Whether we like it or not, there are seasons in life where wellness is the equivalent of just getting by. As we have discussed on this platform, 2020 has been a tough year. From Australia on fire to the messiness of the coming American elections through a global pandemic, if you aren't feeling a certain level of angst, you aren't living.

Nonetheless, as a wellness platform, understanding that wellness is an ever working definition, in seasons of high stress, mass triggers, and collective suffering is essential. As the stresses of the world have increased, helping you navigate through the new sights of wellness is a must for us.

For most, this is a foreign concept. We as societies have definitions of good, bad, socially acceptable, and weird as it relates to people and their wellness. The dirty truth is that there is very little normalcy to 2020. As much as we want to define someone else's wellness for them, our current definitions for ourselves probably need some updating.

Let's be honest, pre-pandemic it was socially acceptable to have kissing booths and shared dinner tables with strangers at a Hibachi spot. Mid-pandemic, the government has mandated boundaries for both. In the same way, what was socially understood to be well, such as always smiling faces and loud praise, is now probably seen as a cry for help. None of these analogies begin to account for the racial tensions, isolationism, and "regular" stress that doesn't care about the pandemic.

As a result, working and amending our definitions of wellness is pertinent in these times. We do this by taking into account all of your stressors. Note them. Own them. Now, feel what you feel as it relates to WHO you are. Look at yourself in the mirror. Evaluate who you are as it relates to who you strive to be. Now, what does wellness now look like amid your current circumstance?

Is it pushing for success or surviving through? In your professional life, is it the promotion or making it through the zoom meeting? In your personal life, is it losing 20 pounds or remembering to eat dinner? At the grocery store, is it buying more sustainably or not slapping the mask-optional woman coughing over the grapes?

Whatever you're working through, your definition of wellness in this time will be different than who you thought it was in January. Giving yourself the grace to be this new version of wellness and not holding yourself to what is unrealistic is imperative to not only walking in wellness but growing through times when you are unwell.