YOLO and wellness

YOLO is You Only Live Once. The acronym is a contender for 2012 Oxfoed American Dictionary’s ‘word of the year’. The term has been used over 20 million times on Twitter since 2010.

Here the author tries to explore if YOLO will have any impact on wellness. Before we go ahead, let us review what is wellness. According to the author, simple stated, wellness is a sustained level of good health. A wellness state is not achievable if good health is not sustainable.

The attitude of a YOLO type can be channelised to think about positives for yourself and your surroundings. It can be very useful to consider YOLO especially during serious or life-threatening illnesses as it will encourage and motivate the person to achieve an improved state of health.

Should YOLO atttitude be practiced in normal circumstances? And will it help people not faced with any major health issues promote wellness. The author is of the view that one had to tread it very carefully. YOLO is like a racing car; if not controlled properly, the consequences can be disastrous. The YOLO attitude should not be practiced frequently as it will lead to deviations from the steps you have chosen to achieve improvements in health status.

If YOLO is practiced by dieters to attempt indulging in junk food frequently, then it is not going to promote wellness. But if YOLO is used by dieters to break the monotony of having diet meals daily, then it may not interfere with wellness promotion, especially if the cheat meal is had no more than once in two weeks.

Written by Dr. Ajay Sati.