What is a “positive well-being?”
First off, let’s explain what it means to have a positive well-being, then what it takes to maintain it. A positive well-being is where a person lives their lives with their well-being at the forefront of their priorities. They put into place the necessary actions to make healthy changes in their lives and they schedule moments of wellness in their daily routines. In return, the person feels healthy and refreshed every day, creating an effect of positive psychology, making you feel good about your life.
How do you maintain positive well-being?
Once a few wellness habits have been adopted, they key is to maintain them. Making mental health and well-being a part of your schedule at home is important and easy to do. Here are some examples of healthy habits that successful, productive and happy people often do in their daily lives, starting with the most obvious:
1. Keep active: Whether it’s going to the gym, practicing yoga, walking daily and/or stretching daily- movement is life! Movement brings life to the body by lubricating our joints, making our tissues more elastic and increases our breath cycle. This increases circulation of blood flow in the body, which allows for more oxygen to travel to the brain and thus the stimulation of endorphins occurs; leaving us with a feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment from using our bodies.
2. Eat well: When you’re hungry, remember- the body does not want calories, it wants nutrients! This means don’t reach for a processed snack or order a fast-food meal with little to no benefits for the body. Instead, adopt the healthy habit of preparing lots of fresh fruits and vegetables to snack on. The more colors = the more variety and nutrients you can get in your diet, which properly stimulates our organs to function well. When our insides feel well, it translates through the body making us feel good on the outside too.
3. Drink lots of water: Most people don’t drink enough water and suffer from the symptoms of dehydration such as poor mood, dizziness, constipation, fatigue, headaches and decreased focus. If you experience any of these symptoms daily, you need to monitor your fluid intake and increase the amount water your drink. Drinking more water is an easy, free and readily available solution to increase your vital signs and to decrease all of these symptoms.
4. Spend time with friends and family: Socializing keeps the brain active, engaged and healthy through the act of communication. Checking in on loved ones, taking time to catch up, talking about your goals and expressing your feelings with the people you trust, should be a part of a healthy lifestyle. Humans are very social creatures and reaching out creates companionship and ultimately a sense of love. This sense of love then becomes a vibrational state you can live in, therefore socializing creates a positive well-being.
5. Reduce alcohol consumption: Many of us associate socializing with drinking alcohol. Instead, try to adopt a healthy habit with a friend by seeing each other during a scheduled walk, bike ride or yoga class together. Having a partner to adopt a healthy routine with gives us motivation and accountability. We are then less inclined to drink a certain amount of alcohol, which leads to less damage on the body, including the dreaded hang-over.
6. Develop new skills and challenge yourself: Hobbies are a great way to maintain a positive well-being. Whether it is reading, writing, knitting, playing music or drawing; an artistic outlet is often done with passion and passion leads to challenges. Finish reading that book or listen to that entire album you’ve been putting off because spending time like this leads to happiness. Doing more of what makes you happy is also an important part of a healthy lifestyle.
Why is it important to look after your well-being?
If you don’t really practice any of the healthy habits above and you’re still asking yourself “why should I?”- then perhaps there is an underlying condition that needs to be addressed. Healthy habits are important to implement in our lives when trying to turn around certain conditions like anxiety or depression. They also need to be applied when a more serious medical condition is present, such as heart disease or diabetes, in order to prevent the condition from getting worse and ultimately reversing the symptoms. Chances are if you have any of these conditions, it means that you need to know where to start and what to start with. Therefore, I encourage you to choose from any or all the above options to get started.
What factors affect well-being?
Getting started on a healthy lifestyle routine can be easier said than done, many factors can hinder the process like when someone feels fatigue, lethargy or pain. However, getting through the pain and doing just one of these habits per day helps our bodies and our minds get better every day. Exercise, eating well and meditation can make us feel good about ourselves and gives us a sense of purpose. That sense of purpose is what makes us persevere and it is an important factor to have in order to improve our mental and physical health.
Factors that influence the quality of our well-being are factors that influence our happiness. Happiness comes from within, therefore it is up to us and what we bring to the table in order to enjoy the following:
An intimate relationship with a partner.
A handful of close friends.
Enjoyable and fulfilling work.
Enough money or security.
Regular exercise.
Nutritional diet.
Enough sleep.
Even when all these factors are being lived, enjoying them is a completely different story. For instance, being married and having a marriage are two different scenarios. You may be making enough money, but you must also be grateful in order to see your abundance. You may be exercising enough, but if you're looking at it as punishment, it will make it feel daunting; instead look at it as something your body can do, and you will enjoy it.
This creates the positive psychology and the positive self-talk that is needed in order to create, maintain and enjoy a healthy lifestyle and positive well-being. I encourage you to start small but start somewhere. Before you know it, you will have a healthy routine scheduled into your calendar that you will ultimately thrive in.