Wellness Is a Choice: Understanding the 8 Key Areas of Wellbeing
What’s your definition of wellness?
Maybe you automatically think of your activity levels, nutrition, or how well you’ve been sleeping. Maybe you think about your mental health and the ups and downs you’ve been experiencing.
Wellness is a process and a choice. We get to decide how we want to treat our minds and our bodies, where we want to work, the people we keep close, and how to expand our knowledge. Our wellness contributes to our overall sense of wellbeing.
One of my favourite tools to use for this kind of reflection is the Wellness Wheel.
This wheel focuses on 8 key areas:
Occupational Wellness: Finding value and purpose in your everyday activities, whether it’s work or volunteering, and recognizing when burnout may be on the horizon.
Physical Wellness: Taking care of our bodies through exercise, nutrition, sleep, and physical health.
Emotional Wellness: Being aware of our mental health, for example how we cope with stress, how we view ourselves, and how we express our emotions.
Spiritual Wellness: This could be spirituality or religion, exploring values and sense of purpose, connecting with nature, or personal reflection. It is whatever spirituality means to you!
Intellectual Wellness: Challenging our brains. This can be anything from critical thinking and reading, to trying or being open to learning new things.
Environmental Wellness: Focusing on how safe, clean, and comfortable your space feels, whether that is your home or your work. This can also refer to your awareness of environmental impact.
Financial Wellness: Recognizing what your relationship is like with money, and how you make financial decisions.
Social Wellness: Having healthy relationships and feeling connected and supported by others, especially during difficult times.
When all of these sections are balanced and nurtured, life tends to feel a little better. Don’t get me wrong, maintaining all 8 areas is hard work, and it certainly won’t always be a 10/10 in all areas, but it’s absolutely worth it to be aware of how each area is affecting your overall wellbeing.
Beginning in February, I’ll be focusing on one category of the Wellness Wheel per month, diving into tricks, tips, and tools aimed to increase wellness in that focused area. I will also be inviting expert guests to share valuable information and takes on ways to improve or focus on those specific areas in your life.
This month, we’ll talk about ways to understand where we’re at in terms of those 8 areas of wellness, and which ones could use a little TLC. If you’re not following me on Instagram or LinkedIn yet, now’s your chance! Most of the content will be shared there.
This content is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for counselling therapy or psychotherapy. If you're looking for support, consider connecting with a mental health professional.
Resources
https://extension.unh.edu/health-well-being/programs/wellness-wheel-assessment
