Practices to Promote Health and Well-being
Your personal wellness plan may include a range of lifestyle and mind-body practices to support maintaining a higher level of health and wellness and it will change over time to focus on the areas of your life you are currently most motivated to change. Some of these practices carry little or no cost, while others carry heavy costs. For example, paying attention to how you breathe, move, eat your meals, process your feelings, communicate with others, and taking daily walks, carries no costs. Other practices, such as yoga, Pilates, qigong, tai chi, and some fitness routines, can first be learned in class and then later practiced on your own (or with video instruction). These have small up-front instructional costs and sometimes some ongoing costs if you enjoy the class environment.

Finally, there are practices with heavy associated costs, such as fitness club memberships and dietary supplements, as well as trips to your massage therapist, acupuncturist, nutritionist, energy healer, naturopath, chiropractor practices, or holistic physician to help monitor your state of health and wellness and help bring you back into balance if necessary. Most of these costs will be in the first 12–18 months of your plan as you are learning and choosing the wellness practices that you would like to integrate into your life.

The beauty of this approach is that you are investing time and money in your health and well-being by creating a longterm, strategic wellness plan which allows you to see the holistic health practitioners you most trust to guide you to a higher level of health and well-being, and to pursue the wellness practices which address the areas of your life you are most motivated to change. Your greatest reward will come from the wellness practices you pursue on a daily basis until they become part of the fabric of your life.

The idea of a five or ten-year wellness plan may first seem extreme to some—a six month plan may seem more reasonable. However, as health care costs and insurance premiums continue to rise out of sight, the wisdom of taking our health and well-being into our own hands through enlightened selfcare, wellness practices, and holistic health care may prove to be the most prudent investment we make in our lives. Health is your greatest wealth, and it is worth cultivating.