Wellness Journeying: How to Start

Well, well, well. Where to start?

We’re starting our journey towards wellness with understanding, interpretation, and stress management. “One piece of the pie at a time,” said the mother to her child (whilst the grandmother dishes up half the pie…). Upon receiving a PIECE of pie, we can’t help but approach it as a challenge with eyes wide-open, heart-racing, and a firm grip on the fork. Surely, if we approached all of life’s challenges with this approach we would be as successful in every endeavour? Experience of tummy-trauma teaches us differently. Let us unravel the complex, cake-eating world we live in.

We are complex creatures. Period. Our complexity, health and well-being can be seen in three unique “spheres”. In each, there are arrays of elements impacting their balance. Below provides a brief description of each sphere:

1. Intra-Personal Sphere: Factors affecting your communication with yourself, response (also, reaction) to your actions or words, and changing of yourself based on reflection thereof.
2. Inter-Personal Sphere: Factors affecting your communication with others, response to their actions or words, and changing either frequency of or the way you interact with others in order to reduce stress, conflict, or both.
3. Extra-Personal Sphere: Environmental factors completely independent of you and your response/s, changing your lifestyle without your permission or intention.

Imagine again, your grandmother now presents you with half a pie and cream to top it off! Your intrapersonal sphere is going ballistic! Your physical self attempting control of the conflict inside your head. Pie in sight. Mmmm. You know it is not healthy (so does your significant other), but “Why not?” They won’t know. They have enough pressure. Intra- and inter-personal sphere – How will your response to receiving pie impact your relationship with her? Maybe she bought it for you as a gift, and now you are rejecting her gift? What do you tell yourself later? Surely, if the pie is eaten, you’ll be disappointed in yourself later, if not, you’ll be proud that you overcame temptation? Extrapersonal sphere – how much sugar was in that cake? Was it organic and were the eggs and milk free-range? Could I have gotten a healthier half-piece of cake?

Each of these spheres is affected by the following categories leading to an immense list of eventualities:

Where on earth do you start with your journey to wellness? Surely, it cannot start with a gigantic piece of pie, or can it? There is honestly too much to consider! It can be quite overwhelming and lead to hyperventilation, anxiety, blood clots, and even death. Let’s not be morbid and unrealistic now, but we can understand why procrastination and attempts to achieve holistic well-being are often short-lived. Below are some steps to start removing stress and restoring balance in your life, which have nothing to do with cake:

Step 1:
Write down all of your stressors
 (potential options: work, relationships, finances, inner-conflict, etc.)

Step 2:
Circle one of your stressors
(it has now become a target!)

Step 3:
Ask yourself the following:

Can I change it?
(the change doesn’t have to be drastic, it may simply be a mindset shift from seeing your work as boring to
finding an element in it that is interesting to you or to see how it is positively impacting other people’s lives)
If so, how?
(max. 3 bullet points – more than this will lead to over-thinking and procrastination, AKA lack-of-action)

Step 4:
Take action!
(if you don’t know how to do this step, contact us and we’ll do our best to assist you with this;
sometimes you just need a gentle nudge to take the first step – the rest will flow!)

We don’t judge our cake-eaters, nor condemn the stress-beaters. Did you know, it is suggested a piece of cake can relieve stress and acute, controlled stress can actually improve performance? There is no “good” or “bad” food. Balance and moderation are the keys to success. Managing stress is best done as one should eat a cake, one piece at a time, every 6-8 hours (or days, if you wish) with adequate sleep, 30 minutes of exercise per day, and a smile on your face. Let us help you achieve balance, improve holistic function, and #actualisefullpotential^.

^Actualise = “make a reality of”

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