•TALKS ABOUT THE 7 DIMENSIONS TO WELLNESS
Tochi Okafor is a popular Health and Wellness Coach and she has been on a mission to make sure that we all take our wellness serious. In this interview with City People, Tochi reveals a lot about wellness.
How did you end up becoming a Wellness Consultant & Trainer?
I am one of the lucky people to have handpicked their degree of study. Being of Nigerian parents, most of us can relate to the fact that our parents have a strong opinion on the courses that we choose in the University, so I consider myself really lucky to have dodged that bullet.
Being a curious and intuitive child, it was a delight to have discovered Psychology, who would pass up an opportunity to study human behavior?
I have enjoyed a versatile career path and it has provided me with a rich perspective to life and business. However, my insatiable hunger to learn how to improve the human state remained with me and after school, Life-Coaching seemed a perfect fit. With numerous training in different parts of the world, I embarked on a career as a Wellness Consultant.
My career path hasn’t been as straightforward as it might have been for many people, although deep down in my heart I always wanted to teach, and I do that in the course of my work as a trainer. But, I had to go through running a fashion store for a few years, managing a Downstream Oil and gas business before I finally found my way back to my Career today.
My sisters still remind me of the things I said when I was a teenager. After I discovered an Exercise DVD in my early teens - I was catapulted into a future I definitely wanted to experience. This Exercise DVD showcased a group of fabulous looking women in their 30’s & 40’s jumping to the beat of loud music, I would later discover that the leader of this group was the incredible “Jane Fonda” and the dance was Aerobics.
I would say to everyone who cared to listen that I will look like the ladies in the video when I got older and that if I was ever asked in an interview how I kept in tip-top shape I will say that I only ate cucumbers and water Lol. Although it’s a joke in my house till date, I am inclined to believe that a seed of wellness was sown so maybe I am not surprised to have become one who teaches the same.
What is the concept of wellness all about?
Wellness is a broad concept, yet simple concept. It has been around for a while and people have grown widely confused about what the word means. You see some people mistake wellness for many things. They think wellness is about exercising alone, some think it’s about trying out a new diet every month, some even think it’s about positive affirmations alone. Although, these are important contributors to positive wellness they are actually only aspects of the whole concept.
“Wellness encompasses a healthy body, a sound mind, and a tranquil spirit” so my description of wellness points to one’s ability to identify and assign priority to the aspect of their life that needs nourishing the most per season/time.
There are several approaches to wellness but I have developed a seven dimensions system to help people better understand, apply and enjoy the benefits of wellness.
The 7 dimensions to wellness are:
*Physical wellness,
*Relational wellness,
*Intellectual wellness,
*Mental wellness,
*Emotional wellness.
*Spiritual wellness,
*Financial wellness.
This is what I teach, and I have found this to be valuable for all of our clients at The Excited Living Company.
What services do you offer?
The 7 dimensions to wellness pretty much present an overview of what The Excited Living Company is all about. The 7 arms represent what we believe to be the core aspects of a person that can be assessed and possibly improved upon. We offer a range of services around the seven arms including awareness workshops, online and offline events, group and individual retreats, Workplace Wellness Training, etc.
The purpose of everything we do is to promote, nurture and inspire growth with the seven dimensions to wellness.
As a Wellness Consultant, what is the message you always try to pass on to the larger society?
An awareness of wellness is not a luxury. Most people don’t live a full life because they are not aware of the different aspects that contribute to overall success.
Exercise is good, Eating healthy is good too. But as I said, these are only aspects of Wellness. Wellness is all about the big picture, what we do as a company is to raise the level of awareness of all that contributes to a functional individual. We want to help people pay attention to themselves in simple ways that make all the difference. Okay so to drive home the point, allow me to end this with a short story.
Mr. Owonikoko was a bright young man back in his university days. He landed his first job immediately after graduating and has been very focused on his career and finances.
He got married and built his own home soon after his 30th birthday, shortly afterward the twins came along. As a responsible dad, he was worried about their future, so he put in the work... double the work actually and so much so that he had little time for anything else.
No matter how much he made, he always seemed to need the next promotion and salary raise so bad. The financial needs of his household grew by the year and even though he earned more every year, it never seemed enough.
Not that his family was starving, or his children weren’t in good schools, but he felt the need to keep up with society’s expectations to maintain a certain lifestyle and that drove him even harder. Overtime he chose (albeit unconsciously) making money and building a career over his family and health.
One day, while at her office, Mrs. Owonikoko got a call from her husband’s friend. Her husband had slumped while in a meeting at a client’s office. She hurried to the hospital and was told he had had a stroke. “See what this man has done to me now!”
She cried loudly “I always told him to manage his high blood pressure and join my diet program, but he wouldn’t listen. He doesn’t eat healthily, he doesn’t get enough sleep, he never exercises, all he knows is work work work!” She wailed. But the deed was done - the stroke left Mr. Owonikoko unable to use the majority of his body and was soon relieved of his work.
On his hospital bed, unable to talk and unable to help himself up, he stared at the pictures of his grown kids whose lives he had missed out on, his thoughts went to his marriage and how he didn’t nurture it, his thoughts also on his friends that he never made time to visit. His position at his company where he had served to the detriment of everything else was filed two weeks after he was admitted to the hospital.
You see, understanding wellness is a good first step and that’s what The Excited Living Company is here for, to educate, to promote and to walk with you on the journey to a full and balanced life.
I am Tochi Okafor, founder of The Excited Living Company, and we are all about your wellness.
Keep in mind: There are seven dimensions to wellness and these are aspects of your life you need to be aware of, so you can take control of them through simple and consistent action.
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