What is wellness?
If you do an internet search on the dimensions of wellness, generally you’ll come across something along these lines (1,2)…
- Physical – recognizing the need for and participating in healthy activities, such as proper nutrition, adequate sleep and physical activity, as well as not participating in unhealthy activities, such as drug use or alcohol abuse
- Emotional – having the ability to feel and share emotions, such as happiness, sadness, or anger, as well as the ability to love and be loved, and achieve a sense of well-being and fulfillment
- Intellectual – participating in creative, stimulating mental activities
- Social – interacting with others, able to cultivate healthy relationships and develop a sense of connection and belonging, along with a well-developed support system
- Spiritual – having a set of guiding principles or beliefs that help provide direction in one’s life, creating an expanded sense of purpose and meaning, as well as create a sense of harmony
- Environmental – inhabiting a pleasant, stimulating environment that supports well-being
- Occupational – satisfaction and enrichment from one’s work
- Financial – satisfaction with current and future financial situation
Oh.
I thought that wellness was just about absence of illness. But, turns out that to create an absence of illness, a lot of things have to be going well in life. Things need to be balanced. Like the eight things listed above.
Hmmmm…that’s a lot.
I don’t know too many people who have all of those things going on. I don’t have all of those things going on.
What to do?
Make it a point to live your best life. Seek balance. Make changes that get those eight things rolling in your life. They won’t be immediately perfect, but a little self-reflection will reveal which are out of balance.
We tend think that illness or wellness is something that happens to us. But we are a part of that wellness or illness. We are partners in our wellness.
In fact, we are wellness. We can’t separate our selves from our wellness or our illness. Quite the opposite. We need to find ways to improve the balance in our lives so that wellness can follow.
Over the years, we have talked a lot about emotional and mental wellness, and finding balance as it applied to those. Moving forward, I will also be talking about finding balance as it applies to all aspects of you, including your physical well-being. Because we are not separate categories that make up a whole being. Rather, we are a whole being who needs balance of many aspects of life.
What’s out of balance in your life?
1. Seven Dimensions of Wellness. https://www.grcc.edu/humanresources/wellness/sevendimensionsofwellness.
2. Eight Dimensions of Wellness. https://cpr.bu.edu/living-well/eight-dimensions-of-wellness/.