Wellness Defined
Wellness is not merely the absence of illness or distress–it is a lifelong process of making decisions that support a more balanced life and enable you to maximize your potential.
Seven Dimensions of Personal Wellness
1. Intellectual Wellness
What it is: The ability to open your mind to new ideas and experiences that can be applied to personal decisions, group interaction, and community betterment.
What you can do: Aim to learn new concepts, improve skills, and seek challenges in pursuit of lifelong learning
2. Emotional Wellness
What it is: The ability to understand yourself and cope with the challenges life can bring.
What you can do: Acknowledge and share feelings of anger, fear, sadness, or stress; hope, love, joy, and happiness in a productive manner.
3. Environmental Wellness
What it is: The ability to recognize your own responsibility for the quality of the air, the water, and the land that surrounds us.
What you can do: Find ways to make a positive impact on the quality of your environment, be it your home, your community, or the planet.
4. Social Wellness
What it is: The ability to relate to and connect with other people in your world and being comfortable with and liking yourself as a person.
What you can do: Establish and maintain positive relationships with family, friends, and co-workers.
5. Occupational Wellness
What it is: The ability to get personal fulfillment from your job or your chosen career field while still maintaining balance in your life.
What you can do: Contribute in your career, and make a positive impact in your organization and in society.
6. Optimal Physical Wellness
What it is: Developed through the combination of beneficial exercise and healthy eating habits, physical wellness empowers you to be able to monitor your own vital signs and understand your body’s warning signs. The physical benefits of looking good and feeling terrific most often lead to the psychological benefits of enhanced self-esteem, self-control, determination, and a sense of direction.
What you can do: Combine physical activity and exercise with healthy eating habits.
7. Spiritual Wellness
What it is: A personal matter involving values and beliefs that provide a purpose in your life. Generally considered to be the search for meaning and purpose in human existence, leading you to strive for a state of harmony with yourself and others while working to balance inner needs with the rest of the world.
What you can do: Be open to different cultures, religions, and spiritual philosophies.
8. Financial Wellness
What it is: Financial wellness is defined as satisfaction with current and future financial situations.
What you can do: Learn how to gain control of your finances so they work for you. Gain an understanding of how to manage a budget, credit cards, checking and savings accounts, investments, retirement funds, etc