Journey to Wellness

What does the word “wellness” mean to you?

There is a growing trend (for lack of a better word) in the healthcare world that is focused on “wellness care.”  There are wellness centers, wellness specialists, wellness programs, wellness drinks, teas...you name it. (Although I’m still searching for that bag of snacks labeled wellness chips!)  I suspect that if I asked several different people to define “wellness” for me, I would get several different answers.  So I’ll ask my question again: What does wellness mean to you?

For most, the term wellness has a positive meaning.  We’re not sure what it is, but we’re pretty sure it’s a good thing, right?  Something you want to have or a place you’re hoping to get to.  It’s the castle at the top of the Candyland board that means you made it through the molasses swamp and the lollipop woods and came out on top.  Now, plenty of us have made it to the top of the Candyland maze, but how many of us look in the mirror and see the perfect picture of wellness? Hmmm…

I find myself concerned that there are many people who view wellness as an unattainable goal.  A utopia where everyone is happy all the time, loves carrots, has a healthy BMI and is a perfect parent with perfect children who also love carrots. A place that, in my humble opinion, doesn’t exist. 

But this is often how we frame our goals, is it not?  We strive for an ideal (perfect grades, our body weight in high school, Olympic fitness levels) and then convince ourselves that we can achieve such goals.  Am I the only one who does this?Somehow I doubt it. 

The problem with setting these kinds of goals is that we are often setting ourselves up for failure.  Now I know that there are those of you out there who think I am being negative, and that if you say your goal is to give up pretzels for all of eternity, or get out of bed when your alarm goes off every single day this month, then I say good for you! Go for it! 

But if you should falter, will that mean failure for you?  If you get up five minutes late on the last day of the month, was it all for nothing?  I sure don’t think so, but I’m afraid that some people do, especially if it doesn’t take too long to slip on that path to their goals.  Goals, mind you, which are all made on some level in the name of “wellness.”

When I graduated from high school, my parents gave me a small frame that holds this quote: “It is good to have an end to journey toward, but it is the journey that matters in the end.”  I have found countless applications of these very wise words in my life.  Just the other day, I was sitting at my desk thinking about how I wanted to write a blog about wellness, but didn’t know where to start.  I looked at my quote in its frame, and one of those little cartoon light bulbs appeared over my head as I thought: “Maybe, if I want to help people along the path to wellness, I just have to show them that wellness is the path!”

How would that change our view of wellness and the way we set goals to improve our health?  I’ve seen similar themes on inspirational refrigerator magnets everywhere.  “Happiness is a journey, not a destination.” “The process determines the outcome.”  “The journey is the destination.”  (That last might have been someone’s tattoo, not a magnet.)

Let’s look back at our Candyland analogy for a moment.  Now, please correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t remember there being a Candyland card that sent you all the way back to the beginning of the path.  Sure you could get sent back a good ways by drawing one of those picture cards, but did any of them ever wipe you off the board completely?  I don’t think so. I think that once you started to play, even if you got sent all the way back to the peppermint forest, you were still in the game.  

Why not try to take that analogy and apply it to your own life and goals for your health and wellness.  Sure there is a destination to have in mind, but what if you measured your success as simply keeping yourself on that path worth a try, no?

As a physical therapist, I am always helping people work toward their goals.  They may be training for a race, hoping to walk (rather than limp) their daughters down the aisle, hold their new grandchild without pain in their shoulders, or simply get through their workday without being miserable from pain in their back.  Whatever their goals for therapy, I am helping them through obstacles on their path to wellness, and that is a pretty great job to have.

So finally, I’ll ask you my question again.  What does wellness mean to you?  If you were one of those people who viewed wellness as unreachable perfection, then I hope that reading my little story here has made you think that there is another way to view wellness, and that it is something that is easier to make part of your life than you thought.  

Check back with me in a week or two when I will talk about how walking, staying up all night, and raising money for charity can improve the wellness of an entire community.