HF Elements: ONSELF

*ONESELF* 

“Be the Change you Wish to see in The World”

- M. Gandhi

Personal Growth - Character Development – Healthy and Sustainable Living.

   Wellness and Life Choices   

Wellness should be viewed from a holistic perspective emphasizing te intimate relationship between our body and all the other aspects of ourselves -psychological, social, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual.

Wellness is an active process consisting of conscious choices we make in fashioning a healthy lifestyle. It stresses positive health rather than merely the absence of disabling symptoms.

Donatelle, Snow-Harter, and Wilcox (1995) state that if you are living a wellness lifestyle you are moving toward more deliberate, conscious actions to craate the best self possible within the limitations of your situation. Three aspects characterize this wellness lifestyle:

1- Assume responsibility for your actions and the quality of your health.

2- Have a concern for others and be tolerant of imperfection in others (this connects with the second element: OTHERS)

3- Be willing to devote time and energy to developing a sound basis for making good decisions about health.

Benefits for adopting a wellness lifestyle:

- Improved cardiovascular efficiency.

- Increased muscular tone, strength, flexibility, and endurance.

- Reduced risk for injuries.

- Improved sense of self-control, self-efficacy, and self-esteem.

- improved management and control of stress.

- Improved outlook on life.

- Improved Interpersonal relationships.

- Decreased mortality (death) and morbidity (illness) from infections and chronic deseases.

The essence of wellness is captured in these brief statements:

- Wellness is a choice - a decision you make to move toward optimal health.

- Wellness is a way of life - a lifestyle you design to achieve your highest potential for well -being.

- Wellness is a process - a developing awareness that there is no end point but that health and happiness are possible in each moment, here and now.

- Wellness is an efficient channeling of energy - energy received from the environment, transformed within you, and sent on to impact the world outside.

- Wellness is the integration of body, mind, and spirit - the appreciation that everything you do and think and feel and believe has an impact on your state of health.

- Wellness is the loving acceptance of yourself.

~ I Never Knew I Had a Choice: Explorations in Personal Growth by Gerald and Marianne Corey