Health, Wellness, and Self-Care

You alone can provide for your health, wellness, and self-care.

Photo by Olia Nayda on Unsplash

Welcome to Planet Earth. You, in this physical form, get one go-round. How long that will be is indeterminate based on factors inside and outside of your control.

The factors outside of your control you can do not a damned thing about. Natural disasters, mass shootings, car accidents, and other life-threatening outside occurrences can strike with no warning. That frightens the hell out of some people. But for most, it’s something you vaguely acknowledge and do all you can to avoid.

But it is important to acknowledge, and I’ll explain why up ahead.

Then there are the things that can kill you that you DO have control over. The biggest elephant in the room, as far as inside factors go, is stress.

Stress is virtually unavoidable. Some situations cause distress and uncertainty that are both inside and outside of your control. But stress happens because there are expectations, deadlines, needs to be fulfilled, time limits both real and artificial, demands, and numerous other factors that can and will stress you out.

An excess of stress leads to mental health issues. Anxiety and depression can both be readily linked to stress. That, in turn, can become physical…