According to the Global Wellness Institute, wellness is an active pursuit of choices, activities and lifestyle that ultimately lead to a state of holistic health. It is a process of making decisions and choices towards a happy, content and fulfilling life. Life is anything but a bed of roses. From worrying about your careers in the 20s to managing finances in the 30s and struggling with ailments from your 50s, stress is inevitable in all walks of life. But, your wellness can help you deal with the stress, thereby not letting it affect your mental and physical health.
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Wellness isn’t about being ignorant of what’s happening around us. It is the realisation of your true potential, the knowledge of your body & mind and the undivided focus on living a happier, better life. Wellness education is not an option but a NECESSITY for everyone. Let’s check out why wellness education is important in all spheres of life.
Why is wellness education important in schools?
Wellness education in schools is based on the Kindergarten to Grade 12 health and physical education model or HPE model. It focuses on the development and nurturing of each child in their pursuit of an active, positive and healthy life. HPE includes five dimensions of wellness- emotional, intellectual, physical, social and spiritual.
Here’s why wellness education is important for students:
- Develops confidence among students
6 in 10 college students have reported they couldn’t get their work on time because they were too stressed out. 55% of students have confirmed that their biggest stressor is academic in nature. Stress among students usually stems from their lack of confidence. If not taken care of at an early age, they may never work on their confidence levels and end up being invisible for the rest of their life.
- Wellness education uses a holistic focus to develop the students’ confidence and improve their ability to make sense of the world.
- They understand and value what it exactly means to live well, irrespective of what society tells them to do.
- It helps them achieve ownership over their motivation, social and behavioural environment.
- A healthy sense of self-confidence is imperative for every child so that they can become more resilient, embrace their potential and true self inside and outside the classroom.
Students often find it almost impossible to refrain from mulling over worries and perceived mistakes. They get stuck in a vicious cycle of over-thinking and anxiety, which doesn’t let them embrace their full potential. Wellness education is the way to break out of the cycle.
- Helps them achieve optimal health and wellbeing
“My kids won’t eat enough vegetables no matter what I do!” If you are a parent, you are most likely to relate to this statement. Children avoid eating healthy because they are often unaware of what health and wellness are and how it impacts their life. Students spend the maximum of their time in schools. So why not take this opportunity and encourage them to achieve optimal health via wellness education?
The four aspects covered in the health and fitness aspect:
- Active lifestyle– It is about being active throughout the day and not just when you are working out.
- Healthy diet– It is about eating and drinking a balanced diet to provide the right amount of energy to your body.
- Hygiene and disease prevention- It’s about keeping your body clean and disease-free. This chapter involves activities such as sleeping for more than 8 hours, brushing your teeth and having lots of water.
- Physical fitness- This one focuses on strengthening your physical body through exercise and workouts intentionally.
Besides having subjects like maths, nursing, humanities, etc., in the core curriculum, schools should focus on including wellness education as well. After all, health and wellness apply to each student’s life. It is wellness education that will help them understand the consequences of poor quality food choices, social isolation, stress and unhealthy lifestyles.
- Enables students to reach their true full potential
Wellness education ensures that each student in the class learns and grows every day and feels like a real human being. No two students are the same. Each one has their own interests, skills and passion. If one of them is good at math, then someone else is good at some other subject. The purpose of wellness education is also to help students realise their potential and encourage them to make the best out of it.
Here’s what wellness education focuses on:
- Identifying students’ passion
Instead of forcing the kids to excel at everything, encourage them to identify their passions. If you are the educator, you can identify what the student is good at and what they enjoy doing. Praise the student for their skills or challenge them to discover their hidden talents.
- Booting students’ self-esteem
Poor grades or unreal expectations from professors and parents injure students’ self-esteem. Assure them they are winners. Tell your students that you trust them. Ask them what’s making them doubt themselves or their abilities?
- Getting your students involved
Wellness education provides no special treatment to the highest scorers or top performers as is done in other disciplines. It treats everyone equally and gets them involved thoroughly without any judgement. Whether it’s cleaning up the blackboard or reading texts from a literature textbook, everyone gets a chance to participate and feel as important as everyone else in the class.
The world is not all sunshine and rainbows. There will be people who might want to bring down your students’ self-esteem and confidence down. Make them realise their true potential and encourage them to work on it so that they can thrive in the world out there.
- Improves school attendance
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There are four interrelated components in comprehensive school health- social and physical environments, healthy school policy, teaching and learning and partnerships and services. All these components contribute to the well-being of students, both mentally and physically. Students tend to attend school regularly when they feel good about themselves. As per CDC, healthy students are better learners. Lack of physical activity and an unhealthy lifestyle, on the other hand, leads to poor academic performance among children.
- Students are the future of our world. If they are conscious of a healthy lifestyle and environment, they will implement that wherever they go, thereby encouraging their communities as well.
- They become critical consumers of health information. They are able to make healthy choices for themselves and informed decisions for others.
- Besides learning, students also are subjected to basic physical activity in wellness education. Physical activities refine the students’ behavioural, cognitive and personal skills via diverse environments and experiences. They develop an appreciation of the value of outdoor and physical activities.
Health and education are interdependent. Students learn better when they are healthy. Similarly, educated people tend to be healthy because they know the value of good health. Physical activities involved in wellness education helps students develop health-related skills, attitudes and knowledge.
Wellness education is rapidly becoming an integral part of schools and even colleges. More and more youth and kids are going through conditions such as anxiety, depression and PTSD due to several reasons. Wellness education provides them with the opportunity to deal with these conditions and develop their wellness skills eventually.
Why is wellness education important for workplaces?
It is best if wellness education begins from an early stage. But, adults, too, need a wellness program or education in their workplaces. After all, it’s never too late to start.
Here the three major benefits of having a wellness program in workplaces:
- Improves employees’ health behaviours
The wellness programs aim at encouraging people to adopt and maintain a healthy lifestyle and behaviours. Healthy lifestyles cause heart risks, chronic diseases and other physical ailments.
- Reduces elevated health risks
Wellness programs identify employees with elevated blood glucose, high blood pressure and high blood cholesterol. These ailments are often caused due to the lack of physical activity and unhealthy diets. So, the trainers can prepare healthy diet charts and exercise schedules for them.
- Brings down health care costs
Honestly, the ability to reduce healthcare costs relies on the effectiveness of the program. However, if done right and the employees strictly follow the advice, chances are your health care costs will decrease since you will be healthy enough not to visit hospitals or clinics.
Wrapping Up,
Health is everything and there’s not an ounce of doubt about it. You can study if you are healthy. You get to party with friends if you are healthy. You can work if you are healthy. So, focus on your mental and physical health before everything. And wellness education is one of the most effective ways to welcome a healthy lifestyle into your life.
Author Bio:Melinda Brown is a fitness instructor at a reputed gymnasium in the United Kingdom. She also provides assignment help at MyAssignmenthelp.com. Melinda loves to spend time with her friends and family whenever she is free.
