Content

• To step
• Part 1 of 3: Assessing your wellness levels
• Part 2 of 3: Create wellness goals
• Part 3 of 3: Create and follow a wellness plan
• Tips

A wellness plan is an action plan designed to achieve personal wellness. Personal well-being implies a state of multidimensional health and satisfaction. There are many dimensions in personal well-being, and each must be cared for, developed and maintained for optimal overall well-being. A wellness plan must take into account all of these different dimensions of wellness: physical, mental, spiritual, emotional, intellectual, social, occupational, financial and the environment.

To step

Part 1 of 3: Assessing your wellness levels

1. Assess your current physical well-being. Physical wellness includes nutrition and physical fitness. Physical well-being also includes your medical well-being. Good medical well-being includes health-promoting medical procedures such as regular medical check-ups and the use of preventive health care. It also includes avoiding smoking, excessive alcohol and drug use. Helpful questions to think about when assessing your physical well-being include:
   • What are your physical goals? Are you interested in finding a personal trainer, or is there a coach you want to consult?
   • Are you looking for total fitness, or do you want to build your base, your cardiovascular health, upper body strength, etc.?
   • Are you looking for muscle tone, or are you more interested in increasing resistance and endurance?
2. Assess your level of nutritional well-being. Nutritional wellness has to do with how well nourished and supported your body is.
   • Think about your current diet and how well it supports your health. Note if there are any areas for improvement.
3. Assess your level of mental well-being. Mental well-being is a measure of how you handle difficult situations and how well you balance your emotions.
   • Consider your current mental well-being. What emotions do you deal with most? How well do you deal with those emotions? What changes or improvements would you like to see in your mental state?
4. Assess your level of spiritual well-being. Spiritual well-being is not about religion or personal belief, but about how you experience the meaning of life and your place in it.
   • Spiritual well-being means that you are able to find meaning, hope, comfort, and inner peace in your life, whether through your work, nature, art, music, family, or volunteer work.
   • Think about your current level of spiritual well-being: how fulfilled do you feel in your life? Are you missing meaning or efficacy?
5. Assess your level of emotional and relational well-being. Emotional and relational well-being refers to how much you are aware, accept, and able to deal with your feelings and the feelings of those around you. It gives you a feeling of resilience and support when your well-being in terms of health, emotions and relationships is good. In contrast, a lack of emotional well-being can drain your energy and happiness.
   • Consider your current relationships, stress level, confidence and life outlook. Are there areas where you would like to improve?
   • Are you happy? Are you feeling down by your relationships or emotions?
6. Assess your degree of intellectual well-being. This refers to the amount of information and knowledge you receive, and the amount of creative, critical, and analytical thoughts you generate. Learning, problem solving and mental productivity are important aspects of intellectual well-being.
   • Think about your degree of intellectual well-being. Are you intellectually stimulated by your life, or are you bored?
   • Do you have enough creative outlets?
   • How often do you use critical and analytical thinking?
7. Assess your degree of social well-being. Social well-being has to do with how you see your place in the world and in the community and how well you adapt to your role in the community.
   • Think about your level of social well-being. Do you feel safe and secure in your social roles.
   • Are you able to easily take on new and different social roles?
8. Assess your level of professional well-being. This aspect of personal well-being emphasizes the importance of having a positive attitude towards work, as well as having a fulfilling and enriching career path.
   • Think about your level of professional well-being. Do you feel involved in your work and your career?
   • Do you feel appreciated for your work?
   • Do you feel enriched by the work you do?
   • Are you satisfied with your career path?
9. Assess your level of financial well-being. Financial well-being refers to your sense of financial stability and health.
   • Think about your level of financial well-being. Are you living within the limits of your means?
   • Are you financially insured for the future?
   • Do you have and are you sticking to a budget?
10. Assess your degree of environmental well-being. This aspect of well-being is related to your degree of environmental awareness. Your well-being is intertwined with the well-being of the environment around you.
    • Think about your degree of environmental wellbeing. Do you get enough fresh air, fresh water and sunshine?
    • Do you take the time to enjoy your surroundings?
    • Do you take measures to save energy and consume consciously?

Part 2 of 3: Create wellness goals

1. Make physical wellness goals. After you have assessed each dimension of your personal well-being, it is time to start setting goals. Initially, keep your goals simple and attainable. You don't want to get frustrated with difficult goals right from the start.
   • It's a good idea to go to a nearby gym and inquire about physical evaluations. If you are overweight or have a history of medical problems, talk to your doctor before embarking on any physical wellness plan.
   • Start walking more often. Park your car a bit further away from an entrance and walk more. Take the stairs instead of the elevator or the escalator. Walk around the block or take your dog on a nice walk.
   • Talk to your doctor if you are overweight or have a clear medical history of heart disease, respiratory disease, arthritis, or other serious medical conditions. Your doctor can help you set safe, reasonable goals.
   • Make sure the physical activity you choose is something you enjoy doing and not something someone else has tempted you to do. If you enjoy the activity, you are much more likely to stick with it.
   • Build up the calm to more activity. If you've spent the past five years doing little to moderate physical activity, you probably aren't ready for a triathlon. Start slow and calm, increasing your activity level when you are ready.
   • Be patient and try a low-impact activity like yoga, tai chi, or qigong first. These ancient physical (and spiritual) practices can improve health, reduce stress, reduce pain, and improve strength and balance.
2. Make nutritional wellness goals. With all those conflicting diets and advice, how do you know the best diet? Try to start with a few relatively simple rules:
   • Consider talking to a nutritionist who can help you determine the ideal diet for you and your body.
   • Eat foods that are as close to their natural form as possible. Try to limit processed and prepared foods and instead cook from scratch. Use a Crockpot or stick to basic foods like rice, beans and vegetables if you're short on time. You can also consider prepping meals for the week and keeping it in the freezer until you're ready to eat it.
   • Limit your consumption of red meat (choose grass-fed if possible). Increase the amount of fish (game rather than farmed) and skinless poultry you eat.
   • Increase the amount of fruits and vegetables you eat every day. Your vegetable intake should be higher than your fruit intake, as fruit contains sugar.
   • Increase the amount of water you drink.
   • Be on the lookout for food sensitivity. If you suspect that you are sensitive to a particular food, remove it from your diet for at least two weeks. Foods that can cause sensitivity are gluten, dairy, milk / lactose, tree nuts, shellfish, eggs and soy.
   • Visit the Nutrition Center site for advice on nutrition for children, parents, men, women and seniors.
   • Give yourself 30 days with a new plan to form a habit and fully evaluate its effects.When you first make a change, your body can go through a transition / detox that is not always nice, but may be necessary for long-term changes. Committing yourself to the plan for its full duration can be a powerful but difficult step, so it can be helpful to surround yourself with a supportive and knowledgeable community.
3. Set mental wellness goals. Mental wellbeing takes work, but even if you have suffered from depression, anxiety disorders or some other mental illness, you can improve your mental wellbeing with the right actions. Try these approaches to reduce depression, anxiety, and stress:
   • Set aside time each day to relax quietly.
   • Take a walk when you feel upset.
   • Make time to do relaxing activities that you enjoy, such as reading, gardening, watching movies, etc.
   • Learn and use breathing techniques to take a deep breath. For example, breathe by expanding your stomach instead of your chest. This technique lowers your diaphragm - the flat muscle under your lungs - by expanding your abs. Take 100 deep breaths a day.
   • Practice positive affirmations. A few examples of positive affirmations are: "Yes I can", "I am successful", "I feel better every day" etc. You can write your affirmation on a post-it and paste it somewhere you can see it.
   • Seek the support of a therapist or support group.
   • Remember: If you are taking medication for a mental illness, never stop taking that medication or change the dose on your own. It can be very dangerous to do this and you should only do this under the guidance of your mental health professional.
4. Make goals for spiritual well-being. You can use many of the same mental well-being techniques for spiritual well-being. Some examples:
   • Learn and use breathing techniques to take a deep breath. For example, breathe by expanding your stomach instead of your chest. This technique lowers your diaphragm - the flat muscle under your lungs - by expanding your abs. Take 100 deep breaths a day.
   • Meditate for a short time a few days a week. As you become more comfortable, you can gradually increase the amount of meditation you practice.
   • Remind yourself to stay calm and “in the moment”.

Part 3 of 3: Create and follow a wellness plan

1. Identify areas that need improvement. Be honest with yourself about how satisfied you feel with every aspect of wellness. That way you can create a wellness plan that is tailored to your needs.
   • Rank 1-10 for each territory, with 1 being the lowest and 10 being the best.
   • This allows you to determine which area needs attention.
   • But remember, each area is connected to another, so if you focus all your attention on one area, ignoring the other areas, you will not benefit directly.
2. Make goals. Once you have determined which area or areas you think you should be working on, start setting your goals.
   • Write down specific goals you want to achieve in each area. Set achievable short-term goals that will move you towards ever-increasing long-term goals.
   • Make sure your long-term goals are also reasonable and doable. For example, if you are 25 years old, a reasonable long-term goal may be to be financially secure by the time you retire when you are 67. An unreasonable long-term goal would be to be a billionaire when you are 30.
   • Be patient with yourself. Personal evolution does not usually take place in one day, nor is it usually very easy. But it's doable, so don't be discouraged if changes don't happen immediately.
3. Track your progress. Create a chart or journal where you write down every aspect of your personal well-being and the goals for each.
   • Do personal assessments regularly: do you feel happier, more satisfied? Do you have more energy, more times when you laugh or have fun? Are your relationships happier?
   • Then keep a calendar dedicated to tracking your wellness progress. Mark important dates and checkpoints so you can see your progress. Start by determining your starting point of well-being for a particular aspect, writing it down, and checking it again after a month or two.
   • Seeing the positive effects of what you have already achieved can be the best motivational fuel.
4. Make updates to your wellness plan. As you develop more personal well-being, you may find that certain goals take more or less time than you thought. Or you may find that some goals are no longer within the limits of what you want to achieve. So make it a point to monitor your progress and reassess your need after every 6 months. That way you will keep your wellness plan in line with your personal growth and progress.
   • The progress of achieving personal well-being is dynamic. Your needs, your goals, your environment and your relationships can all change. And then you will want to decide how you want to change.
   • While your particular situation may change, keeping these goals in the foreground will allow you to have a greater degree of control over how these changes will affect you. For example, if you have set a goal of losing 5 pounds in six months, you can reevaluate that goal at the end of those six months. Are you satisfied with your current weight? Do you want to lose more weight? If you're happy with your weight, your new goal may be maintenance. If you want to lose more weight, maybe your new goal may be to lose another 5 pounds in the next six months.
5. Seek support. Having support from others can be crucial to maintaining your drive and motivation. Your supporters can hold you accountable, encourage you when needed, and maybe even participate in your efforts.
   • If necessary, get professional help and advice. For example, if you want to improve your diet and nutrients to achieve physical and mental well-being, you may want to ask a dietitian.
   • If you're looking for financial stability, talk to a financial advisor.
   • Join support groups that address the areas where you need encouragement.
   • Start a “buddy system” with a friend, partner or family member for various aspects of your wellness plan. For example, if you're working on financial well-being, involving your partner can be an important step closer to both relationship well-being and emotional well-being.

Tips

• Be kind, caring, and gentle with yourself. But always be honest about where you stand and where you are going.
• Reward yourself with something tangible from time to time. The reward can be anything you want as long as it is effective and does not backfire on your running goals.