How Are Health, Wellness, and Wellbeing Ongoing, Ever-Changing Programs?

Sometimes we forget that working on our health, wellness, and wellbeing is an ongoing process.

Photo by GRAHAM MANSFIELD on Unsplash

Wouldn’t it be awesome if we could just get healthy — physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually — just once? Attain the perfect level of health, wellness, and wellbeing, and be done? Wouldn’t that rock?

Yes. But it cannot be. Because change is inevitable.

When we attain optimum health, wellness, and wellbeing — on any level — it’s not that it’s fleeting. It’s just that it requires ongoing energy, work, and focus.

Because we change — health, wellness, and wellbeing are ongoing, ever-changing programs. But it’s easy to forget and neglect this. And as such — easy to get stuck.

The impact of inevitable change

What it takes to get and be healthy in your 20s is quite different from what it takes in your 40s. That’s because as we get older our physiology changes.

Metabolisms shift. Allergens differ. Tastes change. All of these will impact the effect of diet and exercise on the body.

Unless you have magically found a way to live in a bubble and never go out into the world, you have had experiences and encounters that have changed your mental, emotional, and spiritual health. You have likely found and lost love, made and lost friends, experienced joy and heartache, and everything in between. That’s inevitable change.

I can reasonably argue that change is one of the primary reasons health, wellness, and wellbeing programs are ongoing. Because it’s inevitable and has an impact on everything.

But it’s surprisingly easy to neglect this truth.

Comfort is less ongoing

When we find something that works for health — be it physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual — it’s human nature to maintain that and get complacent in it.

We love to get comfortable. And we often spend vast amounts of time finding and maintaining comfort zones.