Looking around you at the successful people in life, you can identify some common traits. One feature that has been part of the successful people I know is the ability to turn certain success principles into habits.
Success principles apply to everything we do in life, whether our careers, relationships with others, or even wellness. So, identifying the laws that can keep you well and making those habits are great ways to have true welfare be part of your life.
Total wellness requires focusing on physical, emotional, and spiritual health. As you might imagine, these three areas are interrelated, and often, being out of balance in one can negatively affect another. Think about how depression can lead to over-eating, which in turn will lead to obesity.
As we all know, habits are hard to break, good or bad. Any activity you can commit to practice for 30 days can quickly become a habit. If you are going to develop habits, you might as well create good ones!
You'd be surprised how approaching life from a principled perspective related to wellness will positively impact everything else you do, too. So, to get you started, here are the 10 principles we feel are most important to achieving total wellness:
1) Drink Water - Water is the most important nutrient we consume daily since it is essential for everything our bodies do. Water makes it possible for our cells to get nutrients, keep our blood flowing, and cleanse waste products from our bodies.
Conventional wisdom was that our bodies require 8 8-ounce glasses of water daily. However, recent studies have shown that the typical person may need almost twice that amount depending on their body weight and activity level. Here is a formula that will allow you to determine your daily needs:
Multiply your weight by .04 and then multiply that figure by 2. The resulting value is the number of 8-ounce glasses of water your body needs to remain healthy.
While drinking water is vital, it is also essential to be drinking pure water. The water we drink is continuously treated with chemicals that find their way into our bodies through the foods we eat, and when we drink water, the more we can minimize the intake of these foreign substances, the healthier we will be. Consider investing in a high-quality water filtration system. You can get a countertop or under-the-sink model for about $500.00, which could be the best gift you give your family. Using a high-quality filter will allow you to reduce the cost of pure water to a small fraction of what we pay for bottled water, which is often just filtered water.
2) Breathe Deeply - Like water, air is essential to life. Also, like water, air exchange removes waste (carbon dioxide) from our bodies. Deep breathing, in addition to facilitating a continuous and abundant supply of oxygen, can also energize you and relieve stress. Great times to focus on breathing include commuting, during a break at the office, or watching your favorite television show. If you are in a convenient place, combining breathing with a good stretching routine is a great idea.
3) Sleep Peacefully - Quality sleep is necessary to allow your body to repair and rejuvenate itself. This cycle is essential to total wellness, and we often underestimate it. Sleep deprivation inhibits the body's ability to repair itself, produce the chemicals it needs to nourish and rejuvenate and interfere with your ability to function emotionally.
Quality sleep begins with keeping your bedroom free of clutter. Don't use it for activities other than rest. In other words, do your reading, homework, and television watching elsewhere. This will condition your brain that when you enter the bedroom, it can expect rest!
Be sure the windows are well-covered so that sunrise doesn't interrupt your sleep cycle prematurely. While waking up to sunrise is appealing aesthetically, it's different from what your body needs.
4) Eat nutritiously - We could talk about this one forever. Food provides your body with the nutrients it needs to manufacture all the substances necessary for proper bodily functions and health. Food is the most potent drug we take!
Unfortunately, our foods don't contain all the nutrients necessary for total wellness, even when eating healthy diets. Our agricultural practices have led us to produce foods that, sometimes, don't contain half the nutrients they once did. This is why a good diet must include proper nutritional supplements. However, be careful not to rely on just any supplements. You should avoid synthetic vitamins and food supplements and choose whole-food supplement products instead. Synthetics don't provide the same potency level as nature's own compilation.
5) Be Active - Sedentary lifestyles are leading us to more and more wellness deficiencies, contributing to obesity and otherwise negatively affecting the ability to remain healthy. The body needs activity to keep the heart healthy, prevent bones from weakening, and stimulate growth. So, balance your time sitting at the computer or television with yard work or a walk with a friend or family member. Being consistent about regular physical activity will do more for you than you know.
6) Be Giving and Forgiving - Our emotional health is tied to minimizing stress and experiencing emotionally rewarding moments. Both goals can be maximized by giving and being willing to forgive. It takes a lot more energy to harbor anger than it does to forgive and move on. It also makes more facial muscles to frown than it does to smile!
Make it a point to seek out opportunities to do something special for someone, and your reward will be better mental health and the satisfaction of knowing you did your part. Find someone who has upset you, and whether they see they did or not, forgive them for it (you can do this without telling them if they don't realize they hurt you). Be willing to let go of anger; stress will rarely affect you.
7) Engage in personal development - Personal development strengthens us with confidence to do what we are called. It prepares us to enjoy life's daily events and feel that we contribute something to ourselves and those around us. Personal development can be merely reading an inspirational book, taking a self-improvement course, or anything that enriches your feelings about yourself or your interaction with others.
Some people find developing a relationship with God enriching, inspiring, and spiritually satisfying. But, whatever does it for you, take time out to meet the spiritual cravings that you experience.
Make these principles habits, and you will be well on your way to total wellness and enjoyment of your life and the people around you. Be sure to share these principles with others so they can experience total wellness, too!
