Wellness Wednesday: Why I Love this Healthy Nudge

Wellness Wednesday – A Healthy Reframe of Hump Day

September swooped in and bang life got busy busy! In a good way; in a motivating and inspiring way. I’ve been so caught up with everything going on that I’m just getting to my blog post now, but I was still inspired to go ahead with this Wellness Wednesday post even though it’s Thursday!

Because that’s part of what wellness is to me: not getting too caught up in my to-dos and the oopsies and the should’ves that I forget to prioritize ME and my self-care, and not allowing self-imposed deadlines to get in the way of little, unexpected life moments that fill life with beauty and magic.

Yoga in Bonaire

Life Unexpected

As it is, I did have a full schedule with a few external deadlines and deliverables the past few days, as well as several appointments, so I was planning to squeeze my blog in yesterday evening, after my gym session and a quick run to grab some groceries, since it didn’t happen Tuesday evening. Which was fine. Life was just wonderful and I was just letting myself go at a pace that suits me.

So I walked in to the grocery store, grabbed some grapes, then low and behold, I quite literally ran into one of my close childhood friends – our carts nearly collided! Over the years I’ve run into her sporadically, and she had reached out with such sweet support and encouragement while I was in the midst of my crazy last year, so naturally we wanted to catch up with each other. We proceeded to talk for about 40 minutes, right there in the produce section, standing next to the grapes.

My Wellness Wednesday Moment

So much for a quick grab-n-go dinner so I could get to my beloved blog! But chatting with her – connecting in real life with this human who has known me for over a quarter of a century (what!?) – was genuine food for my soul. Moments like these are precious and priceless. The blog would be there when I got home, but this moment wouldn’t last.

And that’s the thing – life is so complex these days, and it moves so darn fast. It’s so easy to get caught up in our ‘busyness’ and the directives of our to-do lists, but sometimes the more productive thing when it comes to our health and wellness is just to slow down and appreciate the moment. As I stood there, I realized that this was it: this was what Wellness Wednesday really meant for me.

Nature vibes in East Hampton 

Wellness Wednesday: A Healthy Nudge

So I’ve adopted Wellness Wednesday as part of my vocabulary – and even as the title of my weekly email newsletter! – as a simple reminder to be mindful of what nourishes me, and what makes life meaningful.

It’s a health little nudge to be mindful of my choices and decisions – what I eat, but also how I choose to spend my moments, and what I choose to give attention to. It’s a little mid-week reminder that our life is what we choose to make of it. And it just provides a little perspective – a little mindset shift. Life sometimes throws us curveballs, but generally, I’m as busy as I choose to be.

The full picture of health and wellness

Wellness isn’t just what we eat, how much we exercise, or whether or not we go on a cleanse. Those things are of course crucial pieces of the wellness puzzle, but wellness also means taking the time for self-care, like meditating, taking a bath, getting a massage, or doing a restorative yoga class.

Wellness also includes taking the time to slow down and do things that feed and nourish our soul, like reading a novel, spending time with family, or catching up with an old friend. It’s taking the time to be out in nature – breathing in fresh air to fill our bodies with oxygen and exploring natural wonders that fill our minds with awe.

And these other aspects of wellness are not just about slowing down or getting away from the hustle and bustle – wellness practices also include any activity that enhances our sense of wellbeing, and that includes travel and adventure and engaging in novel experiences. These things provide us a sense of expansion and growth, which is essential to our sense of satisfaction.

Estes Park, Colorado

What does wellness mean to you?

But really, wellness is personal. Whatever food nourishes your body, whatever activities bring you a sense of ease, calm and joy, whatever gives you a sense of purpose and fulfillment – these are all things that factor into your wellness, and therefore all things that should take priority in your life.

To me it means eating lots of plants and various sources of protein, yoga and exercise, movement that challenges my body, hot baths and the occasional massage, reading books and writing my blog, and prioritizing travel and novel adventure as much as possible.

But for all of us, social connection is so important. Humans are social creatures. We thrive on intimate connection and the support of community. True, some of us are introverts and some of us are extroverts, but even the introverts who require alone time to regenerate also need intimate social connection.

Regardless of what our to-do lists and self-care practices dictate, sometimes the priority should be the beautiful person in front of you. Because people make life meaningful, and moments are really all we have.