Can Personal Wellbeing Goals be Measurable?

Nowadays, given the increasing accuracy of precision medicine, yes it can. Health is measured with two scientific approaches: qualitative and quantitative. Both can be monitored digitally with increasingly seamless and affordable means. Yet despite the advances of functional health, the practice of visualization is needed to achieve self actualisation and sustained vitality. Pietro Grilli-Ciciloni reports

The obvious quantitative approaches adopted historically are weight, blood pressure and measurements to determine physical health.

The others are more detailed and can be assessed via DNA testing

There are various ways to measure wellbeing goals related to health, genetics, DNA testing, biological age reduction and longevity.

• Health metrics: This can include measures such as body mass index (BMI), blood pressure, cholesterol levels, glucose levels, and other markers of vitality.
• Genetics: This can be tracked via testing, which can determine a person’s risk for certain diseases and conditions, as well as their overall resilience and longevity potential.
• DNA Testing: DNA testing is increasingly popular to accurately assess a person’s biological age, which is a reflection of the energy and stability of their cells and tissues.
• Biological age reduction: This can be calculated studying various biological markers, such as telomere length, epigenetic marks, and levels of oxidative stress.
• Longevity: Healthspan can be gauged by calculating a person’s expected lifespan based on their current health, genetics and environmental factors.

Integrative health practitioners consider all these metrics in their entirety when giving wellbeing and lifestyle advice, as they are vital in setting viable wellness milestones and ensuring positive health outcomes.

EXPERT Q&A

VANESSA EMSLIE
Functional Health Practitioner

What is needed to achieve good results?

“Consistency and perseverance are pivotal in reaching personal goals, but everyone must be honest in acknowledging why they might be struggling to reach or sustain their individual goals. By gaining awareness of the stumbling blocks, people dedicated to upgrading themselves must adopt a lifestyle plan that spans both flexibility and discipline. The question to ask throughout the day when faced with decisions is: ‘Does this action support the vision of myself that I would like to manifest? If it doesn’t, in a word…Don’t go there.’’

Simple, But Not Easy

One way of relinquishing bad habits is by ‘tricking the brain’ to ‘forget’ that we even had that habit, and keep reinforcing that for at least 20 days. This is because research indicates that it takes at least 20 days to loosen the grip of a bad habit, and then it can take 66 days of effort to replace it with a sound new habit, as this is what it is said to take to establish.

How Many Days Does It Take To Form A Habit?

Research demonstrates that it can take anywhere from 18 to 254 days to change a habit related to healthier eating, drinking and exercise. On average, it took most people 66 days to make the habit automatic.
*2009 study in the European Journal of Social Psychology

How can we see and be satisfied that wellness goals have been reached?

“Resting on one’s laurels is never a smart strategy, especially in the constantly fluctuating complexity of the human body. Once a given health objective has been reached, a new goal of creating a lifestyle aimed at maintaining the good results can only be done seriously by setting specific Key Performance Indicators, which is a quantifiable set of goals to reach your specific wellness objective.”

How to gauge the wellbeing and health of an individual from her DNA?

“DNA information sheds light insight into an individual’s potential risk for certain health conditions and traits, but it is not a direct measure of an individual’s current health or wellbeing. DNA testing can be used to identify genetic variations that may increase the risk of developing certain diseases, such as cancer, heart disease, and diabetes. DNA testing is also popular nowadays in determining an individual’s ancestry and identifying specific genetic markers that are associated with certain traits. However, it is important to understand that an individual’s DNA does not determine their overall health or well-being and that environmental and lifestyle factors also play a significant role in health and wellbeing.”

Measure, Monitor, Mentor

By viewing vitality as a lifelong journey to be extended dynamically and mindfully is critical to living optimally. Ultimately if this proactive view on health is lost it can commonly lead to a relapse, falling back into old ways that did not serve us well.
Science is now also proving that other, more subliminal tools can also increase the probability of successful outcomes, especially in the realms of wellbeing goals.

• VISION BOARDS
• AFFIRMATIONS
• LISTING GOALS

These mediums serve as potent drivers for unleashing right brain creativity, especially in the realms of envisaging the holistic wellbeing we desire. From business leaders, sports personalities and leaders of every sort, they all affirm the power of visualization in reaching success across the board.
Visualization can be a powerful tool in various scientific fields, including but not limited to, psychology, biology, physics, and computer science.
Here is a checklist of scientific proof points to validate the power of visualization:

• Empirical evidence: Scientific studies and experiments that measure the effectiveness of visualization can provide empirical evidence for its power. For example, studies could test whether visual aids or diagrams improve understanding, retention, or recall of information. Or whether visualization can enhance performance in sports or other physical activities.
• Neuroscientific evidence: Neuroscience research can provide evidence for the cognitive mechanisms underlying visualization, including neural activation patterns and brain regions involved in the process of visualization.
  Applications across domains: Visualization techniques have been applied across a wide range of scientific fields and domains, from molecular biology to astrophysics. Evidence of the effectiveness of visualization in these diverse fields can provide support for the broad applicability and effectiveness of visualization.
• Enhancing creativity: Visualization is often used as a tool to enhance creativity, for example in fields such as design, art, and engineering. Evidence of the effectiveness of visualization in enhancing creative problem-solving can be used as proof of its power.
• Use in therapy: Visualization techniques are often used in therapy to help patients cope with stress, anxiety, and trauma. Evidence of the effectiveness of visualization in these therapeutic settings can serve as proof of its power.
  User feedback: Feedback from users who have applied visualization techniques to solve problems or achieve goals can be valuable in validating its effectiveness. This feedback can include anecdotal evidence, surveys, and case studies.
• Consistency with existing scientific knowledge: Evidence supporting the effectiveness of visualization should be consistent with existing scientific knowledge in relevant fields. For example, if visualization is claimed to improve memory recall, evidence should be consistent with established theories of memory.

By ‘seeing’ what we want to achieve in our mind’s eye, a distinct snapshot of our aspirations sets the brain in motion to scour vibrational attraction to attract those goals.

“First, have a definite, clear, practical ideal; a goal, an objective. Second, have the necessary means to achieve your ends: wisdom, money, materials, and methods. Third, adjust all your means to that end.”

Aristotle

Encourage Inner Motivation

How Does It Work?

By envisioning a mental picture of a future event, it is better crystallised. After all, we need to ‘see’ it in order to achieve it. Either by vision boarding, affirmations or list writing, visualization stimulates the creative subconscious which helps to generate new ideas to better achieve ambitions.
The process activates the law of attraction drawing in the right people, resources, and conditions required for success.
Research from Russia has demonstrated that visualization boasts proven benefits in helping Olympic athletes to succeed. The research studied four different groups of Olympians which each dedicated a particular amount of time to mental and physical training.

• Group one: 100% physical training;
• Group two: 75% physical training, 25% mental training;
• Group three: 50% physical training, 50% mental training;
• Group four: 25% physical training, 75% mental training;

Scientists demonstrated that the fourth group performed the best during the Olympic Games. Through visualization, the athletes stimulated the same parts of the brain that are activated when actual physical action is being carried out.

How To Visualise

Establish a goal, then see yourself attaining that goal in a detailed imagination process.

EXPERT Q&A

ELENA BURIANI
LEA Growing People CEO & Co-Founder
Leadership Teams
Parental Family Coach

Fun or feat?

“Making a vision board can be amazing fun, but it can also be a sad, difficult or downright overwhelming task, especially if we do it alone. Over the years I have conducted hundreds vision board gatherings worldwide and I am convinced that this transformational inner creative adventure is a superb way to relax into oneself and dive deep. Having others in the group all conjuring up their most resplendent lives through this evocative art therapy form is compelling and transformational.”

The image of the future should feel so real that it almost feels like it’s a memory of the past…

When it comes to setting health or self-care intentions, January is the month to make them, February is the month to break them and March is the month to refocus, renew and reboot. It works if we work it. That’s why it’s never too late to take the time to delve into our creativity and imagination by drawing our most vibrant life from a blank white paper.

 

ENVISION YOUR BEST SELF MASTER OF CEREMONIES 

LISA DURANTE
WELLNESS WORLD
Co-Founder
Wellness Evangelist

Lisa Durante is a Wellbeing Evangelist the founder of WELLNESS WORLD. Previously she worked as a development writer for an India-based UN project. After moving to the UAE in 2001, Lisa was Editor of several regional magazines such as Aquarius, Jumeirah Beach Magazine, Property World Middle East and NewYou, the region’s premier monthly publication dedicated to Integrative Health, Medical Aesthetics, Holistic Healing and optimal longevity.

In addition to curating insightful and compelling content aimed at stimulating the region’s emerging community of Wellbeing Explorers, Lisa has expanded her commitment to holistic healing by developing meaningful Retreats and Daycations for vitality, connectedness and healing.

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