Sometimes wellness can be just appreciating the beauty surrounding us.
“I appreciate the acres of diamonds that lay all around me right now.”
Sometimes we just need to slow down to see those “diamonds” that are right around us.
Handwriting a letter can be a part of wellness.
The old year is behind us. 2015 is ahead with new challenges and new beginnings; for some a fresh start.
Emily Miller wrote: “Then sing young hearts that are full of cheer; With never a thought of sorrow; The old goes out but the glad young year; Comes merrily in tomorrow.”
January first represents the fresh start of a new year after a period of remembrance of the passing year. With the start of a New Year, many people make New Year’s resolutions with the intention of improving themselves or their way of life. Common resolutions today include “eat better, eat less, exercise more; spend less money on frivolous stuff.”
The custom of setting New Years resolutions began prior to the fourth century in Rome, as they made such resolutions with a moral flavor, mostly to be good to others.
Jonathan Edwards, a great American theologian, brought up in New England Puritan culture, took the writing of resolutions to an art form. But he did not write his resolutions on a single day. Over a two-year period he compiled some 70 resolutions on various aspects of his life, which he committed to reviewing each week. The following are three of his resolutions: “Resolved, in narrations never to speak anything but the pure and simple verity; Resolved, never to speak evil of any, except I have some particular good call for it; Resolved, always to do what I can towards making, maintaining and establishing peace, when it can be without over-balancing detriment in other respects.”
Edwards’ words may sound very different from the resolutions of our time, but the basic meaning is the same. And he may have had the right idea. Today, it might be better to think about what you want to do for the year instead of making a single resolution. In theory, you will have more success with a diet if you’re really looking at the big picture of wellness in your life.
According to experts in the psychological field, a wellness change for your whole life is important, whether it’s getting out of a toxic work environment, an unhealthy relationship that needs to be changed, or just really looking at your whole life to better your wellness.
One thing to help foster that wellness is investing in a relationship with you. Taking care of you helps in having a relationship with others. When you’re in a solid committed relationship with yourself, that’s when you’re able to be in a healthy committed relationship with others.
Talking with some local people brought me to a new level of looking at New Year’s resolutions. I discovered that people are looking at maintaining “wellness” rather than waiting until they need medical or psychological remedies.
Some of these “resolutions” or wellness changes included doing more writing – communicating with friends, whether they are local or long distance. Handwriting a letter takes more time than texting, but helps vent frustrations and shares thoughts. Someone I know wrote a postcard to a friend once a month to cheer her up and stay in touch. I’m sure she keeps those postcards in a special place, where she can read them over and over.
Read more; read more poetry. Poems are instant gratification. If you don’t have a lot of time to read a whole book or chapter, a poem can be read quickly and still “packs a punch” – you can get a lot out of one poem. Don’t have any poetry books at home? I’m sure our local libraries have them.
In this day of electronics, play more board games. Pick up a new challenge. Play something new like Aggravation or Chess.
Listen to more variety of music – new genres to expand your taste in music.
Do more volunteer work, especially in hospitals where people are longing for more human connections, other than the medical staff. It’s a place where people often are in need of hope. A volunteer can have much to offer.
Travel more and see more of our country and the world. Open your mind to new places and cultures. (Don’t forget to get your passport so it’s ready when you are.)
And perhaps the most important wellness resolution you can make is just to appreciate what you already have.
Someone once said, “I appreciate the acres of diamonds that lay all around me right now. And all I have to do is slow down enough to look.”
