She wants you to take stock of all aspects of your wellness and turn 2020 into the year you become more fully you. “What’s holding you back from being your highest, truest, purest vision of yourself?” Winfrey is asking as she travels across America hosting massive wellness rallies in conjunction with WW (the new name for Weight Watchers as it expands into wellness rather than just weight loss), where she has become a part owner. “As long as there is breath, there is more. What is your more?” she asks. RELATED: The Ultimate Winter Wellness Guide
Wellness Equals Balance
For Winfrey, a life of wellness starts with the basics, she said at her January 4, 2020, event in Fort Lauderale, Florida. Wellness is more than not being sick. It is a balance of body, mind, and spirit. Everyone’s balancing points are unique, she emphasizes, and they constantly shift over time, which is why wellness is a lifelong journey. Avigdor Arad, PhD, the director of the Mount Sinai PhysioLab, a nutrition and exercise physiology clinic in New York City, agrees that everyone needs to start viewing wellness in a broader sense. “Wellness is not just a physical state, it’s also mental and spiritual. It’s all connected,” he says, noting, for example, that when people are managing diabetes, mental health issues such as depression are also more likely to occur. Winfrey points to 1988 as a time when she wasn’t in balance. She had famously turned to drinking shakes rather than eating food as a way to vanquish weight issues. She lost 67 pounds and weighed 142, her thinnest ever (remember when she hauled in a wagon with 67 pounds of animal fat?). But she says her starving body was neither happy nor healthy, and as soon as she began eating again, the weight piled on. Today her ideal target weight is higher, but it is right for her. Another important aspect of wellness for Winfrey is presence. Quieting the chatter in your head “leads to clarity, and ultimately, to the joy of being alive,” she said. Presence also helps you de-stress, because you’re better able to accept things that are happening that you cannot change, like being stuck in traffic behind an open bridge. Fortunately, becoming more present doesn’t require sitting on a meditation cushion for hours. Oprah starts her day with a few minutes of quiet. Then periodically throughout the day she “goes inside” to access her peaceful center. “You are worthy of quiet time,” she said, urging people to carve out a handful of moments even on the busiest of days. Another wellness basic: sufficient sleep. “If you don’t get enough sleep, you are automatically out of balance,” she said. In fact, sleep is right up there for good health along with proper eating, exercise, and not smoking, says Afifa Shamim-Uzzaman, MD, a sleep medicine physician at the University of Michigan Sleep Disorders Center in Ann Arbor. Sleep plays a role in regulating so many systems of the body, including the immune system, the thyroid, appetite, thinking, and more, she says. RELATED: A Complete Guide to Meditation
Time to Get Clear on Your Values
Rather than setting a specific goal, Winfrey wants you to focus on what she calls wellness intentions. The difference is that an intention has purpose behind it. It isn’t just that you want to get to the gym more often; it’s that you want a stronger body so you can travel more or just enjoy your day-to-day life more. “Intention is the why behind the why,” she explained. Dawn Mussallem, DO, a family physician at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, who specializes in helping cancer patients boost their lifestyle, likes Winfrey’s use of the word “intention.” Intention has a broader connotation than “goal,” she notes. And importantly, you’re less likely to feel like a failure if you don’t immediately fulfill your intention as you might if you don’t reach a goal. To begin the process of uncovering your wellness intentions, ask yourself what in your current life or in your past “makes you feel energized, connected, and empowered.”
Take Stock of Where You Are
Before you can get to where you want to be, it helps to understand where you are. That’s why Winfrey urges people to first take stock of themselves. This is another good approach, Dr. Arad says, noting that just as you check your bank balance to know where your finances stand, you should assess aspects of your health. To help you take stock of the various parts of your health and life that add up to overall wellness, Winfrey and WW have created a set of questions to ask yourself about your body, mind, and spirit. Answer truthfully about where you actually now are, not where you wish you could be, she emphasizes. Nutrition Are you eating a lot of vegetables and fruits, and avoiding prepackaged fare as much as possible? Are your portion sizes moderate? Are you drinking sufficient water throughout the day? Movement Do you incorporate movement into your daily actions, such as by taking the stairs and getting up from your desk chair if you’re sitting too long? Are you exercising for at least two and a half hours each week? When you wake up in the morning, do you feel rested? Emotions and stress Are you managing stressful situations in a healthy way, rather than by drinking, smoking, overeating, or using other compensating behaviors? Can you process difficult feelings or do you run from them? Are you sensitive enough to notice how other people in your life are feeling? Learning Are you curious to discover new things, people, and places? Are you engaged in activities that challenge your mind? And when new information comes to you, are you able to change your mind or do you remain obstinate? Work Does the work you do line up with your values? Do you still care about the quality of your output, or is your job simply about the paycheck? Relationships Do you spend enough time with other people, especially those who bring out your best qualities? Are your relationships satisfying to you? And — a big one for women — are you not ruled by your need to please? Purpose Are your life choices giving you meaning? Do you feel connected to something larger than you? Are you excited about each new day? It might seem odd that topics like work and learning are part of a wellness assessment, but Dr. Mussallem says Winfrey is right on target. Continually learning new things keeps our brain healthy and also energizes us, Mussallem says. And work — something we spend so much time doing — contributes to our sense of purpose, which we need to feel to have true well-being, she says. RELATED: Purpose in Life Is Good for Your Health
Now Commit and Take Steps
Once you’ve gotten clarity on where you now are and where you are heading, you’re ready to take actions that will get you there. “The space to live in is not ‘I’ll try.’ It’s ‘I have decided,’” Winfrey said in her talk. Set goals to get you toward fulfilling your intentions. Don’t be afraid that they might be too big. When 225 under-active men and women were asked to set goals for how many minutes they could be physically active each day, those who set higher goals were indeed exercising more even six months later, according to a study published in December 2018 in the journal PLoS One. As you move forward, check in with yourself periodically to assess what’s working. Introduce new activities (plan an adventure with friends, find a workout buddy for your exercise, take up a new activity or sport) to keep yourself inspired. Then celebrate every bit of progress you make toward becoming that higher, truer, purer vision of you — ideally by treating yourself to indulgent self-care, and not a huge piece of pie.
