Welcome to January! Have you set your New Year’s resolutions or built your monthly calendar yet? January is a time when many of us think about starting fresh and making changes for the better. January is National Wellness Month, so let’s talk about wellness, which means taking care of your overall health and well-being, along with setting healthy goals.
FYI+ offers resources and programs to help participants take steps to improve their overall wellness.
What is Wellness?
The Global Wellness Institute defines wellness as the active pursuit of activities, choices, and lifestyles that lead to a state of holistic health.
Wellness Is Multidimensional, wellness is about more than just physical health. Most models of wellness include at least six dimensions:
- Physical: Nourishing a healthy body through exercise, nutrition, sleep, etc.
- Mental: Engaging the world through learning, problem-solving, creativity, etc.
- Emotional: Being aware of, accepting, and expressing our feelings, and understanding the feelings of others.
- Spiritual: Searching for meaning and higher purpose in human existence.
- Social: Connecting and engaging with others and our communities in meaningful ways.
- Environmental: Fostering positive interrelationships between planetary health and human actions, choices, and well-being.
Small Changes Can Go a Long Way
It is important to set realistic goals. Consider the place you’re in now related to your time, energy, mental health, and access to services and care. This will avoid the feeling of failure and quitting wellness goals. Here are some small ways to improve your wellness for the New Year.
- Eat a Rainbow: Include foods that are bright in color like bananas, berries, bell peppers, and carrots. Different colored foods have many different ways of benefiting your body. Here are some healthy tips and recipes that will benefit your diet and mental health:
- Get in touch with friends you haven’t checked in with for a while. Building social circles even in the smallest ways has been proven to lengthen a person’s life.
- Wake up earlier: Waking up early has been proven to change a person’s stress level, confidence, and peace of mind. Start by waking up 10 minutes earlier, and once that becomes easier move the time to what you can adjust to.
- Be willing to start again: Remember that “falling off the horse” is also an important step in learning to ride the horse. Setting realistic goals will help make getting back on track less daunting.
- Drink More Water: Our Body is made up of 60% of water. Drinking 64 oz a day significantly impacts mental clarity, healthy skin, physical health, and other healthy habits.
FYI+ Gives you Access to Wellness
There’s no question that Wellness Lifestyle has become a lucrative market in our economy. At times it can feel hard to practice wellness because it feels unaffordable or out of reach. North America spends the most on Wellness services in the world. It is a $282.7 billion dollar market with the average consumer spending over a thousand dollars each month.
Which begs the question: who has the access to wellness?
Because FYI+ believes Wellness is an important part of our mission, we have many ways to address the needs for a healthy lifestyle.
- Mental: Outpatient Therapy Services are available to families, individuals, couples, and chosen families.
- Physical: Free dance and yoga classes are offered to youth and adults.
- Social: We offer open mics, House of Khalo socials, classes for youth, and community events to help develop social support.
- Spiritual: Our therapists and providers are trained to be sensitive to all walks of life and can assist participants in learning to incorporate spirituality into their healing, recovery, and wellness lifestyle.
- Environmental: We work with youth and families who need help when creating safe environments. The La Vida Project (located at 118 S. Main Dr in Las Cruces) is known for being an affirming space for the LGBTQ+ Community. The Outdoor Legacy Project helps make sure everyone has a fair chance to explore nature. We want to create a strong link between young people and the outdoors.
- Emotional: Each aspect of the six dimensions of wellness enhances emotional support. Mental health support aids in managing and comprehending emotions, while physical activities reduce stress and anxiety, among other benefits.
Feeling Good Inside and Out
After the holidays, some people might feel a bit down or stressed about New Year resolutions, as mentioned in our December blog addressing Substance Use Disorder during the Holidays. It’s important to be kind to ourselves during this time.
Conclusion
January is a great time to think about being healthy and setting goals that are good for us. By understanding what wellness really means, and taking small steps toward our goals, we can improve our well-being and make 2024 really great. Let’s make this New Year happy, healthy, and full of new adventures!
To access local resources, programs, or services through Families and Youth Innovations Plus, please visit our website at fyinmplus.org to start your journey with us!