Hi Everyone! This week's topic is on wellness. As you can see from the picture I chose for this week, wellness isn't just one thing. It encompasses emotional, physical, mental, financial health, etc. All of these things are important and we need to make sure all things are accounted for. I can imagine that with everything going on in the world that your lives are a little crazy. For me, grad school is always an interesting time. There's always work to be done so I do wellness checks pretty often now.
Now what do I mean by wellness check? I mean trying to have an UNBIASED check on how your mental, spiritual, physical, emotional wellbeing are. For me, I know if I'm not sleeping well then something is wrong. It's either I'm stressed about school or worried about my life in general so my emotions are all out of whack. If I'm physically exhausted for an extended amount of time, then I'm probablyyyy not eating healthy and to fix that, I do a detox and hit the gym extra hard for a few days until I'm back to normal.
Typically, your body has it's way of telling you when something is right and it's up to you to look for those signs. Everyone has a tell. Wellness checks are about being in tune with yourself in every way possible and finding ways to resolve those issues. That could mean meditating, coloring, reading, going to the spa, going to church, anything that centers you, mind, body, and spirit. One thing that I've learned is that I have to take control over the things I directly affect. I can control what I eat, how much I workout, how much sleep I get, things like that. Those are the little things I do that help me start my wellness checks. If you can control the little things, you don't have to worry about them and then you can focus on the bigger things that you're worried about.
For things like financial health, you can do things like budgeting (hint: read last week's posts). Intellectual health, study and keep up with the work you're doing - or even try learning something new. Growing is a continuous process. Remember, small changes can go a long way. Don't try to tackle everything at once, you'll burn yourself out. Life is not a sprint, it's a journey. Give yourself time to relax. It's okay to take a break sometimes.
Last thing! If you do a wellness check and realize that something is wrong where you need to talk to someone, please do. There is nothing wrong with therapy of any sort. If the whole laying on the couch thing isn't for you, find an unbiased party and vent to them. Use your family and friends too, they are always there to help you when things are wrong.
What ways do you do your own wellness check? Tweet me your responses.
-The Chemist
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