Improving my Overall Health and Wellness

Improving my Overall Health and Wellness

The increasing population is placing more pressure on healthcare systems globally even as the costs of healthcare continue to rise. More often than not, the assessment that most people get every year only covers their physical health and most likely it touches on diagnosis and treatment of disease or infirmity. However, health and wellness is not just about detection and treatment of disease. It is a dynamic process entailing change and growth in physical, mental, and social well-being. There are also other aspects of wellness such as nutritional, emotional, financial, environmental, and spiritual well-being that are also very critical. I took it upon myself to do a self-assessment of my health and wellness in order to get a clear and objective picture of what I am doing well and potential areas I needed to improve on. I found a resourceful self-assessment tool online that helped me assess my well-being in the areas of physical, nutritional, emotional, social, environmental, spiritual, intellectual, and financial. Based on my responses to a series of questions in each category, I received a personal checklist score that gave me a general sense of my health profile. From the score, I found out that I was doing well in the areas of intellectual, environmental, and spiritual well-being. I scored average in my social well-being. However, my lowest scores were in the areas of physical, emotional, and financial well-being.

I specifically identified that my body weight and emotional well-being were causing me to be less functional in my personal life and class work. As such, I was posing unnecessary risks to my overall health and wellness by neglecting these particular areas. According to Goetzel, Ron Z., et al., “[people] who choose to adopt a health promotion program should use best and promising practices to maximize the likelihood of achieving positive results” (929). In that regard, I have focused my health and wellness efforts on improving my physical emotional well-being. In that regard, I have made a commitment to behavioral change specifically in nutrition, mental well-being and physical exercises. Our health and wellness are a direct reflection of what is going on in our minds. To successfully improve the quality of my life, I must change my mindset. In my case, choosing mental health and wellness will involve embracing and appreciating myself for who I am and what I have to offer the world. It will also involve focusing on the things that make me happy by exploring my passions, reaching for my goals, and achieving them. Besides, I will plan to take a vacation during the summer holidays as a way of setting time apart for self-care. Doing that will help me pinpoint what in my personal or school life may have caused a low wellness score in my mental and emotional health. In addition, I will also seek more information and health resources in my campus and local community to help me improve my scores and my wellness.

There are several benefits of sustaining a healthy lifestyle. Taking care of your health and wellness can help you to reduce the risks of getting sick as it boosts your immune system. Besides, it enhances your attitude and work output in addition to other benefits such as better cognitive performance and reduced levels of stress. More importantly, adopting a health program has a significant impact on the quality of life and overall sense of well-being. According to Edlin and Golanty, “The wellness model emphasizes self-healing, the promotion of health, and the prevention of illness rather than solely the treatment of symptoms of disease” (6). In that regard, the goals for a healthy lifestyle are physical fitness, mental and emotional well-being, as well as life balance. Physical fitness has to do with exercise and proper nutrition with the aim of maintaining optimal levels of physical functionality. Maintaining life balance has got to do with stress management, relaxation, and sleep for the aim of improving overall lifestyle. These goals and actions are really good especially considering today’s world where it is a challenge to stay healthy and fit which is linked to the increase in life-threatening diseases. Maybe it would be good to take some healthy lifestyle courses that will guide you through making good choices in health and wellness. As a student, I face some unique risks that other people may not have. For that reason, I will extend my self-assessment to focus on personal health promotion and prevention of diseases. Besides, I plan to track my well-being trends over time to help establish whether I am getting the results I desire and where I am running into problems.

Overall, health and wellness includes physical, mental, and emotional well-being. Using a self-assessment tool should be integrated into health check-up plans. It is part of an effort of being proactive about one’s overall well-being and is a guide to making long lasting lifestyle changes. It is important to note that the self-assessment scores are not meant to be not diagnostic tools but only used as indicators. As such, the purpose of the self-assessment is to help me identify areas that I need to improve on and with, the help of student health services and community health resources, decide how to make the changes I desire. Being able to identify what in my personal or school life may have led to a low score in my physical and emotional health and wellness can be a valuable life skill that I will continue learning and applying in my life.

Works Cited

Goetzel, Ron Z., et al. “Do workplace health promotion (wellness) programs work?.” Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine 56.9 (2014): 927-934.

Edlin, Gordon, and Eric Golanty. Health and wellness. Jones & Bartlett Publishers, 2015.