The goal of total wellness should be equal health in all these areas. How do you achieve this sort of balance? We’ll cover this more in detail in some future posts, but keep this in mind: Don’t neglect any area of your life.

I know this may sound simple, but it’s really hard to do, when you think about it. We are all busy all the time, and sometimes we slack off in things we shouldn’t.

Let’s consider one example:

You’re late coming home from work, and you forgot to put the chicken in the CrockPot that morning before you left. Or maybe you didn’t forget. Maybe you just were in too much of a rush, so you left it undone.

So, it’s 7:30, and your kids are whining that they’re hungry. You’re too frazzled to want to listen to it, so you stop by the nearest McDonald’s and pick up some chicken nuggets and fries. Dinner problem solved, but you’ve neglected a very important component of wellness — the physical. And, let’s be honest, a little while after you eat that fast food, you’re going to feel really bad emotionally because fast food consumption almost always leads to a sugar crash.

How do I know this?

Unfortunately, I’ve learned from experience — a LOT of experience. Getting rushed can lead to poor health choices, which can lead to some other negative emotional and physical effects.

Total Wellness Is Just That — Total!

As you can see, one of these wellness aspects can affect all the others. Balancing wellness may take a little time and practice, but you can do it. Just take it one day at a time — and when I say take it one day at a time, I mean SCHEDULE one day at a time. Concentrate on one wellness component per day until you get in the habit of doing them all, and then you can more easily incorporate all of them into the same day.

Here’s a sample schedule:

MONDAY: Emotional wellness — Make a list of 20 things you are greatly for and meditate on those things for five minutes in the morning before you start your day.

TUESDAY: Spiritual wellness — Take the first 30 minutes of your day and pray and meditate about positive things. Then pray about what you read and ask God to show you what it is you need to apply to your life. There’s always something, so be sure to wait a moment in silence and listen for His answer. If you seek Him, you will find Him.

WEDNESDAY: Physical wellness — Buy a multivitamin and incorporate it into your morning routine. This literally takes about ten seconds, so you have no excuse not to do it. You can even set reminders on your phone so you won’t forget.

THURSDAY: Mental wellness — Take about 10 to 15 minutes to write out some of your most important goals — for the day, week, and month. The critical thing here is to make the goals REALISTIC. You want these goals to be something you can achieve quickly. Instant (or near-instant) success leads to greater feelings of competence — and greater mental wellness.

FRIDAY, SATURDAY, and SUNDAY: Pick three of the things you did on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and do them all on these days. By now, you should start to see how easy it is to make healthier lifestyle choices.