Environment is a big part of the wellness wheel. What goes on in your life can make the difference between success and failure on your road back to wellness.

There are several things that make a home environment healthy. You have to think about the relationships with the people that live in the home. If you live alone, you can make your environment anything you want it to be. But if you live with others, you have to think about how it’s working.

Choose to be kind. You don’t always have to be right. Everything doesn’t have to be your way. Think about how you treat the other person and help them understand your needs too. This requires spending time in conversation. It requires apologizing when you are wrong. It requires grace to the other people living with you.

Divide the chores. If your wife works and you work, then you should both be doing half of the household chores. If your roommate is always cleaning up after you, that is not fair. If you both think you are doing 150% of what needs doing, then you are probably do about half each. Because we always think we do more than other people.

Check out these 7 self care habits that will change your life.

And men, if you do household chores, YOU ARE NOT HELPING YOUR WIFE. You are doing your share of taking care of your home. It’s not a favor to her to keep up your property, it’s a favor to you. It’s your home too.

Toxic home environment

Our homes are full of toxic chemicals. At our house, we only clean with baking soda and vinegar, so we don’t bring in many toxic chemicals to add. But everything we buy is full of toxins.

There is sizing in new materials such as clothing, towels, and sheets to make them look pretty in the store. Our carpets, flooring, building materials, couches, and more have tons of toxins in them, and these things off-gas into our homes. When we spend time at home, we are breathing them in and absorbing them through our skin.

How can we minimize what we absorb? There are several ways.

• Dust and clean often
• Buy really good quality air filters and keep them changed on time
• Vacuum the mattresses and cushions of your furniture as well as underneath them regularly
• Buy cleaners that aren’t full of more toxins. Vinegar cleans a lot of things.
• Get a good quality vacuum that keeps dust out of the air. A rainbow or something with a good HEPA filter will help.

Healthy living environment

House plants are a natural way to purify the air. They relieve stress, purify the air, remove odors and dust. Make sure your plants are not poisonous if you have small children or pets in the home. It’s good to have 2 plants per 100 square feet. But any plants you have will help.

Some houseplants that are great at purifying air are:

• Peace lily
• Boston fern
• Chrysantemums
• Spider plant
• Ivy
• Snake plant
• Plants with large leaves

Be healthy at home

Another great way to be healthy at home is decluttering. When your home is full of piles of junk, not only is it hard to keep clean, it creates confusion and anxiety.

Decluttering helps you find what you need and helps your life go more smoothly. It helps you think better. Decluttering boosts creativity too.

Before you buy, think about if you really need it. Make a rule that you have to get rid of two things for everything you bring in your home. And when getting rid of old stuff, if you haven’t used it in the last 6 months, you probably don’t need it.

Qualities of healthy home environment

To have a truly healthy home, you can create wellness zones. Relaxation zone, self-care zone, workout zone, and a place to create healthy food.

Relaxation zone

In your home, you should have a place that you can totally relax. It’s probably not on the couch vegged out in front of the tv. You may find it surprising, but tv is not really relaxing to your body or mind. Your relaxation zone should be a place you can unwind.

It should have comfortable chairs, pillows, and blankets. You can play relaxing music, read books or whatever helps you leave it all behind. It should have soft lighting. It should be a sanctuary for you.

At our house, we like to have a little essential oils in our relaxation zone. Lavender is our favorite. We like to get really good sheets, pillows, and blankets that help us get comfy. We like to sit on the couch and read books together or go outside in our vegetable garden. It’s amazing how picking a few weeds can help me leave a hard day’s work at work!

Self care zone

Your self-care zone can have positive notes to yourself, relaxing music, or whatever helps you take time for you to recharge. It can be the same area as your relaxation zone, but you can do more in it to rejuvenate yourself. A massager can work out sore muscles. A hot bath can help that too. You could read the Bible or a book that helps you get to where you want to be in life.

Taking time to do what you enjoy is a great way to recharge to be the best you at work and with your family that you can be.

Healthy home

The other two zones for a healthy home are more physical in nature when the first two were more mental. You have to take care of your body on the inside and out to really enjoy true wellness.

Workout zone

Exercise has tons of benefits. And there is something for everyone. If you hate running, that’s fine, do something you enjoy to move your body. Check this article out for different types of exercises and find one that works for you.

You can have a room or small corner that has dumbbells, a piece of cardio equipment, an exercise mat, a step, a stability ball, or a set of therabands. You could have your space be as elaborate or as simple as you want it to be. It could have multiple of these items, or just one of each, or just one type. It’s whatever works with your lifestyle.

Make sure it’s set out so that you will be reminded to use it. It can have a computer or DVD player to play exercise videos or youtube videos. It can have a music player so you can play inspiring music. Remember, this zone is for you and for the quality of your life! Make it special, inviting, and comfortable for you to use. And then remember to get in there and use it!

Food zone

The last and probably most important zone in your home is a place to make really healthy food. You can save a ton of money eating at home and if you cook from scratch, you are guaranteed to have healthier food than what you would get out. You need to try to eat a rainbow every day and if you eat out at all, you know it’s nearly impossible to get every color of the rainbow, or honestly any fruits and vegetables at all.

Nutrition is the most important building block of your health. Your body can’t heal, get stronger, or stay healthy without it. So make sure your food zone has a good set of knives, a good cutting board, a good surface to prepare food, and something to cook it on. A few pans and a good stove are paramount to health. You want to avoid chemicals and processed food because they destroy health.

Keep your kitchen clean and organized so you’re more willing to enjoy cooking. I don’t cook, my wife makes wonderful homemade meals for me and I appreciate it so much because I know that most of the good health I enjoy comes from her food and my workout commitment.

She really hates to cook, but she LOVES to make up new recipes and find ways for us to really enjoy healthy fruits and vegetables. It’s a creative outlet for her. So as long as I don’t beg for burritos every night like I used to, she enjoys making meals.

The times that I have helped her prepare food, I was amazed at what all goes into cooking a meal. She really is a superstar. She has learned to make everything taste amazing after years of trial and error. You should check out her roasted broccoli recipe or any of her recipes on her blog. They are really good! And this is my personal favorite.

She buys only free-range meats and eggs from farmers, we grow a lot of our fruits and vegetables in our garden, she buys a lot of produce as well and cleans it really well, and she doesn’t buy processed food.

You don’t have to eat all organics, but know where your food came from and what’s in it. The closer your food is to how God made it, the healthier it will be for your body.

Make sure your food zone has plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables available for you to grab instead of eating out. Make sure you have good quality food ready to go.

Once you get your home to be your sanctuary, it can be the foundation for many good choices and lifestyle changes to come.

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What is social wellness

Social wellness is the ability to connect with others and maintain strong personal relationships. It’s an important part of the wellness wheel and falls under the environment wedge. Being comfortable with who you are and surrounding yourself with positive people is a great way to work towards a great life and is an important step toward your fitness journey.

Here’s a dad joke for you:

Two windmills were sitting on a hill.

One asked the one humming, do you have a favorite song?

The other said, well, all my life I’ve been a heavy metal fan. Ha ha ha.

A strong social network is important, especially in times when you go through things, you have someone to lean on while you heal. It’s also important for your total wellness goal because having a workout partner or accountability partner will help you reach your goals.

It’s important for people to have good healthy relationships. 2020 has shown us that more than ever. It helps people become stronger to fight personal and community problems. We are better together. Social wellness helps people fight off anxiety, and different types of sickness improve your mood and immunity to illness.

Social wellness

Social wellness lets you share your life stories with others. This can make connections that last a lifetime. It helps you get involved in the community, growing you as a person. Learning about others and reaching out to others has so many benefits for both parties involved.

Benefits of social wellness

• Healthy interactions with others add years to your life
• It reduces the risk of stroke
• It helps fight disease
• Good social interactions encourage good habits such as communication, manners, and learning to express personal needs
• Social wellness helps with mental illness, improves memory and emotions
• Social wellness helps when coping with pain or loss

Total wellness

For total wellness improvement, you need to work in every area of the wellness wheel which are Exercise, Nutrition, Finances, Mind or spiritual and mental Environment or work, social, and home life, and Habits. It takes all of them to develop a truly healthy life and achieve total wellness.

It doesn’t happen all at once, it’s a process. So, take small actionable steps to work on every area, one at a time. You could make your goal for the new year to pick one wedge of the wellness wheel a month to focus on and make some goals to improve that wedge.

Social wellness examples

Take some time to build trust with someone you care about. Open up about your life, build your connection, and be yourself.

Volunteer and help someone in need. Do you know someone who needs a hand around their house? Do you know someone who could use a few groceries? You’ll help yourself more than even them if you give of yourself.

Join a group or club. Meet new people in your area by joining a sports team, the local theatre, or whatever you’re interested in. Maybe a quilting group or church. Or find community as well as exercise with a group fitness class.

Embrace your family and make time for them. You could plan an event or just invite them over for coffee. It doesn’t have to be anything grand. Just give your time.

Make sure to take care of negative relationships. You can’t achieve total wellness in your life without taking steps to remove toxic people from your life. If a relationship is totally one-sided or hurtful for you, let it go.

Social wellness activities

If you’re having trouble getting started, try one of these social wellness activities to get you going.

Go to the park, a fitness class, a dance class

Join groups in your community

Volunteer in your community

Get a new hobby

Take a group spa day or date night

Plan a regular lunch date with your mom or best friend (she might be the same person)

Call an old friend and catch up

Social wellness goals

Here are a few goals to work toward in your social wellness journey.

Know yourself, your limits and your needs

Own your part of your relationships, take responsibility

Stick to your word and don’t flake out on people

Don’t criticize others, worry about yourself

Appreciate yourself and what you see in others, there’s a lot of special things to see

Rekindle special relationships that you’ve let lag, you’ll be glad you put some time into it

Your social wellness is evolving all the time, so be mindful of how you treat it and yourself. You’ll begin to see small ways you can improve your overall health through social interactions and relationships with others.

For more ideas for your journey to wellness, check this out:

• 9 Simple Steps to Wellness

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