ME TIME: Personal Wellness Goals

ME TIME: Personal Wellness Goals

By CATHERINE A. BRENNAN

We often limit the idea of “Wellness” to the health of our body. “Personal Wellness,” however, is so much broader. It has to do with what makes you feel well. Consider your body, mind and spirit. These components make up your personal wellness.

I feel well:

• When I’m neither hungry nor thirsty, well rested from getting enough sleep, or exhilarated from exercise.

• When I’m looking at a sunrise, watching my grandsons play, or laughing with friends until tears run down my cheeks.

• When I’m peaceful, confident and grateful.

I struggled with anxiety and depression for 35 years until overcoming it in 2009. This journey took me on a trip to heal my body, my mind, and my spirit. My body was unhealthy, my mental health skills were lacking and my spiritual perspective was limited. Fixing any one of the areas alone would not have brought me to the personal wellness I experience today.

These three areas represent the proverbial three-legged stool, which cannot stand unless all three legs are strong. It also illustrates that weakness in one leg causes an imbalance that can be compensated for by the other two being stronger.

Physical Health – Your physical health is the easiest place to start on your personal wellness journey. You live in your body 24 hours a day and feel the effects of how well it operates. Are you achy? Hungry? Tired? Are your systems and the numbers that monitor them healthy such as digestion, cholesterol, heart rate, and flexibility? It’s important to gather this information on yourself and monitor it over time.

Your body deserves your love and needs your care. Physical wellness is having a body that does what you want it to do based on how well you care for it. Stress, age, diet, genetics and habits all contribute to your physical wellness. Each person will have to come up with a plan that works for them.

Love your body and take care of it well!

Mental Health – Your mental health is more difficult to measure. Poor mental health can show up in difficult relationships, the inability to manage your life, or ill-health in your body.

Good mental health is having a mind that is free to plan, create, observe and deal with the challenges of life. When you are mentally well, you are confident in your abilities, humble enough to see your weak spots and able to separate your own thoughts and opinions from others without trouble.

Learning good mental health skills is not complicated but you do need to be intentional about it. Some areas to improve your mental health skills include connecting with others, connecting with yourself, having healthy personal boundaries and taking ownership of your life by being responsible for the direction of it, having a strong work-ethic, delaying gratification, being proactive and practicing resilience.

Spiritual Health – The most difficult component to describe in your overall personal wellness is your spiritual health. Although some people find this through their religious practices, others are strong spiritually through individual beliefs.

Every one of us has a spirit which needs nurturing and strengthening. This often-overlooked part of your personal wellness can be the part that elevates you to a new level.

To enhance your spiritual wellness, practice in these areas.

• Faith – Discover and grow your faith.

• Gratitude – practice gratitude daily by telling others what you are grateful for or writing in a gratitude journal.

• Hope – although simply hoping is not a strategy to achieve goals, it is a necessary component of your life.

• Joy – choose joy even when circumstances do not call for it.

• Meaning – find meaning in life’s everyday events.

• Purpose – you’ll find purpose in the thing that you are good at, passionate about, and the world needs.

• Love – love is the answer to all our problems. It is so much more than butterflies in your stomach as you see a potential romantic partner. There are many kinds of love. It’s something we can get better at as we practice loving ourselves and others better.

Your personal wellness depends on taking care of yourself physically, mentally, and spiritually. Find ways to heal and strengthen each area of your life!

Catherine A. Brennan is the author of “So Now What? A Guide for People Who Feel Stuck” and a guided workbook. She speaks to groups about looking, feeling and doing better. She is an enthusiastic athlete, runner and supporter of local organizations that make Mankato a better place to live, work and play for all. To follow her blog, visit catherineabrennan.com.