Reimagining Midlife Wellness, Part I – What is Wellness?

This is the first installment of a multi-part series focusing on Reimagining Midlife Wellness.

Why the need for this series of articles?  It’s important to stay well in times of transition and it's vital to stay well as we get older.  Vitality is essential if we're going to make the most of our next chapter.

Wellness is personal and looks different for each of us.  This is an opportunity to re-examine some of the things that you've been doing and make changes or implement some new wellness practices that align with your current desires.

In this series, I'll share some thoughts and give you a framework to define what matters most to you at this stage of your life, along with ways to continue to take positive action to be well.

Let's start with the words wellness and well-being.  These words are often used interchangeably, but I believe there's a difference between the two.

I think of wellness as the choices we make and the actions we take that create our lifestyle.  It's an ongoing journey that evolves over time.

Well-being is the experience of the positive wellness actions we take.  It's how we feel as a result of our choices and actions.  Just think about how you feel after a good workout, a walk in nature, or a solid night of sleep.

Optimal well-being is where you want to head directionally.  It includes things like life satisfaction and happiness.  It’s our overall engagement with life, something I refer to as “wellth.”

To sum it up, wellness is what we do, well-being is how we feel as a result, and optimal well-being is the aspiration.

Wellness is fluid.  It's a series of ongoing adjustments to the practices that keep you well.  I’ve found that every five years or so, I make new choices.  For example, my mid-50s were all about endurance sports.  But now I’m considering a shift toward strength, flexibility and balance – elements to keep me functional as I get older.

I also like to think of wellness as a form of self-respect.  It’s the byproduct of when you honor yourself by embracing wellness as a vital and ongoing process of making choices to create a healthy, integrated and fulfilling life.

Regardless of your age or level of wellness, you can enhance your vitality and well-being by reconnecting with yourself and taking small steps toward wholehearted living.  It's never too early nor too late to begin.

The concept of living wholeheartedly is about being well so you can fully embrace who you are to do the things that light you up with the people you love.  That's an exciting way to welcome a new chapter of life.  Throughout this series of articles, we'll be exploring how to enjoy this journey and ensure the best years are ahead.

When we think of being well, we typically think of food and exercise.  But there's a lot more to well-being.  It’s not just the absence of disease, but a state of physical, mental and social well-being, my definition of living wholeheartedly.

Another view I like was shared by my colleague, Dr. Robyn McIntyre, the co-creator of a wellness model that we like to use in our respective work.  She has said that good health is a continual striving to live a life that’s full, meaningful, zestful and exuberant.

While there are many models, Dr. Robyn and I choose to emphasize six components that we think contribute to holistic well-being, the ones that consider the whole person.  This model also features lines that connect each of the six elements to highlight the interconnectivity and interdependency of well-being.

The first three tenants are probably most familiar:  mind, body, and spirit, which are individual or inward looking.  If we're being truly holistic, we think it's important to consider a second group of three which are outside of us.  And these are concentric spheres of family, however you choose to define it, community and environment.

Balance comes into play here.  Underperforming in any of these areas will not achieve well-being.  Conversely, overdoing one or several areas at the expense of the others can have adverse effects.  So it follows that our daily micro-decisions are important and cumulative.

We should never underestimate the power we have to alter our health trajectory, which leads us to another model I created with Dr. Robyn called the Wellness Continuum, which relates to our physical health.

This brings me to the main tenet of my wellness philosophy:  The body's natural tendency is toward health and self-healing.

I once had a wellness professional on The Athena Wellness Podcast  (Episode 79) who said, “When you cut your arm, you don't need to tell it how to heal.”  That's what I mean by our natural state of wellness – trusting the body to self-regulate and doing all we can to support that process.

If our natural state of wellness is our starting point, we can think of wellness on a continuum, where we can move toward well-being or impaired wellness by the choices we make.  Consistent healthy choices move us toward optimal well-being, while sub-optimal choices can move us toward chronic illness.

In subsequent articles, we'll explore some simple wellness strategies and practices that can move us toward optimal well-being.  But today, let's explore two big drivers of what can push us into the red zone toward chronic illness.

The first is stress, which is a broad term that includes the feeling of overwhelm and mental and emotional pressure.  Stress moves us into the red zone by something called the caveman response to danger or “fight or flight.”  When we're in that state, the body releases the stress hormone cortisol and we're ready to take on the cause of danger or run from it.  This is good, but we're rarely in acute danger.

Cortisol is also released when we're chronically stressed, and these chemicals have impact.  They may result in chronic headaches, tension, and pain in the neck, chest and shoulders.  It can cause rapid heartbeat, raised blood pressure, and anxiety.  And all of these can lead to more chronic and critical health issues.

Stress can also cause breath holding in tense situations.  There have been studies on screen apnea, where people hold their breath as they're checking their devices, which the body reads as stress and triggers the “fight or flight” response.  Think about how many times a day you pick up your phone.

The second driver is social isolation, which we've learned a lot about over the last few years.  Social isolation can shift us toward chronically impaired wellness with an increased risk of Alzheimer's, substance abuse, stroke and heart disease.  Studies are showing that being isolated socially can lead to serious effects on physical and mental health, with more impact on mortality than smoking, obesity, excessive alcohol, or physical inactivity.

Macro trends can also negatively impact our well-being and move us from the green to the red.  Here are a few to consider:

• Midlife challenges:  This includes new life events that require our time and shift our focus, such as changes in the workplace, retirement, relationship challenges, bereavement, and physical and mental health issues related to the aging process.

• An increase in the velocity of change:  This requires us to rapidly adapt and use new technology and innovations while being hyper-stimulated in a 24/7 barrage of information that's doubling at increasing rates.

• Disconnection:  The technological distraction and dependency challenges us to remain connected to who we really are, what we feel, what matters, and the world around us.

Keep in mind that it's not the shifts, trends nor the events themselves.  It's not about escaping our experience.  It's more about learning to adapt to these challenges in a way that keeps us moving toward the optimal well-being aspiration.

We're going to explore strategies and actions to optimize your well-being in upcoming articles, but I'll leave you with a few questions for you to work with until then:

1. How do you define wellness and well-being for yourself?

2. How has your wellness changed over time?

3. Which well-being elements of mind, body, spirit, family, community and environment do you routinely support?

4. Where can you focus more effort?

5. Where do you currently fall on the wellness continuum?

6. What might move you toward optimal well-being?

7. What does well-being look like for you in your next chapter?

You can work with these questions in a number of ways, such as journaling, walking, contemplating, and taking positive action in small steps.  Be playful and hold them lightly, but do spend some time identifying what's important to you at this stage of life.

I'll be back with the next installment of Reimagining Midlife Wellness with some strategies on how to optimize your well-being on September 15th.  Until then, work with the suggested questions and be well!

Journal Reflections:  What does midlife wellness mean to you?  How have your wellness practices shifted over time?  What aspirations do you have for the second half of your life that would be supported by enhanced wellness?

Note: If you prefer, you can listen to this article here: Episode 212