Wellness is a concept that has been around for many years. It refers to your physical and mental health and refers to the idea of living healthy, which encompasses each aspect of your being: mind, body, and spirit. Wellness is considered an individual pursuit and depends on the choices you make on a daily basis to promote your emotional and physical well-being.
What is Wellness?
Wellness is a multi-faceted topic. It refers to how an individual is in good health, both mentally and physically, as well as their emotional, spiritual, and social well-being. There are many definitions and dimensions involved, and each of these elements influences the other. Wellness is a holistic term used to describe what an individual considers to be a state of complete physical, mental, social, and spiritual well-being. Wellness is a personal, unique concept for each of us. In our field, wellness is often defined as “the process of transformation that leads the seeker to increased wholeness, effectiveness, and authenticity.”
Wellness is a word that gets thrown around a lot. Most frequently, the word wellness is used in relation to striving to live a healthy lifestyle, but wellness can also be applied to something as small as eating a healthy meal or as big as improving your overall health. Today, we will focus on the wellness of your mind. There are things you can do to improve your mental, emotional, and physical health, improving your overall wellness. The answers don’t lie behind a pill, but a healthy lifestyle can significantly improve your life.
The Dimensions of Wellness:
- Physical.
Physical health covers your body. It includes the critical senses of taste and smell, sight and hearing, and your muscles, joints, and bones. It also includes your digestive and nervous systems, muscles, and vascular system. Physical health has your ability to perform everyday activities.
- Social.
Our social wellness is defined as our interactions and relationships with friends and family, work and hobbies, and groups and communities. The quality of our social connections can affect our physical, mental, and emotional health, including our well-being and our life satisfaction.
- Spiritual
Dimensions of Wellness focuses on spiritual wellness, including concepts such as knowing your beliefs, practices, and values, practicing wisdom, and practicing forgiveness. Other practices include believing in a higher power, feeling gratitude, and participating in spiritual activities.
- Environmental.
Environmental wellness is the space in which you create the conditions for healthy behavior. It is the space in which you feel supported. It is the space in which you feel safe. It is the space in which you can find hope. Environmental wellness is based not just on physical things but also on emotional things.
- Financial.
One of the major issues facing our country’s healthcare system is the cost. People are becoming more and more aware of the high price of healthcare, and rightfully so. Unfortunately, even with all the awareness, many people still continue to overspend on healthcare. One way you can control the costs is by having an understanding of your own health. This might seem difficult, given the number of things doctors have to look at and issues that need to be dealt with. However, one way you can make managing your health easier is by understanding your own finances.
- Emotional / Mental.
Emotional / Mental dimensions come from both our external and internal environment. Our internal environment is the psycho-social aspect of our health status. Our external environment includes all aspects of our physical, biological, and social environment. Emotional/mental (EM) health can be influenced by both psychosocial factors (i.e., stress, relationships, coping) and environmental factors (i.e., nutrition, exercise, sleep).
- Intellectual.
Being smart involves more than acing the SAT or GRE. There are intellectual dimensions of wellness that go far beyond math. Healthy people, for example, possess an awareness of how their own health and the health of others relate to society’s health. In an earlier post, we discussed intellectual dimensions of wellness such as curiosity, creativity, and sensitivity. Today we’re talking about intellectual wellness, including profit-making, taking the initiative, and helping others.
- Occupational.
Occupational wellness refers to how well an individual does in their current job. Occupational wellness is similar to a person’s health in that both are intrinsically linked to one’s level of happiness. Most people say they would choose a job over a better salary if it’s more fulfilling. But while health is a finite resource, job happiness is a choice. However, there are things you can do to boost job satisfaction, as well as things you can do to improve your health.
There is no one-size-fits-all model of wellness. Wellness is an individual journey, defined by each person and is influenced by the individual’s goals, values, priorities, and lived experiences.