The Lowdown on Wellness Goals
What are wellness goals?
Wellness goals are exactly what they sound like, goals that are set to help you achieve better wellness. The great thing about wellness goals is that they can be tailored to your specific health and wellness desires. Whether you want to start eating healthier, or you want to start meditating more frequently, a wellness goal can be any goal that is set to help you achieve your wellness aspirations.
However, for those who have never set wellness goals for themselves before, it may be difficult to know where and how to even start your wellness journey. The best way to start is to think about the goals you have for your health and wellness. The following are just a few examples to help you start brainstorming:
Eat better
Reduce stress levels
Be more fit
Practice meditation and yoga
And while these are just a few, there are many other wellness goals you could possibly set for yourself. So once you have a wellness goal, or two, in mind the next thing to start thinking about is the positive results you hope to achieve, and your long term plan. Having a long term plan for the change you hope to make with your wellness goals is a combination of many things, and is the foundation for reaching your wellness goals.
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How to reach your wellness goals
You first need to understand the two core values when it comes to embarking on your wellness goals journey. And oddly enough, there’s actually a paradox behind these core values that needs to be unpacked even before you can understand them. This is so you can truly reach your goals, and not be confused if you do something, get results, and then feel like the results have just magically disappeared. Because we’ve all been there.
These two core values that are often times at conflict with each other are accomplishment and empowerment. And understanding that what you want to do when you embark on your wellness journey, is to find a sense of empowerment rather than a sense of accomplishment.
Accomplishment vs empowerment
Accomplishment is a feeling of consuming, like you consume something and now you’ve made it yours, it’s very outside in. Whereas empowerment is a grounded feeling energy, and it comes more from the feeling of anchoring from the inside. So you build skills and build architectures from the inside, and you get empowered. Whereas when you tweak your skills and strategies, and create your architecture from the outside, and you accomplish something that can sometimes lead to a sense of mistrust. And that sense of mistrust is that it’s going to be something that’s long lasting. Whereas when you feel empowered, you get this inner sense of trust that it will be sustainable.
You can find that inner sense of empowerment and confidence. And it’s real confidence that comes with that inner architecture being born from the inside. It’s not always easy, but finding that empowerment is the foundation to your long term wellness goals. Yet sometimes, no matter how hard you try or how empowered you might feel, you find that you’ve fallen of track of your wellness goals.
How to get back on track with your wellness goals
How many times have you committed to a wellness goal, hyped yourself up and created this larger than life expectation for yourself; only to be human and then feel bad about yourself? It’s happened to a lot of us many times. But there are two very important things to understand when it comes to getting back on track with your wellness goals, that will be sure to help you reframe your perspective.
Recognizing doesn’t have to be rationalizing
It’s important to remember that these are your goals, so any type of outcome you are working towards, should be something that came from inside of you. It should be something that you feel inspired to do, it’s not an outside thing. This is the first thing that you want to connect to, that the reason that you’re feeling like you want to do this is because this is something that you want to do from a deep place inside of you. And so this becomes a recognizing rather than a rationalizing.
So If you can really connect to that deeper place, that is aligned with your higher aspiration as to why you were doing something to begin with, your recognition of your not doing it will become a reason for you to now do it.
There is no track to get on, you create the track yourself
If the question is how do you get back on track, the answer is you don’t get back on track, you create the track with your actions and your habits. You do this by doing little things everyday, even if it’s just one thing everyday, that makes you feel good. And you feel good because these little things are in alignment with your higher aspirations. You savor how that makes you feel, and then you commit to feeling that way again tomorrow, using either that action or another action.
You commit to it and you do it, and it’s nothing that’s too big or takes too much of your energy or requires you to make too much a of commitment. It’s just something that’s aligned and is in service of your higher goal, and you commit to doing it the next day at a certain time, even if it’s just for a minute. This could be journaling or meditating or yoga or drinking more water, it’s just something you want to do more of, that you feel inspired to do. That is the track you create.
So when you feel that you’ve fallen off, you can look back and see that you never actually did fall off. You just need to recognize that you’re on the track again, by remembering to feel good, and not rationalizing why you should continue to feel bad.
Lifestyles that would benefit from wellness goals
While anyone can benefit from setting wellness goals, there are certain lifestyles that would far greatly benefit from it. Once you recognize that you fall within one of these lifestyles, you can begin your experience and be one step closer to a healthy lifestyle. However if you don’t relate with one of these lifestyles, you might find that you could still benefit from setting a few wellness goals for yourself.
Mindless eaters
Those who mindlessly eat often don’t even realize how much, or that they are eating to begin with, would benefit from setting wellness goals. This usually happens at a place of distraction like in front of a computer screen or while watching TV. They typically eat by shoveling their food down regardless of whether they’re still hungry or not. Mindless eaters often eat for reasons other than hunger, like satisfying emotional needs, relieving stress, or coping with emotions such as sadness, anxiety, loneliness, or boredom.
what can be done?
If you find that you are a mindless eater, try setting a wellness goal in relation to however you find you mindlessly eat. So if you find that you typically mindlessly eat when you sit on the couch and watch TV, set a wellness goal that still allows you to watch that hour of TV when you get home from work, but watch it while you walk on the treadmill.
Easily stressed
Those who find themselves more easily susceptible to stress, whether it’s because they’re in a stressful environment or they are stressed in general, would benefit from setting wellness goals. This stressful environment could either be work related or due to the people they surround themselves with. Those who are more easily stressed may even be more likely to experience other health and wellness problems like IBS or anxiety.
What can be done?
If you find that you are more easily stressed, either about little or big things, try setting a wellness goal that will help you to reduce your stress levels. The stress in our bodies is controlled by the hormone cortisol, and there are many different ways to help get your body more of it. A good wellness goal to set is to incorporate more of these cortisol rich foods in your daily diet.
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Whether you are setting wellness goals for yourself for the first time, or revamping old wellness goals, it’s important to remember that you are human. Whether you’re struggling with feeling empowered, or you feel as though you’ve fallen off your wellness track, remember that you started this wellness goal for a reason. You are empowered, and you will get back on track, because you never truly fell off.
Extra tips for wellness goals
Write it down. Only schedule wellness activities you have planned to help you reach your wellness goals one day in advance every night before bed. This gives you motivation that stays fresh and in alignment with your desires.
Start small. Don’t go all out in the beginning because you’re more likely to burn yourself out that way. If your end wellness goal is to run a 5k, start by walking everyday for 30 to 45 minutes, and slowly build up.
Sleep. Without proper rest, your body can’t function properly and won’t have the energy to help you achieve your wellness goals. Make sure you’re getting at least 8 hours of sleep at night.
