Each one important as the others and all of them interdependent on each other.
None of them need to be perfect but they all need to work on every day and there are always little things you can do to improve. I shortly described each of the pillars below.
Which pillar do you feel need some of your attention and love?
Think, make a plan and take action. Don’t have to be a big change, small change at a time.
Example: my sleep last night wasn’t great so I’m going to prioritize that today.
Plan: avoid screen for 2 hours before bed and fill that time with reading and a 10 min meditation.
There’s a lot we can’t control right now but there’s even more that we CAN control.
The food we eat, the media inputs we take in, the movement we get in during the day, the people we surround ourselves, the conversation we have, the positivity we emanate.
Sleep
The first pillar of wellness may surprise you: get enough sleep. The amount of sleep you get has a big impact on weight loss, how your immune system functions and whether you feel happy or anxious. Experts recommend at least eight hours of quality sleep every night.
Sleep can be influenced by many things including buzzy thoughts, stress, hormone imbalance or poor digestion.
Nutrition
Nutrients provide nourishment. Proteins, carbohydrates, fat, vitamins, minerals, and water are all nutrients. If you do not have the right balance of nutrients in your diet, the risk of developing certain health conditions increases.
When you eat properly and your body processes nutrients correctly, your body weight evens out, you see improvements in the quality of your hair, skin, and nails, your mood improves, and you sleep better.
Exercises
The common saying “Sitting is the new smoking” is supported be research that being sedentary increases inflammation in our bodies.
The benefits of exercise may sound too good to be true, but decades of solid science confirm that exercise improves health and can extend your life. Adding as little as half an hour of moderately intense physical activity to your day can help you avoid a host of serious illness, including heart disease, diabetes and depression.
Regular exercise can also help you sleep better, reduce stress, control your weight, brighten your mood and sharpen your mental functioning.
Endorphins, dopamine and serotonin - this are the hormones you can thank for that happy feeling after exercising.
Choose movement you enjoy and schedule regularly into your daily life like cleaning your teeth.
Mind / emotions
While we often think about mind and body as two different things, they are actually very closely linked. Your physical health can affect your emotions, and your emotions can affect your physical health. Whether it’s with sweaty palms, or an outburst of laughter around exam time our bodies respond to our emotional health in many ways. Your thoughts and emotions can positively or negatively affect your nervous, endocrine, and immune systems. Emotions like anger, fear, anxiety, sadness, depression, and stress can manifest with body imbalance and disease. For example: insomnia, high blood pressure, infection, digestive disorders, cardiovascular disease or even cancer.
Because coronavirus (COVID-19) is impacting all our lives and the fear around this pandemic definitely has impact on us, so take care of your mental wellbeing as well.
Community / Relationship
Relationships are the cause of both joy and heartache.
The most important relationship is with ourselves – ensuring we eat nourishing food, make time to relax, exercise and nurture ourselves and set healthy boundaries with others.
Humans are social creatures with emotional needs for relationships and positive connections to others. We’re not meant to survive, let alone thrive in isolation.
We need the company of others to feel and function at our best. Phone calls and social networks have their place, but nothing can beat the stress-busting, mood-boosting power of quality face-to-face time with other people.
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