Can you have wellness and chronic pain?

I have been trying to write a wellness vs. healthiness blog for about a week, I even had it all scheduled and drafted out. So that yesterday I could sit down and just type it up and post it. BUT the chronic pain kicked in. I drank my lemon water and did my yoga routine that usually helps my lower back and seehip; it just seemed to continue to get worse. I ended up back in bed, thinking who am I to write a wellness and health article, when I can barely get out of bed today. I decided to call my mentor and she reminded me that maybe my story will touch someone and that I should share it anyway.

Today I sit here repeating my new mantra,

I am not my body. I am more; my body cannot stop my mind.

Maybe this shouldn’t be a blog about wellness vs. healthiness, maybe I should write about “Can you have wellness and chronic pain at the same time?” My pain comes and goes; I will have a few good weeks and then a few bad weeks, because I have 4 children and a husband that is gone a lot with work, I push through, but I know my limits. Some days I am knocked on my ass; but I still find a way to keep myself moving forward.

Does this make me unwell or unhealthy? No, I do not think so.

Why? You may think.

First we have to talk about what wellness is. What is wellness?

Wellness is defined as the quality or state of being healthy in mind and body, especially as the result of deliberate effort. Wellness is the state of living a healthy lifestyle to better your mind, body and soul. The answer to why is right in the definition. Wellness is a lifestyle, a journey, which means you are continually working towards the goal of having a healthy life. If you continually look for new ways to balance the six components of wellness, you are living a healthy lifestyle; which is what wellness ultimately is.

The six components to wellness are:

1. Physical health
2. Mental and emotional health
3. Intellectual health
4. Social health
5. Environmental health
6. Spiritual health

You will need to continually work towards wellness and health. Working on all six components of wellness is how you achieve an overall level of better health. The interesting thing is that all six components work together. When you start to work towards your physical health your mental and emotional health grows. With the growth of mental and emotional health your spiritual health will start to change. As you learn to be physically, emotionally and spiritually healthy you will gain intellectual health. As you grow you will learn to become more socially and environmentally healthy because you will start to surround yourself with like minded people and clean up your environment. It’s all one; it’s all intertwined in a big giant ball of enlightenment. This is what we all should be working towards anyway.

There are many ways to start your wellness journey. Here are a few…

Physical health: A clean food diet, exercise, using chemical free cleaning and body products.

Mental and emotional health: Therapy, finding a life coach, meditation, a daily of practice gratitude, removing negative people from your life.

Intellectual health: research and learning new things, going back to school

Social health: removing negative people from your life, finding groups and people that have like minded lifestyles or have made similar positive life choices.

Environmental health: recycling, decluttering your home, being paper and plastic free, reducing waste, becoming chemical free.

Spiritual health: meditation, prayer, yoga

Life is not a race. It is okay to take it one step at a time. Even if you do not feel like you have wellness or even that you could, I believe that you are not alone. There are many ways to change that feeling, even if you are not physically able to work out daily; as long as you are working towards a healthy lifestyle and fighting to have balance of the six components of wellness, you are already there. There is nothing wrong with starting small, because that is how journeys start. Wellness is a journey even you are worthy of taking.

Namaste ❤

JEM