Wellness means: Awareness of the Self

To me, wellness means awareness of self.

It’s our connection with our truth and the gifts we were given. It’s our connection to our mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual selves—and to the people and world around us.

It’s not just eating well and moving often.

It’s asking yourself:

What are you engaging with?

How open is your heart?

What are you consuming on a daily basis that isn’t food? (Content, news, negative Nellies...)

Do you tend to your body and your emotions, or do you avoid them?

Do you have the hard conversations, or do you brush them off and pretend everything's fine to keep the peace?

Do you do the things that light you up and bring you joy, or do they keep getting knocked off the priority list?

And then there’s your belief system.

What do you believe about yourself? About your body? About what you’re capable of? About what you deserve? About how life is supposed to work?

And where did those beliefs come from?

Which ideas are actually yours—and which ones have you absorbed from your family, culture, society, religion, relationships, media, or experiences and simply assumed were your own?

How much of what you believe have you consciously chosen, and how much have you been programmed to believe?

Wellness, to me, is having deep self-awareness of your experience and your truth—and honoring it, expressing it, loving it, and embodying that love in the world.

Authentic self-expression is one of the most powerful healing practices we have.

Having the safety and freedom to express what you feel, what you think, what you desire, what you need, and who you are is part of being fully alive. Whether that expression comes through your voice, your creativity, your movement, your relationships, or simply the way you choose to show up in the world—we are meant to express ourselves, not suppress ourselves.

And we aren’t meant to do any of this alone.

We are wired for connection. We thrive in community spaces where we are seen, heard, supported, challenged, celebrated, and reminded that we’re not the only ones who feel like an alien on this spinning rock in space.

There is something deeply healing about being able to show up as your whole self and be met with compassion rather than judgment. To share what’s real, listen to what’s real for someone else, and remember that we are all human beings moving through this experience together.

It’s not just eating fruits and vegetables, measuring your caloric intake, getting your 10,000 steps in, or going to the gym just to check it off the "to do" list. Those things can absolutely support our wellbeing—but what is the relationship underneath them?

Are you moving your body because you love it and want to care for it? Or are you moving because you’re afraid of gaining weight? Because you hate your body? Because you feel like you have to punish yourself for what you ate?

Are you pushing yourself past your limits because you’re listening to your body and challenging yourself in a way that feels supportive—or because you’ve learned to ignore what your body is telling you in order to be “good enough”?

The action might look the same from the outside, but the relationship underneath it can be completely different.

Wellness, to me, is learning to care for yourself from a place of love rather than fear, punishment, or shame.

It’s being aware of your energy. How you REALLY feel. What your body is communicating. How you show up in the world and treat others—which can often be a reflection of how you treat yourself.

Give yourself permission to express what is true for you, take action on your intuition, and surround yourself with others who do the same.

Not only so you can make your dreams come true, but so you can contribute to making this world a more heart-centered, kind, generous, and loving place.

Because it starts with you.

It starts within.