Wellness Is Our Natural State - Audio Blog

Claudette Esterine

Today's audio blog is on wellness and asks the question - how are you really?  Listen HERE.

Transcript

We often greet each other with the question, "How are you?"


Many times I have noticed that people do not stop to hear a complete answer. Is that because they are really not interested or is it that they know that your response, "I'm well," is not true? When you say "I am well," is this a routine, automatic response or are you really well?

In Jamaica there is a saying, "tek kin teet an kibba heart bun." Translation: smile and cover your heart ache. That kind of smiling we also call a plastic smile. It is pasted and set on your face, spread across your lips but if someone is really interested to know how you are doing, they just have to check your eyes to know the truth.

The dictionary defines 'Wellness' as "the state or condition of being in good physical and mental health." The World Health Organization says "wellness is an active process of becoming aware of and making choices toward a healthy and fulfilling life." Wellness, they state "is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity."

Going by that definition, most of us then simply are not well. We are not in a state of COMPLETE physical, mental and social well-being. Then why do we insist on responding "I'm well, thank you?" Could it be that we HOPE to be well? Or that we innately know that wellness is our natural state?

The McKinley Health Center's website states that: "Wellness is a state of optimal well-being that is oriented toward maximizing an individual’s potential. This is a life-long process of moving towards enhancing your physical, intellectual, emotional, social, spiritual, and environmental well-being."

A life-long process, one that we move towards. So we "fake it until we make it" each day.

Yet, some, many in fact might disagree as they see nothing "well" about aging. What I know for sure, one of my favourite statements by Oprah, is that aging or maturing as I prefer to say is not equivalent to degrading. It can be and it is for many and life does not improve nor do they become "well."

Yet, I have seen an abundance of "wellness" around me, people who are not only maturing in numbers but are getting "Weller." When I question them as to what explains their glow, the answers usually include a diet suited to their body type, lots of rest and relaxation, minimal to no stress, exercise and Love.

Never money but always love.

Internationally acclaimed medical doctor, cancer specialist and author, latest book being "The Art of Healing: Uncovering Your Inner Wisdom and Potential for Self Healing," Bernie Siegel puts it this way: "I am convinced that unconditional love is the most powerful known stimulant of the immune system. If I told patients to raise their blood levels of immune globulins or killer T cells, no one would know how. But if I can teach them to love themselves and others fully, the same changes happen automatically. The truth is: love heals."

In my own life I am experiencing more and more the healing power of love. With every day that I am able to expand my heart's capacity to love more, the more opportunities come to me to love. Not only that. I have also noticed windows and doors opening where they were once closed, improving my material well being. Substances be it healthier food, drinks, supplements, are coming to me and significantly improving preexisting conditions in my body.

My relationships with people are deepening and way more intimate and loving. Those that serves neither me nor the other party are removed from my experience. My intimate relationship is beyond compare! I have walked with a soulmate before but now, I have melded with another.

Am I well? Not completely based on the earlier definitions but I am getting there because as the classical hymn says, "It is well with my soul."

Wellness is a process of returning to Love. That would be my final answer. My question is, are you on the road?

Share your journey with us here, on our Facebook page or on Twitter.

Continue to have a super-well day!



Claudette Esterine is the Founder of Daughters of Sheba Foundation and Editor of our blog. She is a Jamaican-Canadian and a Free Spirit.