Wellness is a term generally used to mean a healthy balance of the mind, body and spirit that results in an overall feeling of well-being. Through their preferred ways and means men and women the world over, wish for, work towards and look forward to achieving a feeling of wellbeing. However, women, the smart beings that they are, have secretly mastered the art of achieving wellness like no one else. Curious? Read on.
Gift of gab
Okay, so you are already rolling your eyes even as you wisely nod your head in agreement to the fact that women love talking, and how. How could talk be related to a feeling of wellbeing, you wonder? What good can talk do, more so the incessant 100 words per minute prattle of women? As most women will vouch for, talking has benefits that radiate a sense of wellbeing. Talking is an exchange of thoughts, words and ideas, and a great way of communicating. Talking is therapeutic, as it is a way of venting out your feelings and emotions, which could range from complaints of the mother-in-law to the neighbour who keeps losing weight [without even trying] and everything in between.
While most men prefer giving monosyllabic answers, and nodding or grunting when they are feeling vocally generous, women believe in using their gift of gab to the fullest.
Whether they realise it or not, by talking incessantly they help men become better listeners and save energy, keeping them healthy in the process. Women are aware of the power of words and realise that talking politely or sternly when needed, gets things done. In social situations, conversations help one network and make contacts. Unburdening their hearts to close friends and loved ones helps them feel better, and gives them a perspective unlike their own. Term it gossip, idle chatter or anything else you wish, but women’s need and style of communication works for them. Furthermore, they’ll never shy away from telling you all about it whether you ask about it, or not!
Retail therapy
Now, now shopping is not just a mission to melt credit cards, choke up the wardrobe or another pastime to get over boredom, as it has been thought of till now. As, from the point of view of women at least, shopping too has far reaching wellness effects. Here’s how women shop and feel good. The cashiers ring up the purchases and feel good. The store owners rake up a profit and feel good. The retailers register a profit and feel good. The economy goes up a notch and, well, feels good too.
Women don the newly shopped clothes and accessories and feel good. People compliment them and they feel even better. So you see shopping is not just about shopping. For women, shopping is an event that helps in spreading the feeling of wellbeing far and wide. Furthermore, because women are great at multi-tasking, shopping doubles up as a great exercise, in more ways than one. The process of walking from aisle to aisle, browsing and frequent trips to the trial room to try out numerous outfits burns calories, making women happy.
Like all this wasn’t enough, talking, comes in handy to help while they shop too. No matter where they shop, women wish to get the best [read economical] deal and have realised that only bargaining can get them that. And bargaining is an art form most women have excelled at since the time they were old enough to shop. Certain vendors don’t wish to sell lower than the price initially offered, then there are some who will gladly do just that for the only reason that the women would just stop haggling. In this way shopping brings about an overall feeling of wellbeing to not only the women but to everyone who helped them shop and is not just a frivolous pastime, as you thought it to be! A small side-effect of shopping is that the husbands too become happy to be left alone if the woman shops alone.
The beauty bonus
Blame it on Cleopatra. Rumour has it that the Queen of Egypt, known for her exemplary beauty, took hours to get dressed. Subconsciously or consciously women still seem to be influenced by this trait of the most beautiful woman in the world, because centuries later, most women still take hours to get ready. However, much thought and analysis has gone into this, as taking time to get dressed almost always has good results. With good results one looks good and elicits compliments. A compliment makes one feel good and raises the confidence level of the individual, which is always encouraging. Plus, when taking your time dressing up has such great results why not continue doing so, blissfully unaffected by the husband impatiently tapping his feet or friends calling up frantically every few minutes and annoyed children throwing tantrums to leave soon?
So you see, with talking, shopping and getting dressed—simply being themselves, women achieve the overall wellness of mind, body and spirit.
Told you we were the smarter beings, didn’t I?
Shopping is good
Women think about shopping as often as men think of sex, according to a survey conducted by an online magazine. Involving 778 women, between the ages of 19 and 45, the survey showed that 74 per cent women think about shopping every minute! Two out of five women describe themselves as shoe and bag ‘addicts’, while more than one in ten focus on accessories or make-up. Women spend at least 30 per cent of their annual income on clothes.
Jane Prince, Psychologist, University of Glamorgan says, “People think about things which bring them pleasurable feelings. The pleasure is usually in the anticipating and planning. So many women displaying this level of preoccupation, thinking about something once a minute would indicate widespread addictive behaviour.”
However, the survey brought to light an interesting aspect of women. If the survey results are to be believed, women prefer to shop rather than spend time with their partners. And, though many husbands might disagree, women prefer to go shopping alone. Many women acknowledge that they keep their shopping trips and their spending a secret from their partners. Men acknowledge the fact that they get bored with their partners walking into every store and browsing every rack for their daily shopping. Shopping does help keeping the relationship a happy one; if the wife shops she’s happy, by being kept away from boring shopping, he too is happy. Shopping indeed leads to a lot of wellness and this research proves it.
— Team CW
This was first published in the March 2009 issue of Complete Wellbeing.