WTF is Wellness Anyway?
I am sick of the word wellness. For real.
Every time I have to say I’m a certified wellness practitioner, I find myself rushing through it, almost like I’m embarrassed to have that title. Even though I worked really, really hard to earn it. Even though I know that it’s a big deal, that it separates me from the MLM “coaches” and demonstrates my proficiency in the field. Even though I know that earning it has allowed me to expand my services beyond what just a “coach” can offer.
And it’s because its become so overused that many people don’t even really understand what it means anyway.
Health, by definition, is the absence of disease. Wellness is the state of being in good health, especially as an actively pursued goal.
If you Google “wellness”, you’ll probably find a lot of diagrams that look like a wheel, and they usually talk about the “dimensions”. I prefer to think of wellness as a web. If you can picture a spider’s web, you can easily follow the outside to the inside and not lose track of where you're going. But all of the threads of the web are what hold the middle together, right? Without those threads staying sturdy and tight, the web loses its integrity. This is wellness.
When wellness experts talk about the “dimensions of wellness”, this makes my teeth itchy. Using the spokes of the “dimensions” wheel, to me, is not an accurate depiction of what outside forces really do to one’s health. To look at the wheel one would think, well…if I can just fix this one spoke, then all the other ones will work together just fine. Typically, this isn’t the case. If one spoke is not functioning correctly, most likely the others are not as well.
I much prefer the web because the threads are much more delicate and they all have a symbiotic relationship to one another. If one fails, the others become weaker and struggle to keep the integrity of the entire web. This, to me, details the importance of awareness of all aspects of health. After all, what do I always say? If someone isn’t fueling their bodies with nutritious foods and moving intentionally and purposefully, there is a reason.
Sometimes I feel like this message gets lost in the shuffle though. We’re inundated with wellness this or wellness that, and after awhile, the world wellness loses its…oomph. My goal for the next few weeks is to deconstruct this and bring it all back to the integrity of the web in away that makes sense and brings clarity.
Some experts say there are 6 dimensions, some say as many as 12. I’d argue that if we’re going with the dimensions-wheel explanation, that there are far more than even 12. But for the next few weeks, I’m going to expand on a few different areas and how they affect our health and each other. I’ll dive into socioeconomic issues, cultural differences, and even some of my own experiences (shocker, right?) to explain how things that we don’t dare to think about can affect one’s health.
I’ll also be diving further into it on my Tuesday podcast episodes, so be sure to tune into those. In addition to those, each of those weeks’ Thursday episodes are dedicated to a woman who specializes in or has a personal story related to that week’s topic. For instance, this week you’ll be hearing from a woman who has a personal story that is very parallel to mine. From being a juvenile delinquent to a registered nurse who is inspiring other women to embrace their imperfections, her story is one that is full of unhealthy life choices and decisions…but as she began to work on one thread of her web, the other threads became stronger and more capable of handling whatever bugs flew into it.
Next week I’m going to peel apart the layers of something that we’ve all been struggling with this year; having a healthy, thriving social system, maintaining relationships that uplift and encourage us, and learning when to let go of the ones that hold us back from being the best versions of ourselves.
My hope is to start connecting the threads of the web in ways that get us prepared and ready for what is to come in the next year. I’m not a huge fan of New Year Resolutions, but I do know that a lot of us, myself included, do at least start thinking of ways to improve our quality of life when presented with large fresh start opportunities. What a convoluted way to say that I want us all to make 2021 the year we feel in control of our choices and the outcomes!
Stay tuned!
