Why Wellness is More Than Self-Care: Finding Meaning in the Everyday?

Recently the term ‘well-being’ is most frequently used and connected with taking care of one’s health by means of invigorating procedures like taking baths, doing yoga, or visiting a spa. However, personal care only paints a part picture of wellness, and that picture is huge and vibrant. It therefore entails a physical, emotional, psychological, and sometimes spiritual health of an individual. Wellness is simply achieving the optimal state of physical, mental, social, emotional, spiritual, and planetary fitness and searching for meaning in our daily activities. To this end, this article implores the readers to dig deep to understand why wellness is more than just self-care and how to endue our daily existence with sustainable purpose.

The Realness of Wellness and the Neglected Concept of Self-care

Personal care is generally considered to be the foundation of health, which is quite justified. Hygiene, or personal care, which includes adequate sleep and a healthy diet, exercise, and stress, is very important to one's physical health. Likewise, the practices that provide stimulus to the mind, which include practicing meditation, being mindful, or even journaling, improve emotional health. However, well-being does not stop with these activities.

The problem with the self-care approach is that such an approach looks at the individual’s behaviour and thus isolates the healthy practice from other aspects of life. As with many things in life, self-care may be beneficial in improving the quality of an individual’s life, but wellness is more than just self-care; it is about meaning, purpose, connection, and worth. It is about harmony and interrelatedness between the individual and the community, between health and happiness on one hand, and social and physical settings in which they exist.

Wellness Beyond Self-Care: Finding Meaning in the Everyday

Wellness Beyond Self-Care asks us to take a step beyond the basics and think about what wellness actually looks like. For genuine happiness we have to make life worthwhile. This may come from the relationships we have, the jobs, the hobbies we undertake, as well as the individual development we undergo. Thus we need to put meaning into our daily lives, as with the right approach, we can create another layer of well-being.

Purpose in Work and Life

Another of the factors within the wellness model is meaning and purpose in one's life. To most people, work is a primary source of purpose in their lives. When a person is contented with the kind of work that he or she is doing, he or she feels happy because the work being done is rewarding in a noble cause. From being able to creatively design at work, be an employee who contributes towards a community, or a person who goes out to follow their passions, the sense of having a purpose makes one take better care of his/her health. In other words, it is a belief that what we do at the workplace or in our day-to-day lives is worthwhile.

Nurturing Relationships

The social factor in our lives has a great impact on our health. From friends, families, and other colleagues, they each play a major role in how our emotional health is viewed and improved on. It has been found in the existing literature that individuals with social connections happen to be healthier and longer-living. Wellness is more than just self-care for one’s body when we concentrate on creating and maintaining relations within a society and carrying out social responsibilities. Interaction with others, spending time with or for relatives and friends, as well as helping others, are beneficial for overall well-being.

Contributing to Something Greater

Wellness is also about being part of the world and the world being part of the wellness. Performing such things as volunteering or donating to particular causes we believe in may provide a feel-good factor that self-indulgence will not ever offer. Doing anything that contributes to the well-being of others selflessly always comes back to us, benefiting us many times over.

Mindfulness in the Everyday

In other words, searching for purpose in the mundane has to be reinterpreted. Sometimes, people wait for certain successes, breakthroughs, or changes to happen to give a purpose to their lives. However, meaning may be derived in the smallest, unexpected places, and so we seize the day. Whether it is eating a meal, going for a walk in the park, or having a meaningful conversation, people can keep themselves absorbed with exploring the quality of life. Mindfulness activity such as meditation and respiratory exercise can open our attention to the present moment and thereby increase our level of enjoyment and happiness.

How Nutrition and Exercise Contribute to Total Health?

Wellness beyond self-care is also embedded profoundly within the notion of the body and its management. Of course, people should rest and pamper themselves, but it is impossible to ignore physical exercise. In particular, there are three principles: good nutrition, exercise, and an adequate amount of sleep.

Another element is that the human body can also be supplemented by vitamins, minerals, and other foods that constitute the human diet. Depending on how one defines quality, healthy food can reduce stress, fatigue, and confused thinking, which are all essential parts of mental and emotional healthiness.

Another self-care component is physical activity. Exercise helps not just the mere physical sense of a body but also develops the brain and composure of an individual. Whether you exercise regularly or occasionally, walking, dancing, or yoga—anything that takes the stress off, raises energy levels, and enhances health. Thus, apart from enhancing meaning in life, physical activity also plays a critical role in helping us to relate to our bodies and the world at large.

Cultivating Wellness: Small Steps Toward Meaning

However, going back to the main topic, wellness is the ongoing process of creating beneficial lifestyle habits, maintaining positive relationships, and personal fulfilment in the journey towards finding meaning in the everyday living.

Here are some practical steps to integrate wellness beyond self-care into your life:

• Set Intentions: Before starting any work, write down an aspiration or a thought about what gives your life purpose.
• Engage in Gratitude: You should constantly devote some of your time to listing down things that you are thankful for. It serves to reprogram your mental attitude and perception towards the things that surround you, towards the positive aspects of them.
• Create Rituals: Adopt uncomplicated practices to perform in the course of the present day, which will help to create the basic routines for the Self-Care Plan, including having tea, going for Wellness Retreats, or being mindful.
• Cultivate Community: It’s important to invest in socialising with friends and family or get involved in public activities.
• Contribute: Find opportunities to help others, donate money or time to some charities, churches, hospitals, schools, or whatever you feel is worthy of your time and money.

Bottom Line!!

It is a misconception that wellness entails spending more time getting facials or taking multiple showers; rather, it’s the practice of creating a healthy lifestyle for the entire person. Successful creation of healthy and well societies, therefore, requires acceptance of the notion that wellness is more than just self-care; it is the search for purpose, marital, work, societal, and spiritual well-being. Self-care applies here, but wellness means a healthy body, a healthy mind, and a reason to live and interact with the world around us.

If you want a new and improved you, where exercise, nutrition, and personal Life Coaching come into play, then there’s Gillian McMichael. In helping you navigate through these issues, she helps to cultivate a well-being that is beyond the idea of self-care, into the realm where the spirit—and meaning—and the mind—and present moments are also nourished and connected.

Are you ready to take your first step towards taking care of yourself? Contact Gillian today and let our journey to the total well-being of your body, mind, and spirit commence immediately!