Our bodies require a lot of planning towards success in order to create the quality of life we want. Our personal wellness includes many aspects that come together to equal our overall health and satisfaction. A Wellness Plan is a cohesive proposal for the goals we want to achieve and how we intend to reach those goals. A Wellness Plan is dynamic and very personal to each person.
Why Do You Need a Wellness Plan?
Creating a Wellness Plan helps to define goals that will help you reach and maintain your balance between personal and work responsibilities. Many times we have trouble putting our own needs above others because as a society, often times, we do not put value in our own self-care, however when we put a focus on our personal, physical and mental well-being we create positive emotions and energy. Positive emotions and energy impact how we interact with society, our family and friend relationships, our work, our financial well-being, community presence and influence, and the quality of life after we stop working.
What are the 9 Areas of Wellness?
- Social Wellness
Our ability to relate and connect with people - Emotional Wellness
Our ability to identify how we are feeling and why - Mental Wellness
Our ability to understand and accept ourselves and cope well with challenges and obstacles of life, work and relationships - Spiritual Wellness
Our ability to establish peace and harmony in our lives and be fulfilled in life by aligning our values and actions - Environmental Wellness
Our ability to be aware of nature, our environment and our surroundings and protecting ourselves and our world from potential hazards - Occupational Wellness
Our ability to feel fulfilled with our job without sacrificing work-life balance - Intellectual Wellness
Our ability to learn new ideas and have new experiences that will open our minds to new concepts, improve our skill sets and seek new challenges - Physical Well-Being
Our ability to take proper care of our bodies by making healthy choices with nutrition, physical activity, sleep, stress management and avoiding or stopping destructive habits like sedentary behavior, drug, alcohol and tobacco use - Financial Wellness
Our ability to live within our means, create and keep a budget and build financial security for our future.
How do You Start a Wellness Plan?
Define your “why”
You must define your “why” in order to have a powerful Wellness Plan. Your reason for striving toward wellness goals will be a mighty force that you are capable of maintaining when you are feeling burnt out and tempted to give up. Your “why” should be easy to remember so that when you are slipping back into old habits, or you have over-indulged you can easily remind yourself why you want to make decisions that put your wellness at the forefront of your life.
“I want my health and well-being because…”
Identify areas in your life that need more attention
We can measure the quality of our lifestyle choices by making a list of aspects of our wellness and rating them. We rate our wellness by considering how well we think we are doing in these areas. Areas of wellness with lower scores are the areas we should begin creating change.
Set goals
When creating your Wellness Plan, it is recommended that you start small. Success breeds more success so choose an area in your life where you know you can create change and reach your goals.
Your goals should be attainable. A complete wellness plan will include short-term and long-term goals. Your long-term goal may be to lose 100 lbs. This an attainable goal, however it may take years to reach that goal. Short-term goals that will help you achieve this long-term goal could be to drink 2 liters of water per day or taking a walk every morning. As you implement short-term goals you will be creating healthy habits that will help you implement the wellness lifestyle that will help you not only reach your goals but continue becoming your best self.
Your goals should be reasonable. Goals that are outside the range of reality may not be able to be attained. If you are 5 foot 10 inches tall, your body may not be able to be a size 1 and maintain your wellness. If you are middle-aged you may not be able to begin planning your career as a professional ballerina. Although these goals might be out of reach, you can consider more realistic goals. Maybe your long-term goal is to be a size 8. Maybe you can start up a dance group in your town and perform at smaller venues. Allowing yourself to be reasonable and flexible as you reach your short-term goals and adjust your long-term goals according to your needs is a great way to reach success.
Tools to Help Maintain Your Wellness Plan
Anticipating obstacles will help you be ready when challenges come. Being aware will help you make healthy decisions on your wellness path. List the 2 to 3 things that might get in your way of success and steps you can take to overcome them.
Practicing mindfulness is being present, focusing your attention, releasing distractions and pausing in the moment to align your response with your personal goals. Being mindful puts a focus on not being reactionary which can be compulsive and have negative affects your well-being and relationships, while helping you consider your available options and their outcomes so that you can make the best decision for your wellness.
Keeping track of your successes and setbacks will help you to learn more about where you are on your wellness path and where you want to be. Success breeds more success. Tracking your success in a journal or on a calendar will help you to grow in your confidence, making it easier to have more success. Setbacks may help you to see obstacles you didn’t know were there. When you acknowledge these setbacks you can create a plan to overcome them in the future. Maybe your setback was caused by a medical situation, loss or mental health situation that will require other changes in your wellness lifestyle. These may seem daunting, however you got here by overcoming and you will only get stronger as you learn to be flexible, forgiving and creative with yourself as you walk your path towards wellness.
Speak to your doctor before you begin any big wellness changes. Your doctor will be able to advise you of any medical conditions that need to be acknowledged, any movements that will exasperate any chronic illnesses or injuries and if certain exercise or nutrition is not helpful to your body.
Get a life coach or personal trainer to help you stay on your wellness path is a great way to see growth in yourself. Your wellness facilitator will know how to encourage your success and lift you up when you fall. They might suggest appointments with your primary medical provider or therapists and other specialists and financial/occupational advisors to help you reach your goals. They will work with you on your diet and fitness goals and challenge you to make new goals as you reach the goals you have already reached.
Fitness Assessments are a great way to measure where you are, where you want to be and acknowledge any issues that might become obstacles. At Wellness Works NW we offer fitness assessments, utilizing MicroFit Fitness Assessment System. This software based tool is FDA approved and can help to measure your body weight, body fat, blood pressure, heart rate, trunk flexibility and arm strength. With this tool we are able to give you a print out that you can share with your medical team as well as see how you are progressing on your wellness goals.
Diet plans are a great tool for people who are new to eating well. You might be surprised how many people do not know how to choose foods that are more nutritious and helpful towards reaching your nutrition goals. At Wellness Works NW we offer personalized diet plans, utilizing DietMaster Pro software. This software lets us create personalized menus based on your personal needs, known food allergies and other information that will be helpful in reaching your wellness goals.
At Wellness Works NW we want you to be the best, you, you can be. If you are needing someone to cheer you on, help you create a comprehensive wellness plan or just want prayer, please Contact Us today and someone from Our Team will be ready to help you.
I hope this article answered questions you had and was easy to understand. If you would like us to write about a particular topic that you can’t find on this site, please send us an email on our Dear Jamie page and someone from Our Team will be glad to research and write about your topic.
Resources and Start Learning More:
- Benefits, challenges of building your own wellness plan by Hilary H. McClafferty, M.D., FAAP for AAP News
- How To Address the 7 Dimensions of Wellness in the Workplace by Cecilia Amador de San José for All Work
- How to Create a Wellness Plan Co-authored by Jake Behrens, MD for wikiHow
- Tips to Create Your Personal Wellness Plan by William Kirkpatrick for Total Access Medical, LLC
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I hope this article helps Fuel Your Wellness. Please leave your comments below.
Summer D Clemenson is a co-owner Clemenson Enterprises, LLC and Wellness Works NW. Summer her wife, Karen G Clemenson’s personal motto is Creativity, Honesty & Positivity are a must! This mantra helps them stay community and wellness minded in all they do. Summer is an Independent Wellness Advocate at dōTERRA. Summer also writes poetry and inspirational blogs @ ClemensonEnterprises.com. Her crochet art can be viewed and purchased @ KnottyWares.com & she loves special orders!
