3 Steps to Create Intentional Wellbeing (And Healthy Boundaries)
Radiant wellbeing is often not a straight line or easy path for many of us. It takes deep intention and commitment not just to optimise our physical health, but as importantly to invest in our mental, as well as our emotional and spiritual wellbeing.
Like any important aspect of our life, creating and maintaining our wellbeing takes work, but it is arguably the most important work of our lives. We want to consciously create wellbeing with the actions that we take every single day, not just hoping for the best with random strategies.
Here’s a simple 3-step process you can follow to become more intentional about your wellbeing.
STEP ONE: REFLECT AND GET CLEAR
I invite you to take a moment now to really reflect on your wellbeing:
- How are you feeling?
- Are you where you want to be physically? Mentally? Emotionally? Spiritually?
- Do you feel like one of these 4 components (physical, mental, emotional, spiritual) is suffering or feeling more neglected than the others?
- What are the aspects of your wellbeing that you really want to invest some time and energy into and make sure you’re giving them the attention they deserve?
- Is it your sleep? Your nutrition? Developing a consistent exercise routine?
- Finding mental clarity and focus? Experiencing more positive emotions and joy? Feeling a deeper sense of purpose? Recharging your batteries more frequently? Being more self-compassionate?
You get to choose what feels most important to you and decide to become intentional about cultivating that aspect of your wellbeing.
STEP TWO: SET YOUR WELLBEING GOALS
You might like to set some specific wellbeing goals for yourself so you’re clear on exactly what you’re trying to create and you have a way of tracking your progress. There’s no right or wrong way of doing this, but what we know from the research is that even the act of writing down your goal significantly improves your chances of successfully achieving it because your brain encodes the information, meaning that you remember it better.
STEP THREE: IMPLEMENT BOUNDARIES TO PROTECT YOUR WELLBEING
Once you’ve set your wellbeing goals, it’s time to get super clear on the boundaries you’ll need to implement. They are an incredibly important factor when it comes to your wellbeing because when you have effective boundaries, you’re honouring and protecting what you’ve declared is most important to you.
Think about the time and energy you’ll need in order to take these action steps towards your wellbeing and what boundaries you’ll need to protect that time and energy. You might need to have a boundary around when you turn your devices off at night so that you can get good quality sleep. You may need a boundary of scheduling blank space in your calendar every week to give you the time to rest and restore. Perhaps you need to talk to your boss about your working hours and have a boundary in place around your availability so you have the time you need to exercise.
There could be any number of boundaries that you need to set, but have a think about what will really allow you to protect your wellbeing and how you can prevent possible obstacles from getting in the way.
For more support with setting effective boundaries, you can check out our article on How to Set Effective Boundaries.