The word wellbeing is so much more frequently heard these days in all sorts of situations. Advertisers promote the advancement of wellbeing by the use of their products, organisations are scrambling to be seen to promote the wellbeing of their employees, schools teach wellbeing as something to be nurtured, too. What does wellbeing actually mean?
The Oxford English Dictionary defines wellbeing as “the state of being comfortable, healthy or happy.” True wellbeing is achieved in a state of being comfortable AND healthy AND happy, too. All three elements are so deeply enmeshed that we cannot achieve true wellbeing without all three elements being present and balanced.
The concept of wellbeing can be applied to any part of our lifestyle that may have the ability to improve its quality. It can therefore be adopted by any organisation with a priority, focus or agenda to promote. Various corporations and charities promote wellbeing as it relates to mental health, physical health, nutrition, happiness, sleep patterns, nutrition and so on. In reality, the concept of wellbeing is entirely subjective; it is completely unique to each of us as individuals. Each of us will need to tweak a different element of our lifestyle to achieve the desired improvement in our levels of comfort, health and happiness and increase the feel good factor in our lives. It is likely that each of us will be prepared to commit to a different degree of or timescale for change to increase that sense of wellness. Wellbeing is really an holistic, bespoke concept. It is important to achieve wellness in mind, body and spirit and finding balance between those elements is essential to being able to maintain it. Each person and indeed any organisation or corporation will require very specific focus and support to do so.
The principle and most essential component of any machine is its engine. Our brains are no exception and require extra care to maintain this most complex and essential of parts. The brain is the driving force in our lives. As well as ensuring the coordinated movement of all other parts of our machine, the brain also shapes our personalities and mood. Good mental health is a fundamental pillar of wellbeing and we can help our brains to achieve this by trying to maintain a positive focus and by keeping stress to a minimum. We also need to give our engine a rest from time to time, both in terms of proper and meaningful relaxation and in terms of clean and regular sleep.
The practices of mindfulness, meditation and yoga are invaluable tools in helping to train the brain and body to be more consciously aware. This is more important than it may first appear to be. The process of constant thought, often negative in nature, is both psychically and psychologically exhausting. It also keeps the body wired into the sympathetic nervous system, or fight and flight mode. This system causes a series of chemical reactions in the body and mind including increased heart rate, redirection of blood to limbs and away from digestion, increased blood pressure, changes in breathing patterns and oxygen levels and a change with the body to a more acidic environment. The brain and body are on ‘high alert’ and so we remain in a state of hyper vigilance until this nervous system is switched back to the ‘rest and digest’ parasympathetic mode. The sympathetic nervous system was designed to be used during times when hyper-vigilance was required, to keep ourselves safe in times of danger or to be more acutely responsive when hunting or fighting. It was never designed to be maintained over long periods of time, which the modern way of life tends to provoke. A regular mindfulness, breathing, meditation or yoga practice will help to switch the body back into rest / digest and keep blood pressure and body acidity low. It can also teach the brain to notice the constant narrative and negative thought patterns and stop them, taking control over worry and dread. In the quest for better wellness, these conscious awareness practices are essential tools for success.
1. Cut out sugar as much as possible from your diet. Sugar is in many of our foods but often disguised in the labelling under one of its aliases. Familiarise yourself with what to look for. Sugar has a multitude of hidden side effects on the body. From the known impacts on the liver, on neurotransmitter dysregulation, stimulating inflammation and increasing cellular ageing to the ever emerging science that sugar is related to a significant increase in cancer risk, there has never been a better time to get rid of this wellbeing drain from your diet. Be aware of hidden sugar in foods like ready made sauces, fruit juices and breakfast cereal. Definitely don’t add sugar to anything. It will take a couple of weeks to truly ween yourself from your sugar addiction which most of us unwittingly suffer, but it will be worth it. In the first few days, you may find that foods taste bland but after a while, your body will rid itself of the cravings and stop telling you that your new, more healthy eating plan is boring and tasteless. Your taste buds will wake up to the new flavours in your food and help you to get back to enjoying nature’s produce at its healthiest and best;
2. Say a firm and consistent NO to processed foods. Processed foods aren’t just microwave meals and other ready meals. A processed food is any food that has been altered some way during its preparation before it reaches your fridge and can be mechanically processed or chemically processed. Not all processing is bad for us; pasteurising milk (if you eat dairy produce) is one obvious example. However, processing provides the opportunity for manufacturers to add sugar, salt and chemical additives to foods whilst removing some of its nutritional content. This makes it longer lasting and more flavourful for the consumer but also often make it harder for our bodies to break down. Ultra processed food consumption has been positively linked to an increased cancer risk in a study published in the British Medical Journal. Processing loads the produce with unnatural and unnecessary sugar, sodium and fat and are designed to make you addicted to them so that you overeat them and then buy more. Fizzy pop is the perfect example. They also usually contain a plethora of artificial ingredients which we don’t understand. In short, processed foods are linked by scientific research to a multitude of health problems such as heart disease, obesity, diabetes and changes in behaviour in the nutritional food tastes so good on its own. We can surely all remember our mothers telling us not to play with our food… It’s not a toy! So why take the risk of eating it after someone else has played around with it? Healthy, nutritional unprocessed recipes are readily available now more than ever before. It’s easier than you think to eat healthily and within a reasonable budget if you know how…;
If you don’t know what it is, don’t put it in your body! Part of pushing your wellbeing to the max is becoming aware and accepting that everything you do to, with and for yourself is your own choice. If someone gave us a pill and told us to take it without any other information, we would refuse. So why do we take the same risks with our food, just because it’s in a shape or form that we are familiar with? Be aware of nutritional information but also take care to read the ingredients list. And if you see something you don’t understand, put it back! Take control of your nutritional health and watch your wellbeing soar…
Self care is a critical component of wellbeing and keeping our machine clean, inside and out, makes driving it around all day a much more pleasurable experience. Stay well to live well!
This proactive wellbeing model applies to every area of your life. Taking proper care of yourself is the first step to feeling good and being able to take proper care or others. Remember the rule about fitting your own oxygen mask first before trying to help others? It applies to everything. A journey into self care and being kind to ourselves in everything that we do will pay dividends in our ability to live a full, meaningful and happy life. Applying this wellbeing model of striving for a state of being comfortable AND healthy AND happy to every element of life can easily be achieved by adopting a positive and growth mindset.
Take control : Stay well : Be happy