8 Wellness Dimensions That Can Improve Your Life

Being human is a unique experience for every individual but it would be great if each of us would use this personal journey to grow and become better each day. However, we are well aware that not everything is in our control. But we also know that in order for us to start and make the world a better place we have to prior take care of ourselves and our well-being. That’s when health and wellness come to find their first seat in our bus of wishes.

How can I reach optimum wellness one would say? Pretty simple to achieve, if you’re only willing to, would be our answer. Wellness is defined by National Wellness Institute as “a conscious, self-directed and evolving process of achieving full potential.”

Since a healthy routine is one of the areas that completes harmonious living, ongoing conscious attention to our well-being is important for each and everybody. After all, It’s all about our personal choice and the goals we continuously set to ourselves to reach a high dimension of wellness. So, wellness itself encompasses larger dimensions and is not only about physical health as many people tend to believe. Also, health and wellness are often used as synonyms and there is nothing wrong to use them for the same purpose. Wellness has also to do with mental health and it has proved to help people combat the battle with anxiety and depression,  and even handle stress for a long time now.

By being informed about these dimensions we will get to know better where are we good at and what areas of wellness we need to improve. Reaching a balance or adjusting yourself between these dimensions, helps us live this precious life to the fullest.

So, to become more familiar with 8 wellness dimensions, scroll down this article.

Wellness Dimensions

According to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, the eight dimensions of wellness are: Physical, emotional, social, spiritual, intellectual, occupational, environmental and financial.

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Emotional

Emotional dimension includes the ability to manage emotional reactions in every challenging situation that life brings us. Identifying our emotions leads us to know ourselves better. Also getting to understand and share our feelings we can attain emotional balance and well being. Emotional dimension is also about acknowledging feelings of self-acceptance, empathy and overall being resilient in every struggle that comes along with our emotions.

Environmental

This dimension encourages us to take care of our physical environment and minimize the harm we do to it. No matter where – home, classroom, job environment or planet Earth itself, it’s important for our well-being to have a positive impact on the quality of the environment. This harmony between humans and the environment can be reached by saving water, recycling or simply said, by being responsible for the quality of our surroundings, be it land, water or air.

Intellectual

This dimension is all about opening our minds to learning new things every day and being pro to new experiences. This includes critical thinking skills, creativity, education goals and in general being a lifelong learner and developing a “growth mindset.”

Occupational

This kind of wellness encourages individuals to pursue a career that they enjoy. In a way, it pushes people to hold jobs that besides giving you financial incomes, gives a purpose and a sense of satisfaction anytime you do it.

Physical

Physical wellness is all about taking proper care of your body. You can better reach this goal if you constantly engage in physical activity, eat healthy food, get enough sleep, keep a routine of check-ups and in general, you stick to safe habits that help your body stay healthy. So it also includes avoiding destructive habits such as tobacco, drugs, alcohol, etc. It’s all about doing these small steps daily that lead us to physical wellness.

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Social

Social wellness calls for individuals to celebrate the differences in people, learn to better understand these differences and interact with human fellows by developing empathy and compassion with them. Being able to successfully communicate with people in our world helps us create meaningful relationships with family, friends, and colleagues. Genuine connections are always an important aspect of our general wellness.

Spiritual

Spiritual wellness involves the quest to find meaning, value, and purpose in one’s life. It can be done through prayer, meditation, nature, varying on individual beliefs. A spiritual person seeks to reach a harmony between his inner self and the forces that live outside himself.

Financial

The concept of the financial dimension of wellness lies on thinking critically about our needs, wants, and extras by trying to acknowledge our resources. Although it is often neglected as a concept, and only the seven aforementioned concepts are explained, financial wellness matters a lot. This because our financial decisions directly indicate our general well-being as well. So developing financial wellness means that we are prepared for long-term needs and emergencies that come into our way.