The 4 Points Of Wellness

What is wellness?

What is true wellness and how do we know?

How do we achieve that true wellness?

These are all questions I asked myself for years. I struggled to be healthy. I struggled to lose weight. I struggled to feel good. I struggled to understand what being healthy actually meant.

I couldn’t understand how health could be so difficult to achieve. If health was so difficult and required endless restrictive tracking, exercising, and just down right feeling out of energy and unhappy how was it that humans have survived for so many thousands of years? Technically we would have all died of disease a long time ago if that's what it took to actually be healthy.

But that wasn't the answer. That is the societal version of being healthy that we have been conditioned to think is true health. I realized that I was looking at things all wrong. I had to think about how those people lived and what was different about the way we live now. That is how after working through my own health and wellness journey and years in the fitness industry, I started uncovering the truth and have come up with the 4 points of wellness. All of which when in balance with each other give us the foundation to create a healthy, happy life.

The 4 points of wellness:

Physical Wellness

Nutritional Wellness

Mental Wellness

Spiritual Wellness

These 4 points work together to create a firm foundation so our lives can prosper. Think of them as a table with 4 corners and at each corner. Each corner of the table represents a point of wellness and you are standing in the middle of the table to represent your overall health. Each corner of the table is working in balance to hold your weight. Now let's say one leg of the table gives way and now there are only 3 legs supporting your weight. You may still be able to prevent yourself from falling by adjusting where you are standing on the table by shifting closer to one corner. However now there is more weight on that one corner. Eventually due to the excess pressure that leg is bound to give way as well. Then you will have no way to prevent yourself from falling with only 2 legs still standing.

That is exactly how the 4 points work. They need to work together in balance to provide optimal health and wellness and keep you functioning properly both physically and mentally. Of course if you neglect one point you can still function healthily for a period of time without it but eventually with the extra strain on the other points you will run into a situation where you find your wellness declining in some way. This decline can be physically (fitness), nutritionally (what you put in your body), mentally (memory/ critical thinking skills), or spiritually (knowing your purpose and feeling fulfilled in life).

Now that we understand how they work lets go a little deeper into the points themselves shall we. First let's take a look at Physical Wellness.

This one is pretty self explanatory just by the name. Physical wellness is all about moving the body and keeping it healthy through some form of exercise at least once a day. Now this doesn’t mean that you need to hit the gym every single day. I actually don’t recommend that at all because it can have an opposite effect on your body. As a matter of fact you don’t have to go to the gym at all if it's not your thing. Physical wellness can be as simple as going for a walk at least once a day. As long as you are getting your body moving and getting the blood flowing at least once a day you are keeping your physical wellness point in balance.

If this is something you struggle with, take some time and find what kind of physical activity you like. This can be a nice nature walk, dancing, yoga, running, or hitting the gym. Take the time and experiment with everything. You may be surprised to find there is something you really enjoy that you would have never thought you would. And enjoying what you are doing is key because I mean let's face it there are plenty of times where we would definitely rather sit on the couch and chill rather than get up and get moving. But if it's an activity you enjoy, it ends up not feeling like work at all. You may even look forward to it!

So that basically wraps up Physical wellness. Like I said, pretty self explanatory. Our next point is pretty self explanatory as well. Nutritional wellness.

So again this one is pretty easy to figure out based on the name. This point is all about nourishing your body with healthy foods that have lots of good vitamins and minerals. Don’t worry I’m not saying you have to go eat salads and smoothies every day. Even though salads and smoothies can definitely hit the spot sometimes! But you don’t have to go and make drastic changes right off the bat with this one. Being 100% honest by doing that you are setting yourself up for failure anyway so I definitely don’t recommend it. This point will take time especially since we have been so conditioned to think a certain way about food our whole lives. Especially us women. Take it little by little step by step. It may feel like a bit of a challenge in the beginning but the goal of this is to make it a lifestyle and therefore should be flexible. Nutritional wellness is meant to be part of your lifestyle and let's face it we all enjoy food and we want to have pleasurable experiences with it.

Nutritional wellness like I mentioned is about nourishing your body. This means eating healthy foods that provide all the vitamins and nutrients we need of course. It also means consuming all of the macro nutrients that you need as well meaning protein, carbs and even fats. Yes we need all the food groups to survive. Please stop cutting out food groups to be “healthy”.

Nutritional wellness is about the quality of your food as well. Meaning no or as little processed chemicals, flavors and preservatives as possible. These chemicals, despite companies claiming that they are safe in small doses, can drastically affect our health in the long term. If you aren’t too sure how you feel about this look at it this way. Most of the chemicals that are put in our foods nowadays really started getting distributed in food in the 90s roughly. So we haven't really seen the long term effects these chemicals have on our bodies yet. Although there are some potential long term effects that have been surfacing more and more in recent years. Like an increase in the number of people developing autoimmune disorders and hormone imbalances. These are illnesses that can be linked to these chemicals wreaking havoc on our bodies. More specifically our gut.

Our gut if you are unfamiliar with it takes care of the digesting of our foods and in many ways is basically like our second brain. It not only extracts the vital vitamins and minerals from our food that we need but it can also affect our metabolism and even our moods due to its important job of regulating the hormones in our body. However our gut is also very delicate. Preservatives, pesticides, artificial colors and flavors and a variety of other chemicals that are added to our foods to make them fresher longer and cheaper can wreak havoc on our gut and can later lead to major health problems.

Remember the table analogy? If the nutrition corner of the table gives way because your body is filled with processed chemicals and can’t function properly that where illness sets in. Then from there it's only a matter of time before the other points start to struggle as well.

Usually the next ones to struggle are physical and mental just to make it easier for you to see the connection. We see this very often with people struggling with chronic illnesses. In many cases the next to go will be their physical wellness because the illness prevents them from having the means (energy for example) to up hold it. Maybe it ends up being the mental side even from the stress or depression setting in due to the illness caused by a lack in nutritional wellness. BALANCE PEOPLE!

So no nutritional wellness isn't just about eating salads and smoothies it goes much much deeper into the inner workings of our health and how our bodies work. Information that if you ask me is vital for everyone to know because it has that much effect on our future health.

But moving on to our third point, which I just mentioned briefly before, being mental wellness. Now we hear a lot about mental wellness nowadays. But when we hear about it it usually has to do with depression, anxiety and the like. Which of course those are mental illnesses and do go along with mental wellness but they don’t encompass everything for this point. As a matter of fact those kinds of illness are shared between the two points of mental and spiritual wellness, but we will talk about that a little more later.

Mental wellness isn't just making sure that your emotions are in check. It is also important to stimulate the mind and work the brain through problem solving, critical thinking, creative projects, and the biggest of all... learning!

The brain is a muscle just like all of the other muscles we have in our body. So just like we have to exercise those muscles to keep them healthy we need to exercise our brain as well. Problem solving, learning a new skill, reading, creative projects, and honestly just analyzing information and drawing your own conclusions on things instead of just accepting what you are told all help exercise your brain and keep it strong and healthy which, just like nutritional wellness, can help fight against chronic diseases.

Diseases like Dementia and Alzheimer's are some of the diseases that plague our senior citizens today. Despite there not being a cure there are preventative measures that we can all start taking today to help prevent diseases from setting in. That being upholding our mental wellness through the techniques that I listed before. There are plenty of scientific studies out there that show how regular mental stimulation significantly reduces the chances of an individual developing diseases like Dementia and Alzheimer's.

But that is only half of the benefits to upholding your mental wellness. Like I mentioned before methods to keep this point of wellness in check also include creative projects and learning. This can include learning a new skill or subject and creative or artistic projects like painting, writing, singing and so many more. Methods like these are very useful in fighting against other forms of mental illness like depression and anxiety. There are plenty of scientific studies showing how adopting a creative hobby can help battle the symptoms of depression and anxiety and in some cases help with curing them as well. So much so that a lot of doctors and psychologists recommend this type of treatment to patients.

So we have now discussed the first 3 points. Now it's time for the last and more mystical and misunderstood point. Spiritual wellness.

Now don’t worry I’m not going to tell you that you need to sit under a tree and meditate for hours on end in order to keep this point in balance. Its a lot simpler than that but does require some time to just sit with yourself. Reason being is that it is actually very important to our health, mentally and physically that we understand that there is more to our lives than what we can physically touch and see. There are other energetic forces at play and we ourselves are energetic beings here on earth and we are affected by other energies and frequencies.

There are actually scientific studies out there that show that we as humans do release a certain vibration or frequency out into the world. As do our organs that all function on a different frequency which then work together to make up our frequency. There are also studies that show how other frequencies affect us when we are penetrated by them. Things like illnesses, viruses, bacteria, even negative emotions have lower frequencies that in turn affect our own personal frequencies. How does it affect us? You guessed it, they make us sick.

Mind you that all of these frequencies are also unseen. So wouldn’t it make sense that there may be other beings or energy frequencies out there that we can’t see?

Now I'm not telling you that you need to go out on this huge soul search here or go and become part of a big organized religious group. Unless that is what you want and is what works for you. I personally don’t float in that direction but I know many people who live very happy lives being part of a large organized religion no matter what it might be.

What is most important in Spiritual wellness is the comprehension of something more, there is a bigger plan out there. What this does is it gives us the feeling of purpose which as humans is something that we have strived to achieve and understand for thousands of years. It's that feeling and inner knowing that we are here for a higher purpose and that we are not alone on this journey. That there is some sort of higher power out there helping us helps bring more meaning to our lives and helps guide our actions as well. It allows you to see and act with your heart and with compassion which then makes us feel good. And when we feel good our brains release chemicals like dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and endorphins which are critical to our overall physical and mental health by helping to relieve pain and stress just to mention a few. Not only that but having this purpose gives us the energy and dedication to keep going and to get out of bed every morning. It gives us energy to complete our tasks everyday.

Having this inner knowing of security that we aren’t alone here and we have a purpose helps with mental illnesses like depression and anxiety as well, just like I mentioned earlier. It gives us the strength to push through and gives us hope.

I know this may sound super metaphorical but there are some studies out there on this as well. Having some sort of belief or faith can do wonders for our health and just our overall outlook and mindset on life. Which by the way can do absolute wonders in and of itself.

So basically spiritual wellness is like the lube that keeps the rest of the points functioning properly. It creates the basis for the others to thrive off of.

So what do we do to get there? That's up to you. That can be absolutely anything. You can meditate, do yoga, visit a church or shrine, or just simply sit in nature quietly with yourself and ask the universe to help you understand. It will deliver. That and educate yourself. Read some books on spirituality. Educating yourself and just sitting with yourself is where the real magic happens. It's where things start to make more sense and you learn what feels right to you and what doesn’t.

Simple as that.

Which is exactly what the four points are supposed to be. They aren't supposed to be rocket science. They are meant to be easy for you to incorporate into your life so that you can live a life of health and wellness while being happy, not restrictive and miserable.

I urge you to maybe take a few things here and there that I mentioned in this article and start implementing them into your life. Even if they are small. You don’t have to go crazy. Just do what feels good to you and little by little you will begin to attain the balance in your life that you truly need to be well.