Whole Person Wellness Series

This article is part of a series explaining in detail a complete model of whole person wellness.   If you’ve come across this article before reading my introductory piece The Six Components of Whole Person Wellness, I encourage you to refer back to this article as a starting point for the definition of whole person wellness, and an introduction to its six components.

The sixth topic in this series is enjoyment:

• Health
• Career
• Relationships
• Personal Growth & Development
• Finance
• Enjoyment

Whole Person Wellness – Enjoyment

Where does enjoyment fit into the picture of whole person wellness?  If I were to ask you what the top 3 most important thing in life were, I’d be shocked if enjoyment, or ‘joy’, or another deviation of the meaning of this word (such as happiness) were not present in your answer.  If I were to put it another way – How can someone be well if they do not enjoy life?  Even scientific studies are starting to link emotional wellness with wellness in the physical sense.  Being an astute observer to your state of enjoyment can bring you immensely positive outcomes.

Enjoyment takes Living in the Moment

Now, if I were using the list above to assess my own personal wellbeing (as I encourage you to do), enjoyment would be the area I admit to needing to continually focus on.  It’s not that I am not a happy person, in fact I am very pleased with my life and wouldn’t change a thing.  My challenge is with staying in the moment.  Whereas I am not your typical ‘type A’ personality (that which is often linked to driven behavior, the desire to win, and often times anger and rage), I do have tendencies to continually think about the future, often bypassing the opportunities to love what is happening in the moment.  I think about what my business will look like in 10 years.  I plant trees and aspire for the day they are large enough to provide shade in our yard.  I imagine life when my kids are old enough to play tennis.  While its normal and healthy to have strong aspirations for the future, its also incredibly important to recognize that life occurs in the now as our enjoyment is not intended to be projected to another point in time.  

When I went through my personal development course work with the Academy for Coaching Excellence, we went through an introspective process where we identified our greatest personal holdbacks.  Through the process – I was given the trait called ‘This isn’t it’.  My interpretation of this process was that I have a tendency to continually look on for the bigger and better thing.  After I find that thing, I question if it was really the right thing, and off I go, looking for and continuing my journey towards the next great thing.  When I do this, I know I am not living in the now and my enjoyment is limited.  Truly, what I am doing now never quite feels like it ‘is’ it! 

I personally believe that many of us feel that ‘this isn’t it’.  Maybe its not the right boyfriend, not the right house, the wrong job, and even if it is it, then we want to check something else out just to make sure.  Being conscious of this tendency is extremely valuable because it provides you with the capacity to do a personal check in when you feel that you may not be living in the moment.  Are you taking this opportunity right here and now to love life?  Tomorrow will have its unique challenges independent of what your expectations are, savor the moment – celebrate now.  Your capacity to manage your emotions in the present is the key to long lasting enjoyment.  This will be the skill that allows you to appreciate and enjoy life in the now, independent of what changes the future brings.  This is the true personal development path that leads to successful mastery of enjoyment.

Joy and Gratitude

Joy is a feeling, one when it is experienced to the fullest has strong components of gratitude built in.  When we use the word enjoyment, often we use it on the micro level to describe how much we liked an event, rather than the macro level of our life experience.  While its common to say, I enjoyed the movie or I enjoyed the basketball game, that in itself does not bring joy into our lives.  Joy is deeper, more personal, and it has a contagious quality about it.  It does not have the temporary quality of filling our lives with activity that brings about immediate pleasure. 

For those that are considering how to bring more true enjoyment into their lives, think of the ways that allow you to express your joy.  This means aligning who you are with what you do – this is the true source of joy and macro level enjoyment.  Give more of your true self to others.  Its quite simple.  If that is difficult, begin with gratitude and let the joy flow.  Today, I received an email from a close friend that his son underwent open heart surgery because he was born 3 months premature.  My heart goes out to him and I wish he and his family the best in health.  It was also an opportunity for me to experience profound gratitude for our healthy beautiful 2 children.  Living in gratitude is the pathway to joy, joy is meant to be expressed with others through our acts of enjoyment. 

Questions for self inquiry

• Do you find yourself becoming frustrated because there are so many things you need to do to get to where you want to be in life?
• How do you envision that time to be in the future? 
• Since we’re capable of any feeling and emotion regardless of our external environment, how would it be to embrace that feeling you envision in the future right now?  What would it take to do this now?
• What are you grateful for (make a list)?  How do you express your gratitude to others?
• How do you celebrate life?  When was the last time you celebrated life (in any way shape or form)?
• Can you celebrate without needing an ‘event’ to mark the celebration?
• Do you take time deliberately allocated to enjoying yourself (or living in the moment) – as you would to going to the gym?

In Conclusion

This article wraps up the series of articles on Whole Person Wellness.  If you have not had the opportunity to read through the other articles, I strongly encourage you to do so.  It is the intent of these articles to help you raise consciousness to the key components of wellness, and for you to be able to use these as a litmus test to see if there are areas in your current life that could use focus and attention. 

When one undergoes an introspective process into their own personal wellness such as these articles guide you through, they seldom recognize the courage it takes to deliberately align their lives with these principles.  So many never get to the point that you have in facing their own wellness.  Its easier distract oneself, to tune out, and to live life on cruise control.  You, however, have embarked upon a journey few dedicate the time to consider.  For that, I acknowledge your courage, your purpose, and dedication to self improvement.

Be Well

Related Articles:

• The Six Components of Whole Person Wellness
• Whole Person Wellness Part 1 – Your Health
• Whole Person Wellness Part 2 – Your Career
• Whole Person Wellness Part 3 – Relationships
• Whole Person Wellness Part 4 – Personal Growth & Development
• Whole Person Wellness Part 5 - Finance