Last Friday, I had the privilege of hosting an instagram live session on the Eko Wellness platform. I am a member of Eko Wellness, a group of wellpreneurs who have come together to make a difference. The session was about cancer and the guest was Dr. Patrick Ijewere of Carib Health.

This post is about the key facts I took from the session. It’s not about cancer but about wellness which we touched on. It was interesting to find out that we all have abnormal cells floating around in our bodies. What happens to these cells are totally dependent on us – We create our wellness.

As our state of wellness is the basis of whether illness/disease exist, the pillars of wellness struck me as super important.

Spirituality

This has to do with values, beliefs, faith, principles and morals. All these factors affect how we think and view things, eventually affecting our health. Spirituality is how we find meaning, peace, hope, love, and joy.

Dr. Ijewere gave an example of people who have the ‘God forbid, it will never happen to me attitude’. These people simply focus on things not happening to them that when they do happen (not in all cases), they hold on to this attitude and prayers, not opening up to the other solutions that God has created (naturally or through man). These people focus not on taking care of themselves but on what could possibly not happen to them.

Mindset

Closely related to spirituality as our thinking and opinions are affected by spirituality. Our thoughts become reality. What we focus on creates our state of wellness or illness. A negative mindset limits the ability to reach optimal physical, mental, and social well-being. Unforgiveness is linked to illnesses such as depression, cancer and other health conditions. One who focuses on negative emotions breeds disease.

Nutrition

Nutrition plays a key role in wellness. We have been blessed with an abundance of foods packed with so many health benefits. A diet loaded with more raw and fresh fruits, less/zero processed foods helps maintain a healthy body. Lots of people struggle with eating right and therefore try one fad diet or the other. The key to eating better is not in these diets but in seeing wellness as a lifestyle. It’s all in the mind, that’s where it starts. If you haven’t made up your mind to nourish your body for optimum health and long life, you will keep trying short-term diets.

Lifestyle

Certain lifestyle choices can promote good health and a long healthy life. These include physical activity, rest, relaxation, recreation and other social habits (smoking, alcohol consumption…). Seems like an easy list, right? It is an easy list. Once you have made up your mind that you need to take care of yourself, that’s it. Getting 30 minutes of physical activity daily, getting enough sleep, taking out time to relax, hanging out with friends and family, playing physical games and other activities can improve wellness.

Environment

Our internal and external environments affect our state of wellness. The home environment is very important. The state of our bedrooms, chemicals used around the house, the presence or absence of plants, sleeping with electronic devices on…. these all matter. Think about these – indoor and outdoor air quality, water quality, chemicals used for cleaning, sights and sounds (noise – television, phones, laptops, news, social media). We might not be able to control the external environment but we can control the home environment. Practices, like sleeping without the television on and having plants at home, can make a difference.

Just like God, we are creators (created in His image). We create wellness or illness. The choice is ours. I choose wellness, how about you?