Have you ever thought about what well-being or wellness means to you? If you could envision yourself at your personal best and experience your life in a way that feels really good, what would that include or what would that look like?
I recently was asked this question, and it did make me stop and think. It’s funny because I focus on living and feeling my personal best to walk my talk in my business, but this takes it a step further. I realized it was more than about my health, fitness and self-care. It is also about what I want to experience from life. I want to be delighted in every moment. For me this means feeling my personal best, being fully present in the moment, receiving the best life has to offer with gratitude, giving my gifts to others in the world, and cherishing the time I have with friends, families, colleagues and my pets. These things are what I envision my well-being to be. What about you?
What really matters to you? What would your life be like and what would you focus on if you were really at your best and able to feel great in your body? Many people think that being thin is all that matters, but will that give you well-being and what your soul is seeking?
I have since asked a few others this question, and their answers are very different and specific to what their heart yearns for. One gal wanted to experience total bliss in mind, body and spirit and live a writer’s life. Another woman wanted a life of balance, nurturing and creativity. The guy I asked wanted to live on purpose and feel the reciprocity of love. They didn’t stop with these statements. They elaborated on what their statement meant to them or what they saw themselves doing in their lives when experiencing well-being and each elaboration was very different.
The image of wellness and well-being is different for all of us much like values are unique for each person. Once you know your values and vision of well-being, you can look at how you are living your life today to see if it is aligned with what is important to you or with the decisions you make about spending your time. You can also look at how you are taking care of yourself in order to live that life. Without your health, strength, endurance, energy and vitality, it is much tougher to live the life you want for yourself.
Most of us just try to get through our days and weeks with a focus on meeting our obligations without falling too far behind. Taking time to picture what our lives could be if we had well-being is the last thing many people think about.
Yet your obligations and choices might be very different if you had a well-being destination. Consider what being at your best and feeling energized would give you in your life and how your life would be different. What would you be able to do? What would you be able to experience? How would it affect your ability to go for your dreams?
Creating a vision of what you want in your life becomes something to aim for. It isn’t wishful thinking. You can decide which part of this picture is important enough to work towards now. Start by setting three and six months goals to reach milestones that will eventually get you there. You can even get started by setting specific weekly goals to reach these interim targets. Creating a vision of what you want in your life, milestone goals and weekly goals is the same process used by wellness, life, dream and career coaches to assist clients in moving towards a better life and being motivated to make lifestyle changes. You can do this for yourself.
This week paint a picture in your mind of yourself at your best and feeling wonderful. Really imagine this being true for you. Note what you are doing, what you feel like, and what gives you purpose, energy and contentment. Then consider which things you want to aim for this year and what steps you want to start taking in the weeks to come to have the life of your dreams.
Alice Greene is America's Healthy Lifestyle Coach, author and speaker. She is an expert on helping people succeed at maintaining weight loss, getting eating under control, and enjoying an active lifestyle for lifelong fitness.
Alice is author of Inspired to Feel Good: Making healthy and fit choices so rewarding and liberating you never want to stop. She wrote Feel Great in Your Body and the series of Feeling Great guides to getting fit, eating healthier, reducing stress and reducing blood sugars. She also co-wrote Wake Up Women: By Happy, Healthy & Wealthy and Living Free with Type 2 Diabetes. Alice is the former co-host of Living Your Personal Best talk radio show that featured healthy lifestyle success stories. Learn how to finally get fit, eat healthier and feel good as a way of life that is easy to maintain by choice instead of by obligation. Get 2 chapters of her latest book as well as her free e-book called Feel Your Personal Best: 9 Life Changing Secrets to Creating a Love for Fitness at www.feelyourpersonalbest.com.
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