sleep, I aimed to get 6-8 hours nightly to wake up feeling refreshed and energized. I did well enough most of the time, as this semester, my goal was to choose myself, thus, I labelled it as a done and an ongoing habit. As for the nap, I strive to be more in control of it, as most of the time, my nap, even with the timer set on, continues to be a full-blown sleep.

For exercise, I set a goal to dance for at least 15 minutes every day, which I pretty much exceeded. Sometimes, I danced for hours! I managed to make this a habit, and recorded it as “done/ongoing” on the tracker, as well, as I am still planning to do this.

I am pleased with my overall success this semester in creating good habits to enhance my physical health. It appears that my main focus was on developing routines related to eating, taking vitamins, getting enough sleep, and exercising with dancing, which were lacking these past few semesters. My favorite parts? Cooking and documenting, probably!

I also made a real effort to focus on my intellectual growth. I wanted to challenge myself to learn new things, even with the very tight schedule we have in my whole academic endeavor. I set a goal to try mindfulness training, a DBT Training, actually, which was led by the esteemed APsy professors, and I was happy that I was able to complete that on May 9th, 2024. The training was every Monday, although sometimes it varied, due to some unforeseen circumstances. All in all, it was eight fruitful sessions.

I also wanted to be more open to learning a new language, which first started during our PSYCH 140 and continued until my PSYCH 147, and I continued thanks to this course requirement. As you can see in the gif, I was learning Practical Chinese owing to my huge interest in Chinese Drama! Another goal I had was to find ways to incorporate both visual and reading/writing learning styles into my studies. I found a way to do that by taking notes/lectures and designing them with my highlighters and pens. I occasionally write poems, too.

Finally, I challenged myself to actively seek out new learning opportunities, especially career-wise opportunities needed for our advocacy project, the DEPPortunity. I made a note to keep an eye out for interesting workshops or courses online. I also set a goal to stay informed about current events, but to make sure I wasn't spending too much time on it because I get too occupied and stressed by them, especially when it was about crimes. I would like to say that I figured out a way to stay updated in moderation.

Overall, I'm truly pleased with how much I was able to accomplish this semester in terms of intellectual growth. I truly made a real effort to step outside my comfort zone and learn new things, things I love and passionate about.

Of course, the highlight of this wellness wheel for me was the focus on developing healthy coping mechanisms for dealing with stress and difficult emotions, considering the emotional war shock I felt this year. As mentioned in my fourth e-journal, I set a goal to use breathing exercises when I felt overwhelmed, and most of the time, I do the 1-10 technique. At first, it was hard to employ what I learned in the DBT, like being mindful and doing breathing exercises, but as one of the professors said, practice improves us.

Another goal I had was to take responsibility for my mistakes, which actually related to my emotion control. If I know it is my fault, I will not argue; I will acknowledge the mistake and own up to it. I wanted to be more upfront about apologizing when I was wrong. My progress tracker shows how I consider this as an ongoing effort because it is, in fact, a continuous process, and I have been working on this every day, or at least every chance I get.

Prioritizing my well-being was another big goal for this semester because as I have said, I prioritize myself, my mental well-being, and my emotional state this semester. The tracker shows that this is still a work in progress, much like other continuous growth, but I am committed to making it a habit.

Finally, I wanted to find healthier ways to process my emotions. There were times that I diverted my heightened emotions into creativity and leisure activities. I wrote poems, drew, painted, watch series or movies, surf the net, scroll through TikTok, and even danced, and they really, really helped. At least, it made me forget my feelings for a while.

When it comes to emotional growth, I would say that I cultivate some coping mechanisms and make an effort to be more accountable for my actions. I will pretty much continue to focus on prioritizing my well-being and finding healthy ways to deal with difficult emotions, especially with my situation now.

Strengthening my social connections and becoming more comfortable interacting with others in the social dimension was the thriving dimension during the first part of the semester. My friends and I got to bond every face-to-face. Hence, I set a goal to be more empathetic towards others and tried to understand where they are coming from.

Another goal I had was to spend more quality time with my family. When I was at home, I would bond with my family, it was not something I could just put a finished date on, I have been working on this every day. I made a conscious effort to put away my phone and be fully present during meals and family matters. Sometimes, my sister and I or my mother and I would go out the house and have our sponty gala.

One of the best parts of my cultivation of my social dimension is my bonding with my nephews, definitely worth the time!

I also wanted to improve my tolerance of others' shortcomings. I feel like, if I want to improve myself internally (emotional dimension), I should also improve the way I interact with people. The tracker shows that I worked on this throughout the semester and considered it accomplished in April. This involved learning to accept that people make mistakes and that everyone has flaws, which is okay. I need to be kind and compassionate. I focused on forgiveness and understanding, rather than getting frustrated or upset about something I do not have any control of. For I can not control what is happening to me, but I can control how I approach that challenge.

One of the most important aspects of my growth socially is not having a large number of friends, but having quality ones. So, during the semester, I aimed to stop people-pleasing and focus on being myself. This was a somewhat challenge for me, but I started by identifying situations where I found myself people-pleasing. Once I was aware of these situations, I could start to assert myself more and say no when I needed to. I also focused on surrounding myself with people who appreciated me for who I am. I will continue to focus on building strong social connections and being comfortable being myself around others.

As a student with a current headship position in an organization, tracking my progress in this area through the wellness wheel was a valuable experience. This semester seemed to fly by overall, but some months definitely felt slower! Looking back at my vocational goals, I'm proud to say I fulfilled my responsibilities. Leading the member relations activity with our alumni was a highlight of the semester. I spearheaded the organization's first Acquaintance Party since the pandemic, which was a great success.

Not only did I focus on one organization, but with my other affiliation, too. In fact, I volunteered on many committees for the program organization during the week of celebration. Most of my role was about programs, which cultivated my skills in flow preparation, and more of behind the scene tasks of the event.

Nevertheless, I do acknowledge that my mindset continues to be my greatest challenge or nemesis of mine. I started working on developing a more positive attitude and letting go of those limiting beliefs back, which I will keep working on. All in all, I think this semester I really made some progress toward being more involved and developing professionally, which prepares me for my possible related career in the future.

[ri-afan]

According to the colours of the Wellness Wheel:

I am severely unhealthy. Especially in the spiritual, social, and emotional sectors.

[undercoverpterodactyl]

Me riding my mental health unicycle out into the word to spread cheer and try to function normally

[healthyimageforgirls-blog]

The Wellness Wheel

I remember the first time I came across the Wellness Wheel in one of my classes, I thought it was the most brilliant thing! Initially, when I thought of "wellness" I thought of well, you know.. exercise, eating right.. maybe getting enough sleep? But once "The Wheel" was introduced, my horizons were definitely broadened! There's a lot more to life than exercise and food! ... Right? Well, there's also a lot more to your wellness than those couple things. So, I'm going to share this brilliance with YOU! Get ready! Here it is!

TA DAAAA!

The Wellness Wheeeeeel!

Courtesy of:http://www.vanderbilt.edu/wellnesscenter/wellness-wheel

So basically, The Wheel is saying that your overall wellness is made up of several things. Not just the amount of exercise you may or may not get in a day. There are 6 components (as you can see). 

I was going to spend one blog talking about every single part of the wheel, but then I decided I don't want to bombard you with a 10-page-long blog blabbing on all at once. If I bore you, you won't come back, and I don't want that to happen. Sooo I will do one section a day! YAY.

First, I'll start with Physical, because that one is pretty obvious.  

Yes, exercise fits into this category. The Surgeon General says,  

"Adults should do at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity per week." 

That's only 30 minutes 5 days of the week! That's doable, right? You can even get that in in pieces. They say things like brisk walking and gardening are great if you do it in chunks of 10 minutes or greater. You so got this!

"For children and teenagers, the recommendation is for 1 hour of daily physical activity that includes vigorous activities and activities that strengthen their bones."

Ya, its a little bit longer the younger you are, but hey, its a good excuse right? "Mom, I have to play outside longer! I need my exercise!" That would have been a good excuse for me when I was younger. 

I'll focus on exercise in later posts, so now I'll move on to some other aspects of Physical Health.

Eating healthy is equally important in this area. I try to live by the saying, "Everything in moderation." I hate the idea of forbidding myself from certain foods because ALL I can think about is I want that foood! So, just try to get a variety of foods from all the different food groups. It's amazing how eating right can make your body feel so much better! Don't believe me? TRY IT OUT! 

Also included in Physical Health is getting appropriate physical check-ups (doctor and dentist, wahoo!) and avoiding drugs and other substances that are harmful to the body. Pretty self explanatory. 

So, I have a challenge for you! This week, I want you to pick something about your physical health you want to change or improve. It can be something I've already mentioned, or anything that will make you take better care of yourself. Maybe washing your hands better (longer), eating breakfast, or getting in that exercise. You can do it! Let me know how it goes. I'd love to hear what you have to say!

That's all for now, but don't worry, I'll be back again soon to tell you all about Social Health! 

TTFN