If you are wondering how is wellness achieved you are not alone. A notice from your health insurance company notifying that your rates are going up is not the only trigger to starting the thought process about wellness.

Wellness and good health go hand in hand. When people talk about wellness that are talking about a complete package of feeling well to include physical health and mental health. Of course, getting to that state of wellness that will keep insurance rates down and help you to really enjoy life starts with finding the answer to how is wellness achieved.

What is “Wellness”?

Wellness is a term that gets thrown around a lot but is very rarely defined. Good health and wellness is similar but not the same. You could be in good health and just not feel well. Total wellness is when you are in good health and you feel well.

Feeling well can be described as feeling content. Typically you will hear the term wellness a lot when you seek out alternative healthcare services. Wellness is when your body, mind, and spirit are all in alignment and everything is “well”. In other words, you simply have no complaints.

How is wellness achieved? There is no absolute recipe to achieve wellness. Each individual has a different path to achieve wellness. For example, for one person reaching a level of wellness can be as simple as learning how to relax more. They can achieve wellness by visiting with a massage therapist regularly and learning how to regulate their stress levels.

For other people the path to wellness may take them on a weight loss journey and may include working with a doctor to get their high blood pressure under control. The fact is everyone has something to work on to get them to a place of wellness. How is wellness achieved for you depends on your specific needs.

There are some general things that everyone can do to move them closer to a state of wellness. For example, eating better, exercising more, and learning how to control stress.

If Wellness Is the Goal, Stress Is The Major Obstacle

Most experts will agree when you are asking how is wellness achieved, the first answer will be to get stress under control. Stress can lead to a wide range of health issues, contributes to a wide range of health issues, and ultimately is the biggest upset to wellness.

While we cannot live without stress (it is what gets us out of bed in the morning) we certainly can live without duress (the stuff that causes headaches, weight gain, and health issues). There are two types of stress that every living creature has to contend with. Eustress and duress. Eustress is good stress. It is a motivator that keeps us moving toward our goals. Duress can be paralyzing. It is the stress that makes us over worry, overeat, over drink, and generally causes disruptions in our life.

One of the key answers to how is wellness achieved is to learn how to respond to stressful situations. Response to stress is a learned response. That means that if you grew up in a household where there was a lot of yelling and screaming over stressful situations you learned that is how you should respond to stress. Unfortunately, your body has learned to respond to stress by elevating your blood pressure, releasing stress hormones, and generally causing havoc on your health.

There are plenty of reasons to relearn what you know about responding to stressful situations. For example, if you learn how to respond to stress in a positive manner, you can improve your health. You can also start saving money on your life insurance, get better rates on health insurance, and reduce medical bills. There is a snowball effect on how you manage stress. It can be a positive snowball or a negative snowball, you get to decide.

How can you reduce stress? Here are some time-honored ways that you can learn how to better respond to stressful situations:

• Meditation can work wonders. Learning to meditate can really help you keep stressful thoughts in check. Fans of meditation swear that meditation answers the question about how is wellness achieved. You do not have to spend a lot of time meditating. As little as 10 minutes a day can make a difference.
• Exercise. Yes, it gets old, that every list seems to contain exercise as an answer but many facets of how is wellness achieved are answered with exercise including reducing stress. It does not have to be a trip to the gym. It can be swimming in your above ground pool for 30 minutes or taking a walk at a quick pace for 30 minutes. Get up and move and you will start feeling better.
• Do something you love to do. Give yourself a reward for keeping your cool and do something you love. The reward system really works in keeping you motivated and on track whether it is trying to manage stress better or losing weight.

If you have children you want them to learn good habits so that they are not on how is wellness achieved journey as adults. Sadly, only one out of three kids gets is physically active every day. Exercising with your kids can help to set them on the path to a life of wellness.

An occasional glass of red wine can also help to keep stress away. Of course, you do not want to overdo it, but there are well-documented studies that suggest that red wine has some health benefits. It can also help to soothe and calm.

Here is how impactful stress can be on your life. In the early 19 hundreds, the number one killer of people was infectious disease. Today the number one killer of people is a lifestyle. More people than ever have heart attacks, strokes, and cancers, all of which have been linked to stress in one form or another.

Your health depends heavily on moderating the stress that is coming into your life and how you are dealing with it. Once you have your stress under control there are other steps that you should take to achieve that coveted feeling of overall wellness.

Eat Better

Nutrition is vital to wellness. How is wellness achieved? By fueling your body with the nutrients it needs to be at optimal performance. Keeping the costs down when it comes to your personal insurance can be achieved by being fit.

How is wellness achieved through nutrition? By:

• Limiting processed foods. Fast food, canned food, and other types of prepared food typically have chemicals, lots of sodium, and other additives that are not good for your body. Eat more fresh foods.
• Balance everything. Everything is better in moderation. You do not have to deny yourself that piece of chocolate cake that you want so bad, you just have to balance it with a nice evening stroll afterward. Moderation and balance is the key to how is wellness achieved.
• Try new things. Our taste buds change throughout our lifetime. Maybe you were not a big fan of Brussels Sprouts as a kid, but you may find them very tasty now. Keep trying and retrying good for you foods. Variety is the spice of life especially when it comes to food.

A lot of people make the mistake of eliminating foods that they love. If you are trying to achieve wellness, eliminating foods that you love probably makes you feel a little cheated, maybe even angry. Instead of totally eliminating foods that you love that may not be nutrient-dense, try balancing how you consume them.

For example, your local winery is a great place for brunch. You love everything about visiting but especially love the very rich cheesecake. Have the cheesecake, enjoy it, but don’t have it every day. Walk off the extra calories or spend a few minutes extra at the gym. You get the idea. Remember one of the key rules of how is wellness achieved is to remember that wellness is about body, mind, and spirit wellness. That means feeling satisfied and not cheated.

This may sound strange but about 72% of the homeowners that renovated their kitchen with new kitchen cabinets and appliances report that they felt like they were eating healthier. If you think about it, it does make sense. If you want to eat better there is no better way to do that than to cook your own meals. If a kitchen upgrade makes that simpler, then it is a good idea.

It can be tough to pass up the convenience of prepared packaged foods and fast food. Instead of having to put more stress on yourself about what you are eating, you can do a little meal prepping on the weekends and create your own healthier versions of convenience meals.

Knowing what you are eating over the next week because it is already cooked and ready is a great way to reduce stress, and make sure you are making smarter food choices. Wellness is all about balance. Making time to ensure that you and your family have good food options by dedicating a few hours on the weekend to meal prep is a great way to balance your diet out.

Water Is Everything

Drinking red wine on occasion or having a glass or two with dinner is fine, however, making water your main go-to drink is excellent. Our bodies need lots of water to ensure that every organ is working at its top level of performance.

Many people are walking around dehydrated and never realize it. Feeling tired all the time? Try ramping up your intake of water. When you are properly hydrated you enjoy:

• Increased energy levels.
• A healthier urinary tract. Better digestion, muscles work more efficiently, your heart does not have to work as hard when you are well hydrated. Your immune system is more efficient. Every organ works better with less stress when you are well hydrated.
• Your skin, hair, and nails look healthier.

The fact is whatever you do to your insides will show on the outside. Drinking enough water every day can help you to find that sweet spot of good health and overall wellness. Many times people overeat when they are actually craving more hydration. The signals get mixed and misinterpreted between hunger and thirst.

If you want to cut some calories out of your diet, try drinking a full glass of water before you start your meal. In the mornings if you want to jump-start your system drink a large glass of water with lemon.

Be Kind To Yourself

For many people there is no bigger critic than themselves. The simple act of changing how you use self-speak (yes we all really do have an inner voice that can be really loud) can help to improve not only how you feel but what you can achieve.

What you believe about your life will dictate how you live your life. What you believe about your ability to live a life of wellness will translate into how you live your life. You have to be kind to yourself. Think about the things that you say to yourself in your head. Do you say things like:

• I am so fat, I can never lose this weight.
• I am too lazy to exercise.
• I am too stupid.

Everyone has bad days where their self-speak is simply badgering them to death, but learning how to push that negative voice down and let the positive voice take over is vital. How is wellness achieved through positive thoughts? Don’t say anything in your head that you would not say to a friend. If what you are thinking about yourself is too ugly to say to a friend then do not say it about yourself.

Here are Some Final Tips

If you are struggling with how is wellness achieved and applying it to your own life, get help. Reach out to your primary care provider and learn more about what it will take for you to get to a point of wellness. Tell a trusted friend or family member about the journey you are on and ask them to support it.

You can make the changes that you need to and enjoy overall wellness.