In wellness there are four pillars, or four practices that are necessities of maintaining wellness.
The First Pillar of Wellness: Movement
Movement is anything that changes the location or position of the body. A walk around the block counts just as much as a triathlon. This is key to wellness because it helps improve your physical health, which in the long run will also aid in improving overall wellness.
The Second Pillar of Wellness: Healthy Eating
The second pillar of wellness is to eat well. Healthy eating is selecting a variety of food that help you maintain health and give you energy. For example choosing white meat instead of dark, whole wheat bread instead of white, and brown rice instead of white rice. This also helps improve your physical health, and eating certain foods may help with any underlying digestive issues as well.
The Third Pillar of Wellness: Sleep
The third pillar to wellness is recovery and rest time. Sure, we all sleep, but your body needs more than just roughly 8 hours a day of rest to be working its best. I believe it is best to give yourself around 30 to 45 minutes a day to just relax, along with a good night’s sleep. This helps your body recharge as well as gives your brain a break from working on various tasks.
The Fourth Pillar of Wellness: Emotional Stability
The fourth pillar of wellness is making sure your emotional stability is in check. Without emotional stability, you could have outbursts of any emotion at anytime, and possibly end up saying something that you don’t really mean and hurting someone you care about. A few ways to stay emotionally well are to try to be an optimist, practice mindfulness, and to find your purpose. Staying emotionally stable will allow you to be able to control the way you feel in stressful situations and circumstances.
All four of these pillars are essential to wellness. Now, you don’t have to jump into all four at once, just start out with working on one of the pillars and the rest will come with time. And if you slip up and screw up one day you can always try again tomorrow.
Maintaining overall wellness is important for those effected by NF, learn more about how to stay well at work with a happy workplace.