What Is Wellness???

I recently read that wellness is a process of ongoing growth & development ... that begins in the mind. The statement really got me thinking and asking myself a lot of questions! Since I was diagnoised with MS I guess you could say that I have been on a health journey ... a journey to find wellness. In many ways I feel as though I have found this wellness that I have been seeking, after all I physically feel better then I have in years! Do I have a disease? Yes ... most days however, my reality is that I FEEL pretty good, in fact many days I FEEL pretty great physically! ...

Is wellness more then just physical health? What do I REALLY think about wellness??? Do my actions allign with my thoughts/beliefs? Does what I "think" or "know" to be true agree with how I live? How I go thru my day ... Does it agree with what I make a prioity in my life? Do I band aid my wellness just enough so that I don't have to make the tough choices or, God for bid, CHANGE? Do I make myself just comfortable enough so that I can "lie" to myself & make myself belive that I have done enough or that there is nothing more that I can do?

To me WELLNESS is more then just physical health ... it is health in ALL areas of life ... physical, emotional, financial & spiritual. So, how do I measure up? What are my real answers to those questions? ... I realize it's not about perfection ... after all the statements says that is a process of ongoing growth.

The thing I am learning about myself is that ... I often expect perfection of myself & if I know I am not going to be perfect ... I often don't start or try! It is an area I have grown in, but have I grown just enough to "band aid" it in my mind? As I have gone through these questions I realize that it is how I do things ... I do just enough to make myself FEEL good so that I do not have to make the tough changes!

When it comes to my physical health ... I take my supplements, after all they make me FEEL good! The reality of my disease is that I need to be physically active, I should be exercising ... but I don't! I don't make it a priority ... the sad part is that I have friends who have this same terrible disease who are loosing their abilities to walk, loosing their physical coordination or they just plain don't have the energy to get up & be active ... this could be me! Tomorrow I could wake up & not be able to get out of bed ... this is my reality! Yet day after day I make excuses as to why exercise doesn't fit into my life or my day! ... I justify it with all kinds of excuses!

It's interesting to look at all of these areas of my life & maybe for the first time admit to myself that this is a pattern of behavior ... I am not writing this to beat myself up ... but rather it is more of a moment, where for the first time, I see the pattern of how I am. Like something else I read again today ... "You have got to be where you are to get to where you are going. If you resist or deny where you are & who you are, it is hard to move on to where you want to be."

So for me it's really not about perfection or beating myself up for where I am at. It is about acknowledging where I am & where I want to be & then moving in that direction. It's about the journey ...