We know fitting anything else into your daily routine is hard. And let’s face it, self-care and wellness are the easiest things to leave out. You’re tough – you’re a teammate, parent, partner, community-involvement enthusiast, dinner-cookin’ rockstar, all-around super hero of a person who takes pride in getting it all done. Where does yoga, deep breathing, smoothies, and boundaries fit into your life? It doesn’t. And you’re quite alright without it.

Sound like you? Well, you’re barrelin’ straight ahead on the track with a one-way ticket to Burnoutville. Population: too many to count. 

Being everything for everybody is amazing. And worthy of an award that rivals the prestige of an Emmy. But to be everything to everybody, you have to be there for yourself, too. Yes, we know that sounds exhausting. 

So, let us take a bit off your plate and break down this wellness thing, so you can rest for a moment! 

Breathe in, breathe out. Ahhhhh.

In this three-part series, we’ll tell you what wellness is, if it’s worth the time, and how Surprise can help you in your wellness journey!

Wellness – what is it?

Wellness: The quality or state of being in good health especially as an actively sought goal.

This definition of wellness is straight from the Merriam-Webster dictionary. While this is a fine definition (who are we to argue with Merriam-Webster?), if it leaves the concept of wellness feeling as mysterious as when you first typed it into Google, you’re not alone!

It’s easy to associate “wellness” with over-priced yoga retreats led by hypocritical gurus who drive Rolls-Royces (we’re lookin’ at you, Bikram) and the cult of Lululemon (do you even care about fitness if you don’t own a pair Lulus that cost as much as your weekly grocery bill?!). After all, the global wellness industry is worth over $1.5 trillion. Even though it may be obvious, it’s important to take a second to dive into how wellness goes far deeper than what its new trend in popular culture may suggest.

So, grab your Super Green juice and don your fave “namaslay” tank – we’re here to break it all down!

Wellness in popular culture

A McKinsey consumer survey shows that consumers view wellness in six categories:

  • Better health
  • Better fitness
  • Better nutrition
  • Better appearance
  • Better sleep
  • Better mindfulness

The US National Library of Medicine and National Institutes of Health recognizes eight different dimensions of wellness:

  • Physical
  • Intellectual
  • Emotional
  • Social
  • Spiritual
  • Vocational
  • Financial
  • Environmental

As you can tell, the consumer version of wellness only falls into about half of the above wellness dimensions. Which is why when many of us hear the term “wellness”, we have visions of acai bowls dancing around our heads. Wellness has exploded onto the market with the promise of shiny new products and services that guarantee to be the magic elixir we’ve all been waiting for (can someone please tell us how green “veggie” gummies can be a substitute for eating actual vegetables?!). Wading through all of the gimmicks and fads can be exhausting! Especially since if you’re already researching wellness, you’re most likely already a bit run-down.

The Reality of a Wellness Lifestyle

Wellness is not just some fancy magic potion, a fitness class we take, or jumping on the new athleisure trend. It’s a lifestyle that we choose and take the time to implement into all aspects of our lives.  And like anything that we make a main pillar of our lives, it takes a lot of work, trial and error, and discipline for it to be effective. 

To live a balanced life, all eight dimensions of wellness are ideally taken into account when you create your personalized approach to your wellness practice. In our next post, we’ll take a look at the data and see if this holistic approach to wellness is really worth the commitment (spoiler alert: it most definitely is!).

Allie Demopoulos is a Content Copywriter at Surprise.com. A writer and producer, she believes that humor is the greatest tool and that the best of anything–comedy, music, stories–are experienced in basements. When she’s not creating, you can find her in the electric streets of Manhattan, a place she feels lucky to call home.