Define Wellness Blocks

 

The idea of health and wellness blocks came to me while I was vacationing in New Zealand.

 

I remember thinking about my work while participating in Denise Duffield-Thomas Money Bootcamp and how she talks about women’s money blocks.

 

It made sense to me that many of us suffer not only from money blocks but also health and wellness blocks.

 

I have seen the patterns before while researching about mindfulness, healthy eating, and chronic diseases. But it wasn’t until that moment that I was able to label it.

 

But what are health & wellness blocks?

Let me start by sharing with you a few examples from my own life.

 

I have tried dieting to feel better, I have joined pretty much all the gyms in my area at one point or another, again to try make me feel better about my body. All of these were “my way of making an effort” to focus on my overall well-being. None of them were actually sustainable for me.

 

What I didn’t realize at the time is that wellness is for the entire self, not just that one part of “me” I wasn’t happy with.

 

The second thing I learned was that in order to heal myself on the outside (fix that thing I didn’t like about my body, lose a few pounds/inches, or simply get rid off disease), I needed to first “fix” myself on the inside.

 

I tried traditional psychotherapy, I tried meditation, I tried yoga. All these tools got me closer and closer to understanding the underlying sabotages I continuously faced while trying to make my health and wellness a priority.

 

Going back to the original question: what are health and wellness blocks?

 

If health is defined as the state of being free of illness or injury, and wellness is defined as the state of being in good health especially as an actively pursued goal then health and wellness blocks are anything that interferes or sabotages us to get to be free of illness and pursue that as a goal.

 

A lot of times we create our own sabotages, hence why I call them health and wellness blocks and why I also believe we can release them.

 

The idea is that we create AWARENESS of our patterns and behaviors. With awareness comes a sense of understanding, and once we understand the ways we intervene with our health and/or wellness goals then we can set up a system or plan to release them.

 

Ultimately what we want is to create habits that align with not only our lifestyle but our core human being nature.

 

Here are 4 of the most common health & wellness blocks I found through research:

1. Extreme diets
2. Last priority syndrome
3. Perfectionism/procrastination
4. Living in Overdrive mode

 

Let’s break each of the sabotages down so you get a better understanding:

1. Extreme diets – someone who forces themselves to go on diets constantly to help with various issues regarding their health & well-being. Diets don’t teach us to listen to our bodies, to understand what works and what doesn’t and they are NOT sustainable.
2. Last priority syndrome – our to-do list includes everything and everyone first and we are dead last on that list. Kids, partners, parents, jobs, employees, employers, everyone else takes the front seat and we forget that we need to be our first priority in order to actually be present and provide the right care/example/performance with our surrounding environments.
3. Perfectionism/Procrastination – Waiting for X to happen so you can do Y for yourself (Y being: your health, and your overall well-being). Or simply putting off that doctor’s appointment, that annual check-up or even that lunch break because it can happen later, then later becomes next week’s thing, or next month’s thing. This can lead to bigger health issues, so pay attention.
4. Living in Overdrive mode – Meeting everyone’s outside expectations, living on the go-go-go and not taking breaks. Working hard, hustling, doing everything and beyond what you humanly can to the point where you may be cutting on hours of sleep!

 

Being honest, I struggled with all of these in the past. As of today, because of my awareness of default behavior and understanding that I am adapting to those blocks, I can recognize there is a bigger underlying issue I actually need to tackle. This helps me create an environment and a structure to shift the sabotages and let them go.

 

Habits are key here. To help you release each of those blocks I recommend the following formula:

 

 

Why action for 21 days – it is proven that in 21 days of constant action you can create a habit. This is why there are so many programs and exercise routines out there that promote people to stay consistent for 21 continuous days.

 

Remember, what we want to accomplish is to release those sabotages or wellness blocks in order to live a healthy and more aligned life.

 

If you would like to learn more about wellness freedom, check-out the Defy the Wellness Experts workshop.

 

In this workshop you will learn about your own definition of wellness for your life and start to take action without feeling overwhelmed.

 

Self-care is an act of self-love