Spring clean your health

Chirping birds, blooming flowers, lawn mowers humming in the background—what’s the common link here? It may just be another day in the Sunshine State, but these are also the telltale signs that spring is upon us.

The spring season is a time for rebirth, growth and renewal. It’s a time of emerging from the dark and dreary winter and jumping forward to days of more sunlight and warmer temperatures.

With this crawl out of hibernation, people often talk about spring cleaning, dusting off the proverbial cobwebs that may have accumulated during the winter months. We can take the spring clean mentality and relate it to our personal well-being. The New Year oftentimes gets all the recognition as the ideal time to tackle new health habits and improve your wellness, but why not make your personal health the focus year round?

If you’re looking to spring clean your health this season, take a look at some of the areas of personal wellness and see where you might like to take a start.

• Social wellness includes maintaining good relationships, caring for others and letting others care for you, and contributing to your community. To focus on this area you may try to prioritize your schedule to make time for social activities you enjoy. 
• Emotional wellness focuses on understanding and respecting your feelings and those of others. A big part of this area is being equipped to deal with the varying human emotions. It’s not always easy, and sometimes you may need help from trusted confidants or licensed professionals, like those at Baptist Behavioral Health.
• Intellectual wellness encourages us to engage in creative and mentally stimulating activities. Learn a new language, pick up a hobby, read, or write—the options are endless!
• The Spiritual wellness element can be the most personal piece of the puzzle. This area is rooted in personal values, beliefs, and purpose. If this is an area you are looking to focus on, try by starting to identify your “why”.
• Financial wellness may look completely different when looking person to person, but in a nutshell, this area includes managing your resources, making informed spending decisions and setting realistic goals. Want to start here? Get an idea of your monthly expenses and then formalize a budget.
• Physical wellness is often the dimension of personal wellbeing that most think about when we talk about health and wellness. This focus includes caring for your body to stay healthy now and in the future. The best way to do this? Find a 904-202-4968 that you’ll want to go see at least every year. 
• The average person spends more than 90,000 hours in their lifetime at work. This can be extremely taxing if you’re in a position that doesn’t align with your personal values. Vocational wellness is centered on participating in work that provides personal satisfaction. To feel well in this area, work a job that aligns with your personal values and/or develop a career path that provides meaning.

Spring cleaning your health and identifying changes you’d like to make can be hard. Start with one thing you’d like to implement or improve and plan a few steps that will help you get there. Refer to your plan when things get hard, and give yourself permission to change the plan and reroute if needed.

Baptist Health’s 4her program has nurse wellness coaches who can assist in cleaning up your personal wellness. If you’d like to learn more or to request an appointment, please visit Baptist Health 4her. 

Our guest columnist is Kelly Distler, MS, CHES, program coordinator for the 4her program at Baptist Health.

Sources: Gettysburg College 

UC Davis

US National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health