The eight tools of wellness

• Having a holistic approach to wellness means considering body and mind, taking care of emotions, movement, and more.

• For example, let’s start with managing emotions: practices such as mindfulness, exploring one’s passions, and journal writing help a great deal.

• There are many other ways to be healthy, and running is one of them: very effective, but not the only one!

Let’s start with a perhaps trivial but important consideration: we are complex beings. Just think of the two dimensions that define us: that of body and mind. You already know how important it is to care for both and you also have tools to do so.

One way to achieve this in a more complete form is to have an approach that years ago would have been called “holistic,” meaning that it encompasses several approaches to get to the deeper improvement of every aspect of your life. In order to achieve this, it is advisable to work on several areas, and Nice.news summarizes them very effectively. You do not necessarily have to pay attention to all these eight aspects at once, but it is helpful to keep them in mind, like a checklist to guide you in your quest for well-being.

1. Emotions

Let’s start with something that affects every human being: emotions. We all experience and enjoy them but sometimes, we are also overwhelmed by and suffer them.

Being able to have a balanced relationship with emotions is crucial. Meanwhile, let’s define what they are, according to the academic literature, not overlooking a fact that is indicative of how complex their universe is: there are about 7,000 facial expressions to render our emotions (think how good actors must be!).

The most common emotions are fear, anger, joy, sadness, and disgust. Anxiety-which many people experience more or less often, for example-is not an emotion but a feeling, that is, a reaction to an emotion.

Tips&Tricks

There are several natural (in the sense that they do not require pharmacological support) ways to master emotions:

• Mindfulness/meditation: being able to live in the present moment is a way to be participatory and focused and not be dominated by emotions. These practices also help one to be more grateful (and thus happy) about one’s life, to accept or give the right proportions to difficulties, and to have a more positive outlook on the future. And much more.
• Dedicate yourself to your passions: whatever they are, do not neglect them. Passions are a very simple, joyful and healthy way to “get out” of oneself, to take a break from life and worries. You may love reading, painting, gardening, or building miniature interstellar rockets, it doesn’t matter: the important thing is to cultivate your passions!
• Daily journaling: this may seem like an outdated practice, but that does not mean it is not extremely useful. The reason is simple: it is based on writing, that is, a tool that allows you to express yourself, to discover yourself and to give proper dimension to your emotionality by transferring it to paper (or screen). When you’re down in the dumps, try writing down how you feel-you’ll see that you’ll feel better right away.

2. Move!

We will not dwell on this aspect: we have already told you a thousand times how essential movement is not only for the care of your body but also for your mind. And don’t think that “movement” means only exercise: walking and gardening are movement as well!

3. Learn something every day

Or, in other words, cultivate your curiosity. Do you know which one is the common trait among many successful people in different fields? Curiosity and thirst for knowledge. The most interesting people are like that because they know many things, and why does this happen? Because they read and study a lot and never think they know everything. By the way, the more you study and take an interest, the more you realize how little you know and how much there is to know. Is it depressing? Not really: if you knew everything you would have nothing left to discover and you would just be bored.

Tips&Tricks

Try to go to bed each day having learned something new. If you feel you haven’t succeeded, open your vocabulary at random-there’s a good chance the word you discover is unfamiliar to you. And if that’s not enough for you, go to Wikipedia and do a random search, like who was born today-maybe you’re interested in the life of Bernardino da Montefeltro and you didn’t even know it.

4. Love the environment

Another way to feel good is to be responsible to the environment. Pollute less, consume responsibly, travel by environmentally friendly means, produce less waste. Though small, the part you can do has value, never forget that. The sum of a thousand responsible behaviors makes a difference and makes those who practice them feel good.

5. We are social animals

And sometimes we forget that. Yet loneliness hurts so much: it makes one feel disconnected, unloved, separated from the rest of humanity. It makes one feel rejected. We all need to love and feel loved. Therefore, do not neglect hanging out with other people: the more you let them know what they mean to you, the more they will return your affection.

Tips&Tricks

• Be thankful: whenever you receive something-especially if it is unexpected-don’t think it was owed to you. Think about how much pleasure it gives you to have someone say thank you, even for a small pleasure or perhaps negligible attention.
• Call a friend for no reason: a chat on the phone or during an unplanned leisurely walk does wonders. There doesn’t have to be a reason, or rather, the reason is wanting to be with those who make you feel good. To make him feel good.

6. We are also made of spirit

It is known but often forgotten: there is something in us that belongs to another dimension, different from the physical one. However, this is not a treatise on philosophy, so let’s talk about how it is possible to take care of our spirit and that deep, inner feeling that we all have, even though we may neglect it.

Tips&Tricks

• Immerse yourself in nature. Nature reminds us how much we are a part of it, and busy life, on the contrary, often takes us in the opposite direction. Think of when you walk in the countryside or in a park: the sense of calm and cosmic order that you perceive is the best testimony to the fact that this is the universe we are a part of. It is necessary to return there, as often as possible.
• Forget yourself: take a journey outside your own mind and “become” someone else. No, we are not suggesting to take drugs but instead to go to the theater, read a book, see a movie, draw. Anything that distracts you in a positive way can help you regain inner balance.

7. A healthy relationship with money

A cross (for those who have none) and a delight (for others), money is a tool that can provide serenity but also much existential distress when it is lacking. With money you can do many things, while without it you feel limited and frustrated. Yet often it is not just a matter of not earning enough but not knowing how to manage it.

Tips&Tricks

• Keep track of your spending: you might be surprised to find out in detail how much you spend on something you didn’t pay much attention to and vice versa. Having awareness of how you spend your money is one way to master it and not let it dominate you.
• Save (if you can): do you have a bank account? Schedule periodic bank transfer of a certain amount each month, like 50 euros. Choose the amount so that it affects your perception of your wealth (and wealth itself, too, of course) little or nothing. By the end of the year it will have become an attractive amount, set aside without much effort: you will have 600 euros more, or at least it will feel like it is more. But the effect is the same: a gift you have given yourself, or almost.
• Donate: giving what is not necessary or vital to you is a way to feel useful. Do charity, even a little is still better than nothing.

8. Make yourself useful

Helping those in need and volunteering is a way not only to do good but also to feel useful and have a purpose. Giving something of yourself (time, skills) serves those you help and serves you as well. In economic terms, it is a win-win solution: all parties receive a benefit and no one is deprived of anything except time spent. Which is amply rewarded by satisfaction.

How to.

• Volunteer: for those in need but also for dogs or animals if they are a passion of yours. Institutions such as kennels are often looking for help and at the same time have few financial resources.
• Cooking: not only for you, but especially for those you love. Cooking things you like makes you and those you love happy.