Maintaining Wellness (Part 1)

So how’s that New Year’s resolution working out for you? Have you made one? Have you started? Have you prematurely finished? According to research conducted by Strava, the social network for athletes, Saturday, Jan. 12, is the fateful day of New Year’s resolutions. Twelve full days! Also, According to a study conducted by the University of Scranton, just 8 percent of people achieve their New Year’s goals, while around 80 percent fail to keep their New Year’s resolutions, says US clinical psychologist Joseph Luciani.

Roughly 55 percent of New Year’s resolutions were health-related, such as exercising more, eating healthier and getting out of financial debt, according to the science journal The Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.

Having a little fun with New Year’s resolution statistics really speaks to a larger issue. Goals for wellness. However, maintaining wellness goals are a much harder task to accomplish. Using weight loss as one factor of wellness. According to The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition research has shown that ≈20% of overweight individuals are successful at long-term weight loss when defined as losing at least 10% of initial body weight and maintaining the loss for at least 1 year. This article does recognize that as a positive statistic in debunking the myth that “almost no one succeeds in long-term maintenance of weight loss. While that is a more positive statistic, what about the 80% who did not maintain success?

The weight loss example shows that maintenance of any wellness initiative can be difficult; the alcoholic trying to remain sober; the addict fighting addiction; that one who is “hooked” on porn trying to stay free from that lifestyle; that one who has experienced a mental health issue trying to maintain balance in their life; that “sinner” who has been freed from sin and yet is surrounded by weights, temptations and the “sin that so easily besets us.” These may seem to be extreme wellness examples. However, they are real life examples that plague many people who strive to maintain a “wellness balance” in their lives.

So how is wellness maintained? Or another way to say it, how does one sustain wellness? On average it takes about 66 days to form a habit. That means to have a behavior become a part of ones everyday routine. In the case of a New Years resolution that would mean March 7th would be the date for a habit to form or a behavioral change to take root. Of course there are a lot of variables that have to be taken into consideration. However, this tells me that changes in behavior can and do take time, without of course, divine intervention. The old saying “you didn’t develop that habit overnight therefore don’t expect to lose that habit overnight” does ring true. Time and effort play a big role in sustaining changes of behavior and maintaining those same changes.

However, at the root of maintaining behavioral change and therefore maintaining wellness are commitment and being settled in that commitment. Where most behavioral changes fail is when there is an “out” to the commitment … a reserve, if you will. An exercise plan can be maintained (past January 12) if one is committed to the exercise plan without a reserve in place. Wintertime is probably one of the worst times to start an exercise initiative, especially if it involves going to the gym, because bad weather can be an out or reserve. “I would have gone to the gym … but their was snow on the ground.” That may seem to be a silly excuse. However, too many of those times and you will never be consistent enough to make it to March 7th (figuratively speaking).

Other areas of wellness can be compromised with similar excuses. “I would save money … however, there is a sale at Kate Spade.” “It’s only one drink afterwork with my co-workers.” “I will start my diet next week.” “No one can see me looking at this image on my cellphone… besides I’ll clear it from my history.” “I can’t help myself … that’s just the way that I am.” These are all “outs” or reserves; excuses that keep people from maintaining their wellness commitments.

If we are not careful, this worldly attitude can creep into the church. People get saved but still want to have an out, just in case this “christian” thing doesn’t work out. People want to have a relationship with Jesus Christ, yet still maintain a foothold in the world that they supposedly left. Jesus explained it this way in Matthew 6: 24:

No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other: You cannot serve God and mammon.

The word mammon is generally associated with the idea of money or wealth. Jesus was letting us know that anything in the world that we hold up as having more value than God can become a “master.” The root of much turmoil in a Christian’s relationship with God comes when our hearts and minds are split between that relationship and the relationship with the world. James states that “a double-minded man is unstable in all of his ways” (James 1: 8). What is true in the spiritual is also true in the natural. Wellness cannot be maintained when there are reserves, outs, excuses. They just bring about instability and failure if not resolved.

Think of how the natural relationships works. A marriage works when two people are committed to each other and neither is looking for an out or reserve. If they are committed in this way, when the storms of life come they can stay committed because their love and commitment holds them together. Divorce is just not an option. However, in the United States, we also know that 42-45% of all first marriages end in divorce. That number increases dramatically if one continues to re-marry and divorce; 60% of second marriages end in divorce and 73% of third marriages end in divorce. This is because as people continue to divorce and re-marry the commitment level continues to erode; there is always a reserve or an out. If you were hurt the first time in a divorce, you will make sure that does not happen again. Multiple marriages are generally doomed from the start because the commitment and trust are severely compromised, at best.

True wellness is maintained when things are settled. A true relationship with God through Jesus Christ can only be maintained when we are settled, without reserves. We are not looking for a divorce in this relationship.

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: Because he trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the Lord for ever: For in the Lord JEHOVAH is everlasting strength:

Isaiah 26: 3-4

When we are completely settled in Christ we are in perfect peace. In that state, we are trusting in God fully. And as long as we maintain that trust, we can maintain peace and wellness in our souls… and so goes our souls, so goes the rest of our lives. True wellness starts in the soul and grows outward to all other aspects of our lives. Maintaining wellness in our souls will establish wellness in other the parts of our lives.