Wellness, simply defined, is the quality of life. Wellness is not a privilege of a select chosen few, but the right of everyone. It includes dimensions of physical, social, emotional, intellectual, spiritual, and even occupational well-being.

Wellness is a way of living life more fully: enjoying not only physical health, but also finding a sense of meaning in work, family, and community. Wellness is a behavioral style that allows you to feel good more often—without harming yourself or others.

Health, in this sense, is the striving toward high-level wellness. High-level wellness requires examining our physical activities, personal relationships, nutrition, occupations, spiritual beliefs, and our mental and emotional outlooks; it is taking a holistic perspective at every aspect of our lives, not just looking at, and working with, one area.

John W. Travis and Regina Sara Ryan, in their “Wellness Workbook,” state that high-level wellness involves giving good care to your physical self, using your mind constructively, expressing your emotions effectively, being creative with the many and varied people in your life, and being concerned about your physical, psychological, and spiritual environments.

In essence, wellness means reaching your full potential as a person. Wellness is an all-encompassing term that refers to optimal states of emotional, physical, and mental well-being. You are striving for oneness of your mind and body. Wellness is a more lifestyle defining concept.

And it is in that last sentence I want to make this point: Wellness is a self-defined concept; each of us will have a different idea of what wellness means and how it shows up in our lives. We are each responsible for our own physical, emotional, intellectual, spiritual, social, and environmental wellness.

As we begin this new year, one of the things I wanted to do was to use my Wellness Psychology educational background in a bigger way than I have in the past. As I silently pondered this desire, I received an intuitive prompt that led to a wonderfully divine insight.

That insight sparked the creation of my Thirty-Three Six Wellness.

In the coming weeks and months, I will be presenting information for your consideration in the areas of wellness that I have personal experience: headaches and migraines, job and career burnout, spiritual malaise, Bell’s Palsy, and stress management.

As a mind-body-spirit energy medicine practitioner, I will be using my coaching and consulting tools of Tarot, dreams, and Reiki to empower you to create and live your personal wellness plan.  

I began this post by defining what wellness is. In future posts, I will be sharing more definitions of what wellness is.

Until that time, I will leave you with this thought: Wellness is a choice—your choice—the decision you make to move toward optimal health. It’s the decision you make to travel the one path to wellness—your path.

What will you choose?

Your partner in creating positive well-being,