Finding wellness

What does wellness mean to you? 

Tips on wellness might include drinking more water, taking walks,meditating and finding “me” time. While that’s all well and good, such suggestions require a certain luxury and privilege. They require time, if not other resources. How then can a single mother of three, working multiple jobs to stay afloat find an opportunity for increased wellness? What about a teenager in a group home who must request a pass or be accompanied to go on a walk? 

Calls for better wellness are ineffective at best when individuals can in no way live up to our definition of it. 

That’s not to say that wellness isn’t important. Everyone should have the chance for self-care, for improved mental and physical health. But for that to happen, we as a society must work to make it more accessible to everyone, without judgment. We must recognize the barriers in place for all individuals and determine how best to eliminate them. We must, in a sense, increase our society’s overall wellness so as to increase the individual’s.

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