Eight Dimensions of Wellness

When you think about wellness, you more than likely just think about eating healthy and participating in physical activity for most days of the week. While these two things are absolutely necessary in creating a healthy lifestyle, there are other parts of wellness that you might not think are vital to overall wellness. Browse through the 8 dimensions of wellness to learn about the different areas of healthy living. 

Emotional Wellness

Emotional Wellness promotes mental well-being. It encourages you to think positively about yourself, and to express your emotions.  It also encourages healthy relationships with others, rather than discouraging, toxic relationships.
Ways to achieve Emotional Wellness:
  • Talk openly with others about how you are feeling
  • Being optimistic
  • Ask for help if you need it
  • Forgive others

Social Wellness

Social Wellness encourages positive interaction with family, friends, and community. It is not only about interacting with others, but also about having positive communication skills. Being able to interact well with others will ultimately play a big role in your overall health. 
Ways to achieve Social Wellness:
  • Go out and do something fun with friends (Stay off your phone as much as possible!)
  • Have family game/movie night once a week
  • Have family dinners together as much as possible
  • Have a group of friends that meets once a month for card/game night
  • Go running or workout with a group

Occupational Wellness

Occupational Wellness encourages you to work a job that you find satisfying and rewarding. You enjoy your job, and it brings you pleasure to know that you are good at what you do. 
Ways to achieve Occupational Wellness:
  • Set goals and achieve them
  • Find joy in working with others around you 
  • Be open to learning new skills

Environmental Wellness

Environmental Wellness is attained by caring for and protecting the earth's resources. It is knowing what the effects of your daily habits have on the earth and what you can do to make them better.  Doing so will ultimately make you feel better knowing what you are doing to help the environment.
Ways to achieve Environmental Wellness:
  • Reuse and recycle
  • Don't print/use paper for unnecessary things
  • Stop junk mail from coming to your house 
  • Conserve water (shorter showers, turn water off when you are not using it, etc.)

Intellectual Wellness

Intellectual Wellness encourages learning throughout all stages in life. You are never too old to learn something new. Learning new knowledge all throughout life gives you something to look forward to. You also have to continue to use your brain through the lifespan to help preserve brain health. The older you are, the wiser you are, due to the fact that if you stay intellectually well, you are continuously learning something new. Use your knowledge and share it with others!
Ways to achieve Intellectual Wellness:
  • Participate in continuing education
  • Work on something new often, whether it be big or small
  • Read books and solve puzzles
  • Aspire to be around people that challenge you intellectually

Spiritual Wellness

Spiritual Wellness is one's search for the meaning of their existence. It is having a set of principles and beliefs that you look to for guidance. No matter what is happening in your life, you can always rely on your spirituality for the guidance that you need. 
Ways to achieve Spiritual Wellness:
  • Meditate 
  • Spend time alone to think and relax
  • Know what your values are, and live by them
  • Belief in a higher power

Physical Wellness

Physical Wellness is probably what you are used to thinking about when you think about wellness. This type of wellness deals with taking care of your physical body through exercise and a healthy diet. It discourages you from putting things into your body that are not beneficial such as tobacco, excessive alcohol, and drugs.
Ways to achieve Physical Wellness:
  • Engage in at least 30 minutes of physical activity most days of the week
  • Get an adequate amount of sleep (7-9 hours is recommended for most adults)
  • Take safety measures such as wearing sun screen, wearing a seat belt, wearing a helmet, etc.
  • Maintain a healthy diet taking in many fruits, vegetables, and lean meats while limiting sugar, saturated fats, and trans fat
  • Make sure you are staying hydrated by drinking plenty of water

Financial Wellness

Financial Wellness is being satisfied with your current and future financial situations. 
Ways to achieve Financial Wellness:
  • Have a savings account and adding to it monthly even if it is a very small amount.  
  • Have a household budget.
  • Limit unnecessary expenses. 
  • Avoid credit card debt if at all possible. 
  • Track your spending for a month to determine where your money is going.