Health & Wellness

Change Your Habits, Change Your Life

by Dr. Cindy Maynard

Usually, when we think about health and wellness, we think about diet, exercise, or weight control. Although attention to these areas is important to have a healthy lifestyle, wellness involves much more. Wellness is a holistic term that means incorporating many aspects of health and making choices which help us live a robust, happy, and fulfilled life. These dimensions include physical and emotional wellbeing, engaging the mind, and nurturing the spirit to defend against the process of aging to promote longevity. Therefore, making health and lifestyle changes could mean focusing on ways to achieve better mental or emotional health, improving social or environmental factors, changing diet and exercise, or even self-care.

One of the more popular models of wellness was developed by Dr. Bill Hettier of the National Wellness Institute. The model refers to the Six Dimensions of Wellness. The Institute states that by addressing all six categories, we can build on a holistic sense of wellness and fulfillment.

The six dimensions involve physical, social, intellectual, spiritual, emotional, and occupational aspects to maximize health. You can see the interconnectedness of each dimension and how they all contribute to helping us lead a more holistic, healthier life. • Physical Dimension: involves nutritional intake, daily activity of some kind, and getting adequate rest

• Social Dimension: Maintaining friendships and intimate relations and contributing to the environment or community

• Intellectual Dimension: Being engaged and curious about life, having interests, being a life-long learner

• Spiritual Dimension: Finding purpose or meaning in life beyond the physical, appreciating that we are part of the greater whole which is cosmic or divine in nature

• Emotional Dimension: Managing emotions in a healthy way, maintaining positivity or enthusiasm about your life

• Occupational Dimension: Engaging in work that is consistent with your values, contributing your unique skills and gifts in a way that is meaningful and satisfying

Making healthy lifestyle changes isn’t easy, but it’s not impossible either. Before you decide on an area(s) you might want to change or work on, I usually suggest to my clients to take the American Board of Integrative Holistic Medicine (ABIHM) Holistic Health Questionnaire. This questionnaire is a tool that can help jumpstart healthy change and help you maximize your personal wellness program. You can quickly see where your strengths and weaknesses lie. Then decide to focus on one or two areas you want to change. For example, it could be making more social connections, taking a class, or eating better. (PS new habits typically take two months to form). Don’t worry about doing it perfectly. Life is all about experimenting, taking two steps forward, one back. Positive change is a fluctuating, dynamic process. But there is no greater motivator than realizing that you have changed a behavior to a more positive one. Because when you’ve changed your habits for the better, you’ve changed your life for the better.

The key to a healthy life is engaging fully in life—emotionally, physically, and intellectually. Applying a holistic approach to our lives can help us achieve our full potential to live a more positive, authentic, and fulfilling life which ultimately helps move and power our society forward.

Cindy Maynard, Ph.D., RD, is a health psychologist, a registered dietitian, and a nationally published health and fitness writer. She is passionate about promoting health and wellness. You can contact her at drcindymaynard@live.com 