Soft Wellness:

an intuitive approach to health and self-care

Soft wellness involves making conscious choices that protect and support wellbeing, nurture the mind and body, and encourage living in alignment with one’s values. Rather than pursuing health with a vigour and intensity, soft wellness encourages us to adopt simple practices to help bring ourselves and our lives into balance. It has become increasingly popular in recent years with people leaning into gentler ways of living, which support their own and others’ wellbeing.

Soft wellness encourages us to discover and honour what feels good. Routines exist if they are comfortable and sustainable, but can change when required. There is no need to pursue particular fitness fads or health trends but rather we tune into the types of movement and self-care that suit us best.

What this means is listening to your body, allowing rest when desired and approaching well-being with self-compassion, rather than a desire for improvement. This allows health and wellness to flow seamlessly and holistically into our lives. Less rules and more self-love are the focus. As a result, a sense of harmony emerges rather than the need to continually monitor and optimise health outcomes.

Practical ways to incorporate more soft wellness into your day

  1. Embrace rest
    An important idea within soft wellness is resting without guilt or needing to earn it. Rest can include any downtime that suits you without needing to be productive in its own right. Take an afternoon nap, enjoy a leisurely walk, sit with a cup of tea or simply slow down. No need to multitask or add ‘productive’ elements around these.
  1. More flexibility
    Allow life to flow and embrace ups and downs as they occur. There is no requirement to lock into a rigid schedule, instead allow fluctuations to occur without guilt or resentment. Life is about flow rather than routine. If you need to miss a gym class, that’s okay; if you prefer a gentle walk in nature instead of Pilates one day, that’s okay too.
  1. Allow feelings
    Allow yourself to feel your emotional rhythms and fluctuations. Having the space and stillness to sit with feelings as they emerge, without suppression, will allow a more authentic experience of life. Trust that feelings are there for a reason and will process more easily when we honour them.
  1. Trust intuition
    With soft wellness there is no right or wrong way to approach health and healing. It is individual and flexible. It is about being human, allowing for different life phases and experiences, and trusting your intuition to guide you.

Source: Soft Wellness: A Gentle Rebellion in a Hard World | Bastyr University

By embracing a gentler lifestyle, you give yourself permission to rest without guilt, to enjoy without justification, and to live without the constant pressure to improve. Soft Wellness is deeply personal. Begin with small intentional changes, perhaps allowing yourself a weekend sleep-in, or choosing to spend more time in nature. Allow self-care, kindness and flexibility to guide you, and you will be able to create a wellness lifestyle that is authentically yours.

 

By Kerrie Clayton

Kerrie has been a member of the AHHCA for over 10 years and is currently part of its Committee of Management. She is a qualified Holistic Health Practitioner, Reiki Master and Spiritual Mentor. Kerrie may be contacted via wellnesswithkerrie@outlook.com