Overall wellness is essential for a blossoming flower like yourself. I am taking a Personal Well Being class this semester (required for my major) and I have already learned a few things in the past week and a half. Some things I already knew, but some had never been brought to my attention. You cannot be successful, happy, and healthy unless you strive for overall wellness.

First off, Let’s talk about Physical Wellness.

Physical wellness is defined as fitness level, physical abilities, and overall health without illness or disease. So basically, are you keeping yourself physically well? In my crazy schedule I don’t have time to work out and sometimes I hardly get time for a decent meal. So what do I do?

1. Go on foot. Regardless of how far away the class is on campus, walk. I don’t take the bus and I don’t drive my car to classes. I also always take the stairs which sometimes almost kills me by three o’clock when I have a class on the fourth floor, but I know every time I do it that it will get easier.
2. Eat well. Sometimes it’s hard to fight the cravings when you’re under a lot of stress. I haven’t ate fast food in a month even though I still crave chicken nuggets and french fries on the daily. If you eat good food you will feel good. If you eat bad food, you will feel bad.

Alright, so then there’s also Emotional Wellness.

This goes with things like trust, self-confidence, optimism, satisfying relationships, and self-esteem wellness. I honestly think that emotional wellness is sometimes more important than physical wellness because if your emotional wellness isn’t in check then it will start to tear away at your physical wellness as well. There are many ways to fulfill emotional wellness, but here’s two suggestions.

3. Talk. Talk to your friends, your family, your significant other, or your dog for Pete’s sake. Just get your emotions out there. It is poison to just hold all of those feelings and thoughts in. I understand that sometimes it’s hard to let people in, but once you do it honestly does wonders for your emotional wellness.

4. Relieve stress in a healthy way. I often listen, play, or write music as a stress reliever. Even Netflix is a good way to relax your mind, as long as you’re not chowing down on those chicken nuggets we talked about earlier.

Then there’s Intellectual Wellness.

Intellectual Wellness is about maintaining an active mind, challenging your brain, detecting problems, finding solutions, and directing behavior. So obviously a way we maintain Intellectual Wellness is by going to school, but there are many other ways to fulfill this need.

5. Read. Read a book, or an article (like this one, kudos to you). I always said I didn’t have time to read and that was true, but I’ve just started using Audible and listening to books and it has done wonders for me. Not only am I stimulating my brain, but I’m also relieving stress by getting to go into another world in a way. I love it.

6. Get creative. Paint something, write some poetry, write an article like this one. Look into things and research something that interests you for yourself, not for a class. Get involved with the world, it’s about time our generation did.

Now we get into the true social life.

Interpersonal Wellness is about good communication, relationships, and cultivating a support network. This is about your friends. This about the organizations that you are involved in or affiliated with.

7. Get involved. Join a club, volunteer at the nursing home, just go out and do something with other people that has a good outcome. I joined a fraternity and it’s a great way for me to step away from all the stresses in my life and just surround myself with good people for an hour or two who make me laugh and smile.

8. Surround yourself with positivity. I try to only surround myself with people in social aspects who make me feel good. Now, I understand sometimes we cannot help who we are around, but we can control who we give our time and attention to. I only give my precious time to those who deserve it.

Here we go.

Spiritual Wellness is about possessing a set of guiding beliefs, principles, or values that give meaning and purpose to your life, especially in difficult times. I am a Baptist who regularly goes to church. I try often to maintain a sort of inner peace and a connection to God.

9. Find your inner peace. Sit down and think about what is important to you, what you love, what you don’t, and think about what really makes you feel whole. Hopefully it’s something healthy. I’m not telling you to believe in God or any type of god, but I’m saying you should try to believe in something, even if it’s just yourself.

10. Appreciate what you have. Someone has always got it worse. Remind yourself of how blessed you are. I give my thanks to God. It’s up to you who you give your thanks to.

Environmental Wellness is a big one for me.

Environmental Wellness is the livability of your surroundings or your physical environment. Some things we cannot control. When winter comes around and I’m freezing to death as I walk across campus I’ll just have to make sure I bring some hand warmers. On the other hand, at the end of the day, I can control if I go back to a messy room or a clean one.

11. Clean. Clean your room. It will make you feel better, trust me. Sometimes when I get stressed out and feel like I can’t control what’s happening in my life, I’ll just go clean my room. It really helps to be able to clean up at least one mess in my life.

12. Surround yourself with familiarity. I’m all about the inspirational quotes, the cute little pictures, and the handwritten notes I have from my boyfriend. I like to hang on to little keepsakes that I can look at often to always make me feel like I’m still connected to home.

And lastly, we come to Financial Wellness.

Shall I explain further?

13. Budget your money. There’s this great app called Dollarbird. Look into it.

14. Save your money. The money that you’re budgeting is a great opportunity to put toward your savings. If you save a dollar and fifty cents on two packs of Pepsi, don’t go spend that money on a candy bar. Put it in a jar in your room. Actually save it. If you just go and spend it on another little thing, then you’re not really saving money, are you?

Overall Personal Wellness is truly the key to being happy and healthy. As a Sophomore in college sometimes it’s hard to achieve either of those things but, I trust that maintaining my levels of wellness will help me survive this school year, and I hope it helps you as well.