don's report archive

by Donald B. Ardell, Ph. D.

Wellness in the Headlines
(Don's Report to the World)

Happy New Year. I hope you did NOT make any resolutions for the New Year. I think resolutions are a dumb idea. If you are serious about making lifestyle reforms, there are at least two reasons why New Year's resolutions are NOT a good idea:

1. They are too shallow. Resolutions are usually vague, wimpy, and insincere and lack the quality of being resolute commitments. Few succeed in the sense of being realized, particularly those that might do you any good. I used to swear off cigars when I was a little kid just to have something to make a resolution about. Of course, I did not have any interest in smoking cigars, so this was an easy resolution to sustain.

2. New Year's resolutions occur in isolation. Real goals should be part of a planning process that includes activity commitments, a listing of barriers to goal achievement, rewards anticipated and so forth, all written down and witnessed by friends and supporters.

Enough about resolutions. If you made any, fine. Good luck. However, if you are serious about lifestyle changes, don't settle for a few resolutions -- develop a complete plan for wellness. Send a note and I'll give you suggestions for doing so.

In some parts of the country, this is a time for allergies. Many, if not most, people have occasional bouts with pollens and other allergies. Medications are available to moderate the effects of such annoyances, but don't worry about allergies. Like resolutions, they should not be taken too seriously. Far more insidious and damaging to your prospects for wellness are the habits and customs that seem "normal" but obstruct a self-managing lifestyle. Examples would include any number of unexamined assumptions we make based upon our varied sub-cultures, such as thinking that it's reasonable to overeat in restaurants, to drink too much, to forego daily exercise, to be around smokers (let alone to be one!) and so on. Under most circumstances, it's good to develop a resistance to allergies. However, resistance (or becoming oblivious to) habits and customs that obstruct self-management is injurious to your health. If you develop a resistance to being put off by or of rebelling against obstructive norms, you'll be lured into enduring what could be changed or at least avoided.

A wellness lifestyle entails attitudinal and behavioral patterns that make you resistant to such irritating all-season lifestyle allergies as complacency, mediocrity, self-pity, boredom and slothfulness, among others. Inoculate yourself, painlessly and at no cost or risk, with a wellness mindset -- and make a conscious commitment all year round, not just on New Year's Day, to positive initiatives for optimal well-being.

Few people appreciate the extent to which lifestyle allergies are barriers to personal excellence. They don't realize that such "pollens" lead to rash decisions, to sneezing at life-enhancing opportunities, to sniffing their noses at common sense, to getting red in the face during needless emotional outbursts, to quick irritation with others and even to itching for revenge (a self-defeating trait) -- and these are only a few of the dysfunctional attitudes that arise without the protection of a wellness lifestyle. Too often, when people think of allergies, they focus only on the seasonal factors or possibly on food allergies. Recognize that lifestyle allergies are just as or even more likely to compromise health and well being as the usual (microscopic) suspects.

A wellness philosophy provides year-round protection against afflictions of complacency, mediocrity, self-pity, boredom, slothfulness and the like. As with the other, more publicized allergies, you can practice avoidance as one strategy for controlling lifestyle allergies. You can, for instance, avoid the obvious threats to your physical and psychological well-being, such as sedentary living, high fat diets, smoking or excessive drug/alcohol intake. Yet, this is only prevention and it is harder to give up certain attractions (tasty but high fat foods, for example) if the major justification for doing so is but avoidance of a negative outcome (weight gain). Prevention, in other words, protects against lifestyle allergies by seeking to avoid negative outcomes. The alternative way to avoid such outcomes (poor health, low energy levels, dysfunctional habits of all manner) is to choose a proactive lifestyle -- wellness. Wellness is designed not to avoid negatives but to achieve positives (vigor, fun, self-efficacy, personal responsibility and so on).

Furthermore, as if you did not have enough good reasons to build up these wellness antibodies, there is more good news: You don't need a doctor's permission, a prescription or a pill. It's yours for the taking. Enjoy.

(Note: This essay will be filed in the archives in the PHYSICAL DOMAIN under the skill area of appearance and aging. Additional articles related to this theme may be found there.)

(Ed. Note: Views expressed in this and other columns are those of the author and not necessarily those of the SeekWellness Editorial Board.)

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