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National Wellness Month and Me Time Monday

August 1, 2024

By Sherri Snelling

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In celebration of National Wellness Month this August, I share insights from my book, “Me Time Monday – The Weekly Wellness Plan to Find Balance and Joy for a Busy Life.” I begin with this description of wellness from the introduction to the book:

“Most people think of wellness as a new diet or exercise routine, maybe with a little meditation thrown in. As you read this book, the “wellness diet” is not about eating or nutrition (at least not entirely). It is actually a diet as Hippocrates defined the term which are the healing arts behind a lifestyle seeking well-being and joy. Wellness is now seen everywhere but not everything you hear or read will help your well-being. Me Time Monday is more about the personal happiness you create not what wellness products are promoting.

The paradox of many wellness plans is they make you feel like you are failing if you are not perfect. They also focus on problem-solving instead of strength-building. We are going to ditch all the noise pollution around cleanses, creams and snake oil solutions and instead take a fun but fact-filled road trip on this journey of self-care. You will see the Me Time Monday program looks at wellness as a lifelong pursuit not perfection.”

— “Me Time Monday” by Sherri Snelling ©2023

What I learned about wellness in my research for the book is that as we look around today – everything is wellness: wellness resorts, wellness pillows, wellness tuna fish, wellness shampoo, wellness tourism, wellness for pets, etc. In January, 2023, as I was writing my book, #wellness had been used in 61 million Instagram posts and had 8.5 billion views on Tik Tok.

Yet, wellness is not new or trendy. It is an ancient practice of the Greeks, Romans, Indians, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and other holistic practices from thousands of years ago.

In my book and in the workshops and webinars I do, I couple ancient wellness practices with the traditional model for balance in gerontology of Biology + Psychology + Sociology or what we call the BPS model.. I break that down into seven elements of life: Physical, Emotional, Social, Intellectual, Environmental, Financial and Spiritual (read more about the power of 7).

I also embraced the neuroscience of the “ancient brain.” This concept is what sustained human survival on the African savanna 2-3 million years ago and is what calms us and brings life back into balance today. It is the practice of focusing on multisensory activities – those using your five senses – which are optimized when the activity is practiced in a nature or outdoor setting with lush trees and flora.

Multisensory activity, especially when coupled with nature, helps reduce stress and brings the body back into balance.

In addition, I studied the hormones that are strongly tied to happiness or what I call the “Four Hormones Against the Apocalypse” meaning if you are feeling stressed, anxious or depressed, realizing you have power to harness these hormones to flip the script is an essential part of wellness.

I then added in the concept of small, baby steps or just 7 minutes a day (or week if you are a busy caregiver) and using Monday as your touchstone for maintaining balance through a weekly cadence of check-ins with yourself. This became the alchemy of Me Time Monday as I have been practicing in my workshops for employees for the last decade.

The 7 Elements of Wellness

In my workshops and webinars I provide insights into the 7 elements of wellness from my book. The key is that wellness practices are not about telling you what you must do but opening your eyes to what is possible and then helping you personalize your wellness practice to best fit your lifestyle. Most of these practices can be done in 7 minutes and don’t cost a dime.

Wellness is instructive, not prescriptive.

–Me Time Monday by Sherri Snelling

PHYSICAL

In my book and workshops I not only talk about the importance of sleep for health and wellness but why 7-8 hours of sleep is vital – because as the body goes to sleep, the brain goes to work to repair cells, remove toxins and debris from the emotions of the day and help us reinvigorate for the following day.

Emotional

One of my favorite learnings from my gerontology graduate classes was “flow” theory of happiness. I explain in the book how we need to go from FOMO to JOMO (joy of missing out) using the principles of flow theory.

Social

Numerous studies show us that it is our social fitness that is the best predictor of health, happiness and longevity. We not only need a digital detox, we need to find better balance between our URL relationships (social media, texting) and our IRL (in real life) relationships that maximize our ability to unleash our four feel good hormones for happiness, expecially oxyticin.

Intellectual

It is not enough to work out our bodies from the neck down, wellness requires we also work out from the neck up. It is critical to choose brain exercises, not brain games, to maximize your potential for neuroplasticity – building better connections between brain neurons. And, going back to the multisensory nature of stress relief, using our five senses of Sight, Sound, Smell, Taste and Touch works out the whole brain because these senses are in different regions of the brain. Think of it as cross-training for brain health.

Environmental

One of my favorite wellness elements is environmental. Understanding how our environments play a key role in our wellness is essential to finding better balance in life. These images pull in not only the 5 senses but the ancient brain’s craving for nature elements – this is the power of biophilic design.

Financial

We all know how finances can impact our mental health – anxiety, stress, depression can be exacerbated or created because our financial wellness is not what it should be. It becomes essential to have a plan as we age for financial wellness and resiliency and that includes not only knowing about costs of long-term care that we will encounter for ourselves and as we become caregivers for our older loved ones, but also ensuring we are investing in our personal Joyconomy. We cannot control the U.S. or global economies but we can control our own happiness yet we need to invest in those activities that bring joy.

Spiritual

Very often we are good at our physical or social health but lack spiritual wellness. It is essential to believe in a higher power, to experience awe and wonder. Many caregivers talk about feeling “all alone” and yet with a strong spiritual wellness practice, you are never alone. I find my spiritual wellness in sunsets at the beach, it reminds me that there are always endings and beginnings and that I am a small part of this vast, beautiful world God created for us so I have to be grateful, find strength and resiliency and believe.

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