3 Wellness Wednesday Tips

Health is a state of body. Wellness is a state of being.

~ J. Stanford

Do A Life Audit

I thought a good place to start would be to actually explain what a Holistic Counsellor is. A Holistic Counsellor considers the whole person. We help to bring balance to all areas of your life not just part of it.

The World Health Organisation even states that ‘Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing not merely the absence of disease’.

So the aim of life is not to just feel healthy but feel whole and in order for you to feel whole you need to focus on 3 key areas – your mind, your body and your soul.

A common misperception is that if you eat healthy and exercise every day then that equals healthy. This is not the case. Both of those are essential to your overall health and wellbeing but that only takes care of one aspect. Your mind needs to be healthy, your body needs to be healthy and your soul needs to be healthy.

So today’s wellness tip is do a Life Audit. Ask yourself which part of your being, your mind, body or soul needs a little TLC and start with that. Don’t fall into the trap of only solely focusing on one area; you need to be doing something for each area every day. Every day you need to ask yourself three key questions:

What am I doing for my mind?

What am I doing for my body?

What am I doing for my soul?

Screw It Just Do It

As I speak more about what I do, I am finding many people don’t have a clear understanding of what Holistic Counselling means. Holistic means whole. I look at where you have been, where you are now and where you want to be. I assist you in bringing balance to your whole life not just one area. The key word there is YOU – you already have everything you need to go out and kick some serious life butt, I just help to reconnect and empower you to go out and achieve all that you want to achieve.

Today’s wellness tip focuses on the mind and it comes from my pal Sir Richard Branson. His catchphrase is ‘Screw It Just Do It!’ Coming from a man who has a vision and just makes it happen – despite the millions of people that think he is nuts and takes too many risks. He is the epitome of taking life by the balls and living it!

Today I want you to channel your inner Richard Branson and if you have a vision that makes you want to jump out of bed in the morning I want you to stop listening to the stories in your head and stop listening to the people who tell you you can’t and ‘Just Do It’.

This goes for anything you want to achieve big or small. If you have a burning desire to jump out of a plane, take the leap (with a parachute!) If you have always wanted to learn pole dancing, find the right pole and go for it. If you want to start your own business, begin by talking to the right people who can help. If you want to go in search of Bigfoot, then get in line because I intend on finding him or her first!

The point I am trying to make is that regardless of how realistic or unrealistic your dreams are – Just do it! There are always going to be people who tell you you can’t – these are the people I affectionately refer to as crappers, because they crap all over your dreams. People do it to me all the time! But guess what? You NEED those people in your life. They are the people that fuel that fire in your belly, they are the ones that motivate you and make you say ‘Just watch me’!

Don’t look at them as a threat, understand why they do it. There is a possibility that you are a reminder to them that they are not out chasing their own dreams.

For those of you who know what you want to do but lack the confidence and direction then talk to me, I can help with that. Learn what it means to Screw It Just Do It!

Be Unapologetically You

Today’s wellness tip is about the soul and it is Be Unapologetically You!

Many of us spend a great deal of our lives trying to fit in. You need to stop trying to fit in and aim to belong.

Brene Brown explains this wonderfully when she says:

‘Fitting in, is twisting yourself into a human pretzel in order to get people to let you hang out with them. Belonging is something else entirely—it’s showing up and letting yourself be seen and known as you really are.’

Fitting in requires you to change, belonging requires you to be. If you start changing who you are, what you wear, your beliefs and values, the car you drive, where you live, just for the sake of fitting in, you are no longer you, you are someone else. Do those things if it is staying true to who you are not if it’s staying true to who someone else thinks you should be.

Being unapologetically who you are calms the mind, disengages the stress response, activates the relaxation response and heals the body. Being authentic to who you are in work and life can be medicine for the body.

Today I want you to write down on a piece of paper one thing you unapologetically love about yourself that you will not compromise on. I want you to stick it up somewhere you will see it as soon as you wake up in the morning. 

I was reminded recently of the importance of belonging. I belong to an exquisite group of ladies who allow me to show up on my worst day, to cry, to wear my pyjamas on a zoom call with a glass of wine, who never let me quit and who allow me to use my voice, which is the one thing I unapologetically love about myself.  One thing I know for sure is if you compromise who you really are and how you feel just to fit in it will only bring unhappiness. Go out and find the people who love and respect you, just as you are, no questions asked.

Don’t ever let anyone silence you in order to fit in.

As Oscar Wilde says ‘Be You. Everyone else is taken!’