A Synergistic Strategy to Create a Sustainable Wellness Lifestyle
The Perfectly Imperfect Wellness Blog promotes a holistic and proactive approach to wellness. The intention is to discover, understand and make choices to create a purposeful, functional, adaptable and sustainable wellness lifestyle and environment. I believe prioritizing the health of your mind and body is the key to achieving a positive and affirming life. It is the foundation I build on every day to live a life of contentment and limitless possibilities.
To live a life in line with my purpose I developed a strategy to nourish, activate and renew my body and mind daily. This is a foundation built on self-directed actions. I’m taking control of and harnessing the potential of my mind and body by taking steps that work for me to clear the roadblocks on my journey. As a reminder to keep these three fundamental elements at the forefront of my choices and actions I incorporated a triquetra in my logo design. The interconnected arcs of the triquetra symbolize the equality of importance to nourish, activate, and renew the body and mind. The circle woven through the knot represents the unity of the power of the three elements as they work synergistically to create the foundation of my wellness lifestyle.
This strategy won’t look the same for everyone. The key is to optimize these elements that make the body and mind thrive in a way that works for you and build from there. Start by setting deliberate intentions. With enough consistency, deliberate intentions become habits that inform your lifestyle. This is the basic guideline I use to incorporate all three elements daily:
- Nourish
- Adopt a functional and sustainable dietary strategy that optimizes metabolic function, vitality and longevity
- Choose minimally processed, organic, non-gmo, pasture-raised, and grass-fed/ grass-finished foods whenever possible
- Eat healthy fats, moderate protein and low carbohydrates to fuel your body
- Supplement for any deficiencies in your strategy, preferences, and food supply
- Keep your body properly hydrated
- Avoid/minimize consumption of highly processed packaged foods, refined grains, sugars, and industrial vegetable/seed oils
- Adopt a functional and sustainable dietary strategy that optimizes metabolic function, vitality and longevity
- Activate
- Create a daily movement plan
- Set up your environment to encourage movement
- Engage your body in low level movement throughout the day
- Work on flexibility and range of motion mobility
- Build up functional strength to move through life with safety and ease
- Create a daily movement plan
- Renew
- Take time to rest and recharge your body and mind
- Prioritize sleep by giving yourself the opportunity and conditions for a full night’s rest
- Build a practice to give yourself quiet time to become acquainted with your thoughts and reflect
- Make time daily to relax and pamper yourself
- Take time to rest and recharge your body and mind
Along with optimizing the synergistic power of the three body/mind elements, there is a fourth component that I believe is essential in creating a wellness lifestyle—elevate your environment. The body/mind foundation is built looking inward, but we also need to look outward at the environment surrounding us every day. I chose the cherry blossom circle to surround the foundation triquetra in my logo because cherry blossoms symbolize new growth and renewal. They remind me of the beauty, strength and fragility of the present moment. Remaining conscious and appreciative of each moment is how we live an extraordinary life.
Work to create an environment around you daily that supports and encourages your purpose and lifestyle. Pursue information and activities that develop personal growth, learning, creativity and imagination. Our environment influences and impacts our choices and our actions. It can serve as a motivating force—or a hindering one. Setting up your environment to support your purpose can be the determining factor in turning your strategy into a lifestyle. Here are some of the areas I focus on to elevate my environment with the energy and atmosphere to support and enhance my wellness lifestyle:
- Elevate Environment
- Surround yourself with the encouragement, support and tools that align with the lifestyle you want to live
- Engage in activities and consume information that promote personal growth and development
- Expand your current skills and learn new ones
- Pursue creative hobbies
- Indulge your imagination
- Work towards detoxifying your surroundings and personal exposure of chemicals, toxins, pollutants and any outside influences that do not align with your purpose
- Pass it forward, give back and support health and wellness policies and those seeking to facilitate and prioritize making wellness sustainable and accessible to everyone
- Surround yourself with the encouragement, support and tools that align with the lifestyle you want to live
Employing this strategy, you discover you don’t need your health and fitness “fixed” in order to live your best life now. You just need to set your plan in motion. Turn your plan into a lifestyle strategy by making it attainable, sustainable, and practical for your life. Set the intention each day to engage in the process by integrating the elements into your day in a way that works for you and brings enjoyment in line with your purpose. Every day we recommit to this process and continue moving forward we are living our optimal life. Appreciate each day, not because you’ve attained some imagined “ideal” goal, but because you are taking action and living your wellness journey.
Wellness is not a series of tasks to check off your to-do list. It is a proactive lifestyle. You need to put in deliberate and conscious effort. But living a wellness lifestyle should not feel like a list of chores to complete. Wellness is not a static condition or destination. What wellness looks like evolves as you change and adapt to your current environment or situation. Life is about progress and growth, not perfection. Creating a lifestyle is about developing a standard of living to guide you in the direction you want to go. It’s about becoming aware of and making choices that align with that system. Living a wellness lifestyle is simply adopting the habits, beliefs, thoughts, standards and actions that work together to create a healthy, happy and purpose-driven life.