Simple Wellness Resolutions

Karen Poteat

January 3, 2020

Have you ever wondered how your friend who is very ill can be so happy? Or how your friend who has everything going for him or her can always feel so down?

Their level of wellness is often the answer.

Our health is something we often cannot control. However, our feelings and attitudes about our life circumstances, often referred to as wellness, are things we have the power to improve.

There are at least eight dimensions of wellness — spiritual, social, financial, occupational, physical, environmental, intellectual, and emotional. Even the smallest improvement in one of these areas can be truly life altering.

Here are two wellness resolutions to help make 2020 your best year yet.

Resolve to be Social

I’m not talking about having hundreds of friends on social media. I mean have at least one person in your life who makes you feel really good, a person who makes you smile, whose hugs melt away all of your worries, and who you truly look forward to connecting with. Today in a diner I witnessed such a relationship.They weren’t old friends. In fact, just the opposite — they were once just one stranger serving another stranger a meal. What started out as casual conversation had obviously blossomed into a true friendship because I could feel the joy between them as they exchanged Christmas presents. So you see, even if you don’t have that person in your life right now, he or she may be waiting for you in some unexpected place. I guarantee the person you await isn’t hiding in your living room so get out there, be social, and find that stranger who is waiting to be your friend. And if you already have that special person, put in the effort it takes to continue the relationship in this ever changing world. You can start by taking the time, right now, to tell them how much they mean to you.

Resolve to be Valuable

In terms of wellness, occupation simply refers to the things that give our life purpose. Over time our roles in life change. We transition from being a child and student to being a parent and teacher. Our professional responsibilities evolve over time. Some roles make us feel more valuable than others. But when the role we thought gave us value changes, our value as a human being does not need to change. We just have to figure out what our new purpose is. Maybe our new role isn’t as glamourous or exciting as our previous roles. Or maybe our new roles make us feel we didn’t quite do enough in the past. Whether we contribute something that changes a million lives or contribute something that changes a single moment in the life of one person, we all make a difference. So compliment the stranger in front of you. Work extra hard on that project at work. Read the bedtime story one more time. Each time you make an effort, big or small, to make someone else’s life better, you become more valuable.

Resolve to make small changes to be the best version of you in 2020!

Karen Poteat

Karen Poteat – LPN, Gerontology & Dementia Specialist Guest columnist, Karen Poteat is a licensed nurse with over 25 years’ experience as a gerontology and dementia specialist. She owns and operates 2 specialized senior programs, Aiken Active Seniors and Club Thrive Activity Center, where she proactively helps people living with dementia and their families be their very best. She created Confetti for Your Brain, which can also be found on Facebook, to share insights, tips, and the latest best practices to help you keep your brain happy so you can age well. Karen can be contacted at 803-226-0355 or at Karen@aikenactiveseniors.com. For more information about her local programs for seniors, please visit the centers at 944 Dougherty Road or learn more on the web at AikenActiveSeniors.com and MyClubThrive.com

Karen Poteat

In the know

The Case for Chocolate

How is it mothers always know what’s going on behind their backs, especially when it’s something naughty? I loved sugar as a small child. When no one was looking, I’d get into the sugar bowl. There usually wasn’t much activity or supervision in the dining room, and the sugar bowl tempted me. I would use the spoon in the bowl to scoop up the sugar and put it in my mouth, and then wait in bliss while it slowly dissolved on my tongue. Evidently this was very naughty, and my mother always knew. It took me a long time to find out how. The spoon was sterling silver, a souvenir

Taking Action

“Opportunities are like sunrises. If you wait too long,you miss them.” ~ William Arthur Ward This year has me wondering — is there more? More to life perhaps? More I can do? More I want to do? Many of us have had more downtime in the past year that we’ve ever had before. Lots of thinking time, lots of planning time. We all know that time is not finite, but when life comes to a jarring halt as it did in 2020, maybe it’s time to reassess what we want the rest of our lives to be. Most will probably want more travel, more family, more normal. This time of

Dogs Riding in Cars

I suspect it may be the reason most dogs keep us around. We can drive cars … and trucks and motorhomes and motorcycles. And, as a result, we can seemingly create the very wind itself. To the senses of dogs riding in cars, I suspect it seems we can also somehow make all the best smells float on the air at once, with a cacophony of new and familiar sounds intertwined and changing every few seconds. We magically bring farms with fields of horses into view before they dash past us with glorious speed. We find new people to watch walking and riding bikes, and other dogs to call out

Why I Love Daffodils

There is something magical about daffodils. The mere shape of the flower seems to trumpet the arrival of spring, announcing something new and exciting. Imagine March in the Lowcountry with a sea of yellow daffodils covering a yard that stretches all the way down to the banks of Abbapoola Creek. My grandmother Lou would sit on the green porch swing and watch her grandchildren de-daffodil her yard. I can still hear the rhythmic creaking of the chains from the old swing — it almost sounded like a familiar song. She loved watching us pick every flower but there was always another prized daffodil hidden in her yard. The goal was