Practicing wellness is something most of us do not think about. Wellness doesn’t usually come into play until we are either already ill or afraid of becoming ill for some reason. If we are lucky, the issue of wellness won’t present itself for discussion until we are faced with the reality of aging.

I include a personal practice daily for wellness that includes mindfulness, yoga, and healthy eating. Wellness like anything we do well takes practice.

Today’s student is much less likely to get in the movement that my generation did every day. I was always outside or in the pool playing at something. I rarely sat down to watch something. I rode my bike everywhere and obesity was not even a blip on the conversational radar. So what changed?

Technology. The great big world became so small that we don’t even need to leave our homes to experience it. The information revolution changed everything, including how we relate to physical health and wellness.

Life has become one big scheduling event for a lot of people, myself included. So I have developed my own method of prioritizing wellness and health.

Addiction is rampant in our society. Drugs, alcohol, food, and technology. The Help Guide offers support on-line for anyone seeking guidance for mental, emotional, and social health. I like the information presented in this guide because it is not to heady and can be utilized by anyone. You don’t need to have a degree in psychology to benefit from the articles.

I have recently engaged in a program called Mindful Schools. This organization works to offer solutions to the toxic stress that life demands consistently outpace a person’s ability to cope.

Toxic stress in students

• impairs attention
• effects emotion and mood regulation
• disrupts sleep
• interferes with learning readiness

Toxic stress in teachers

• decreases productivity and creativity
• increases the frequency of anxiety and depression
• leads to frustration and disassociation
• increases the turn-over rate

Organization can go a long way to helping avoid the pitfalls of over scheduling. I forget half of what I was going to do some days, simply because I failed to write it down. Taking time to care for me is often the first thing to suffer. So I schedule it into my daily life. Calendars can be wonderful tools, but if you have one for work, one for home, and one for whatever, things get left behind. For me having a central organization tool is imperative. I use Todoist. It’s an app right on my browser, phone, Outlook at work, iPad…you get the drift, it’s easy and offers me the down and dirty no excuses tool I need to stay on track. Here is a picture of my daily screen reminders.

I use Todoist. It’s free. It’s an app right on my browser, phone, Outlook at work, iPad…you get the drift, it’s easy and offers me the down and dirty no excuses tool I need to stay on track. Here is a picture of my daily screen reminders. I use the free version, it has plenty of options, more than I need for my daily wellness tasks. I love that I can schedule my tasks priority as a 1,2 or 3 and that I can create my own categories. It’s hard to see I know, but hey, free version. This list below shows my category of Wellness expanded with my daily mindfulness and yoga practices scheduled as a priority 1.

Wellness takes practice. It doesn’t just happen. Conscious choice leads us to have happy and productive lives. Digital health is a part of what that looks like in today’s society.