Have you ever heard of the Dimensions of Wellness? Surprisingly, not many people have.
The Dimensions of Wellness are the 8 areas of your life that are scientifically proven to correlate with overall happiness and developing a good quality of life.
Understanding your role in each of these different categories will help you identify the areas of your life that might need more work than others when it comes to developing a feeling of personal satisfaction.
As you read through each dimension of wellness you might realize immediately where you fall short, or you might recognize your strong areas, but what is important to remember here is there is always room for improvement no matter what.
It’s also important to keep an open mind about inviting change into your life because although we might believe we have a strong connection of success within one of these categories, sometimes we can be blind to the things that need improvement the most.
For example, you can think that you have the best communication skills ever but the reality is that the relationships you create are lacking depth, which might indicate that you can, in fact, improve on your communication skills. This is just an example but you get the idea.
This multidimensional concept is a full integration and pursuit of continued growth and balance. Each dimension contributes to our own sense of wellness or quality of life, and each affects and overlaps the others.
Like I mentioned before, one may be more prominent than the others, but neglecting any one dimension for any length of time has adverse effects on your overall health which is why this is extremely important to address.
So what are the dimensions of wellness? They are Emotional, Physical, Social, Occupational, Financial, Environmental, Spiritual, and Intellectual.
1. Emotional Wellness
Emotional wellness, in short, is self-awareness, self-confidence, and self-acceptance. But if we expand on those, emotional wellness is coping effectively with life and creating satisfying relationships. It also involves being attentive to your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, whether positive or negative.
Emotional Wellness implies the ability to be aware of and accept our feelings, rather than deny them. It is also about having an optimistic approach to life, and enjoy life despite its occasional disappointments and frustrations.
Life is unpredictable and the reason emotional wellness is so important is because how you control your emotions determines your experience in the world.
2. Physical Wellness
Physical wellness promotes the proper care of our bodies for optimal health and functioning. Overall physical wellness encourages the balance of physical activity, nutrition and mental well-being to keep your body in top condition.
There are 4 different characteristics of physical activity:
Cardiovascular Training:
This type of physical activity increases your heart rate for a duration of time and there are numerous benefits. To name a few it promotes weight loss, it develops a strong heart and lunges, it reduces stress and your risk for diseases like heart disease, and also promotes better sleep.
Flexibility Training:
This type of training prevents injuries and has many other benefits as well. For instance, flexibility training allows for greater movement and improves posture, increases physical and mental relaxation, and releases muscular tension and soreness.
Resistance Training:
To put it simple resistance can be any stress placed on the muscles. Examples include bodyweight training, resistance bands, or the use of other training equipment like dumbbells, barbells, or weight machines. Resistance training has many positive benefits on the body like protecting bone health and muscle mass, helps you develop better body mechanics, and it even promotes fat loss.
Recreational Sports and Activities:
This can be anything from baseball, soccer, and swimming, to hiking, or rock climbing.
Another aspect of Physical Wellness is understanding the need for proper diet and nutrition. When it comes to diet and nutrition there are two important things to be aware of and that is the intake of Macro-Nutritients and Micro-Nutrients.
Macro-Nutrients are the carbs, fats, and proteins that are required to sustain life. Micro-Nutrients include vitamins, minerals, and amino acids.
Understanding the need for Proper Recovery and Sleep:
Of course every person’s need for sleep varies, however, studies show that our minds and bodies need an average of 7-8 hours of sleep per night. And it’s important to get sound sleep where you go through multiple rem cycles.
So, knowing your physical limitations or when your body needs to recover by developing a mind-body connection will prevent overexertion, injury, or exhaustion.
3. Social Wellness
Social Wellness refers to one's ability to interact with people around them. It involves using good communications skills, having meaningful relationships, respecting yourself and others, and creating a support system that includes family members and friends.
Social wellness can be a tricky topic for some people because, and maybe this applies to you, but people who tend to be introverts or shy around others automatically think that they lack social wellness.
This is not always the case though. Some common misconceptions about social wellness are that most introverts have a lower social intelligence than extroverts and vice versa.
Introverts or individuals who consider themselves to be shy are typically shy around people they are not close with or maybe have just met. These people usually have a close group of friends or family that they are comfortable with. So to them, this is considered a safe space for them to truly be themselves and can showcase healthy social Intelligence. If you look past the social shyness many of these individuals have the skills needed to maintain a healthy social life.
It’s also important to note that being considered an extrovert does not automatically mean you have developed great social wellness and there is nothing you need to improve on.
4. Occupational Wellness
Occupational Wellness is the ability to achieve a balance between work and leisure time, addressing workplace stress as well as building relationships with co-workers. Not only that but it also focuses on our search for a calling and involves exploring various career options and finding where you fit.
5. Financial Wellness
Financial Wellness is finding satisfaction with your current and future financial situations. It also consists of developing a healthy relationship with the mental aspects of money. This could mean that you understand the need for developing some sort of budget and have the ability to stick to it. Alongside budgeting, avoiding debt and having a strategy to get yourself out of debt is just as important. Surprisingly, assessing your own financial situation is not the only aspect to developing a positive relationship with money. Being financially generous and understanding the importance of giving back develops brings emotional satisfaction to how you spend your money. Finding a cause you are passionate about and doing your what you can financially to contribute is a sign of positive financial wellness (aka the act of selflessness).
6. Environmental Wellness
This doesn’t necessarily mean that in order to have healthy environmental wellness you need to protect the environment in the stereotypical way you might think. Environmental wellness is creating pleasant, stimulating environments that support well-being. This can look very different from person to person. For example, Imagine a place where you feel the most calm and relaxed. A space that helps you stay productive, focused, and happy.
Now for some of you this might be sitting on a park bench with your dog people-watching. For others it could be working on your vinyasa in yoga class. Or if you’re like me, it’s sitting in a freshly cleaned home with the lights dimmed, scented candles lit, a glass of red wine, and good book in my hand.
To ensure productivity and that your energy matches your environment, understand what you want to accomplish is important before creating an environment.
If you want to crush a killer workout you wont be able to do that in a dim apartment with a glass of wine. You’ll probably desire a completely different environment in order to feel like you’ve accomplished that goal.
I know plenty of people who have their best workouts in a run-down gym with no air conditioning, old equipment, and music blasting louder than you can hear the weights clinking against each other. That type of environment stimulates the indivual in a particular way that changes their experience, Now, that might be workout heaven for some and it could sound terrible to others.
You might be the type that enjoys working out in a newer, clean gym with quality amenities and all the latest workout equipment, maybe with some subtle music playing in the background so that it doesn’t overpower the music on your headphones. Now, if this is you then you are more likely going to have a better workout in that type of gym than if you were working out in the other gym.
Every scenario will be different but making a conscious effort to make these identifications ahead of time will significantly change your experiences in the future.
7. Spritual Wellness
It’s important to note here that Spiritual Wellness is a personal matter involving values and beliefs that provide a sense of purpose in our lives.
While different individuals may have different views of what spiritualism is, it is generally considered to be the search for meaning and purpose in human existence, leading one to strive for a state of harmony with oneself and others while working to balance inner needs with the rest of the world.
A few examples of how people can practice spirituality can be through meditation, prayer, affirmations, yoga and meditation, or specific spiritual practices that support your connection to a higher power or belief system. In other words, practicing an organized religion.
8. Intellectual Wellness
Intellectual Wellness is recognizing creative abilities and finding ways to expand your knowledge and skills. This promotes the exploration of generating new ideas as well as the desire to learn. Being intellectual well creates a stimulating life and develops healthy challenges so we can grow as individuals.
