Creating a health and wellness vision—and why it matters

Photo by Matt Noble on Unsplash

You’re thinking about setting a new health and wellness goal for yourself, and you’re pretty sure you know what you want to do, and you have an idea of how long you think it might take. Now ask yourself why you want to do it.

Some of the quick answers that may come to mind:  I want to feel better, I want to look better, I want to have more energy, my friend/parent/partner wants me to do this and I think I should. These are all valid starting points, and they are usually the reasons that get you over the threshold to begin a new habit or routine. But if they aren’t grounded in a long-term vision for yourself, they may lack the substance to keep you going when the going gets tough.

In another post we’ll talk about values-driven change and harnessing your core motivations. But for now, let’s start thinking about waving a magic wand, and traveling to the future where everything has gone according to plan and you can see yourself living your ideal life. You are healthy, happy, and thriving. You pull out your handy wellness wheel and each slice of the pie is full and balanced. This is your future self, and this is the health and wellness vision we want to explore in as much detail as possible, making it so vivid you can almost feel it now. This is the vision you will tap back into when you are confronted with the inevitable life challenges that make it so appealing to slide back into old habits that aren’t helping you to live the life you want to live.

Wellness Wheel: multi-dimensional aspects of health and well-being

So take some time to sit in quiet contemplation. In your mind, walk through a full day in the life of your ideal health and wellness vision. Access all of your senses if you can (consider signing up for a guided imagery session to draw out these details in vivid clarity). Notice what you see, smell, hear, taste, and feel inside and out. Notice where you are, who is with you, what you are doing. How do you feel in your body, mind, heart, and spirit? Now take some time to write down as much of these details as you can, or engage in another form of creative expression that gives you an artifact you can return to when you want to remind yourself of this vision.

Photo by pure julia on Unsplash

While this vision may feel like a distant dream now, you are fully capable of realizing this dream when you are ready to start taking the first steps. With your vision clearly defined, now you’re ready to assess which areas of your life would need to change in order to reach this ideal state. What is the most important and urgent for you to start with? Starting here, and breaking that change down into small, achievable steps, you are on your way to becoming this future version of yourself. Every time you revisit this wellness vision, you are reconnecting to that felt sense of what is possible and rekindling some of your most compelling motivations to make it happen. 

Keep the momentum going!

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