The all-encompassing term “wellness” is often used when referring to healthy habits and working toward overall better physical and mental health. However, the goal of wellness activities and practices is to maintain a level of health in which the body isn’t just surviving but also thriving. The recent focus on epigenetics, or the study of how behaviors and environment can cause changes that affect the way your genes work, shows that our lifestyle choices are actually directly linked to our health. This means that how you sleep, eat, relax and move can either keep the mind and body in a state of vitality or create an imbalance that will have negative effects on overall health.
The significance of this correlation is likely why the topic of wellness has become so prevalent in several industries. As the world we live in becomes increasingly more fast-paced, keeping a healthy balance of physical activity, adequate sleep and a nutritious diet becomes more difficult to manage. Sleep deprivation, for example, can weaken the immune system and sleep apnea, a serious sleep disorder, impacts more than 936 million people worldwide. For this reason, World Wellness Weekend (WWW) is gearing up for its seventh annual celebration from September 15 – 17 to remind people around the world that wellness should be incorporated and practiced everyday.
WWW defines wellness as “a responsible relationship between your body and yourself” and encourages people all over the globe to join in wellness activities with friends and family. WWW supports that there are 5 pillars of wellness that can help people live longer and happier lives. These pillars of health are sleep, nutrition, movement, mindfulness and sense of purpose. Whether your wellness journey means getting outdoors, taking a new workout class or heading to bed a bit earlier, any efforts towards wellness will lead to bettering your health. WWW, however, reminds everyone the importance of working towards not just one but all of the pillars of health as they work best in unison to keep the mind and body in a happy and healthy balance.
