Dimensions of Wellness - Change your habits

Dimensions of Wellness

  • Wellness is a holistic integration of physical, mental, and spiritual well-being that fuels the body, engages the mind, and nurtures the spirit (1). It’s not limited to physical health like nutrition, exercise, or weight management; it’s about living life fully (1) and is a lifestyle and a personalized approach to living life in a way that… allows you to become the best kind of person that your potentials, circumstances, and fate will allow (2).
  • Wellness necessitates good self-stewardship for ourselves and for those we care about, and for those who care about us. In helping professions (e.g., veterinary medicine), wellness is both a personal and a professional responsibility. There is an ethical obligation to attend to our own health and well-being to ensure high-quality patient and client services (3).
  • Sufficient self-care prevents us from harming those we serve. The Green Cross Standards of Self Care Guidelines state that no situation or person can justify neglecting self-care (3).
  • Wellness encompasses 8 mutually interdependent dimensions: physical, intellectual, emotional, social, spiritual, vocational, financial, and environmental (Table 1) (1). These dimensions are interconnected: neglect in one area over time can adversely affect the others, ultimately impacting health, well-being, and quality of life. They do not have to be equally balanced; aim for a “personal harmony” that feels authentic to you (1).
  • Making health and well-being choices is challenging. Even when we know what is good for us, acting on it can be hard, and we may revert to old habits over time. Two factors especially relevant to wellness are self-regulation and habits.
  • Self-regulation is central to effective human functioning. It is defined as “our ability to direct our behavior and control our impulses so that we meet certain standards, achieve certain goals, or reach certain ideals” (5). It allows action in our short- and long-term best interests, consistent with our deepest values (6). A key limitation is that self-regulation requires mental energy, and the brain tends to conserve energy (7,8).
  • Habits are powerful because they require very little energy (7,8). As Charles Duhigg notes, “Any behavior that can be reduced to a routine is one less behavior that we must spend time and energy consciously thinking about and deciding upon” (7).
  • Habit strength and formation: with cognitive economy and performance efficiency, habits help the brain conserve self-regulatory strength for important decisions in life (9). About 40% of our everyday behavior is repeated in the form of habits, so habits shape our health, well-being, and quality of life (8).
  • Habits are defined as “a behavior that is recurrent, is cued by a specific context, often happens without much awareness or conscious intent, and is acquired through frequent repetition” (8). This can be understood as a habit loop: the brain follows a routine automatically in response to a cue to obtain a reward (7). The loop can be written as: ext{Cue}
    ightarrow ext{Routine}
    ightarrow ext{Reward}.
  • Once formed, habits are encoded in brain structures and are difficult to eradicate; they are typically replaced with stronger habits rather than removed (7). Changing a habit requires rewiring the brain, not just willpower. To change, you must create new routines while keeping the old cue and old reward, but inserting a new routine (7).
  • Inserting new routines is challenging because habits tend to perpetuate existing behavior (10). However, success increases when you use multiple strategies and develop greater self-awareness (8).
  • Two essentials for successful habit change: self-awareness and strategies (8).
  • Dr. Debbie Stoewen is the Care & Empathy Officer and Director of Veterinary Services for Pets Plus Us, Oakville, Ontario. She is a licensed veterinarian and registered social worker with a special interest in “the social side” of veterinary medicine.
  • Use of this article is limited to a single copy for personal study. Contact the CVMA office for additional copies or permission to reuse (hbroughton@cvma-acmv.org).

Self-awareness

  • Change becomes more achievable if you pay attention to who you are and insert routines that take advantage of your strengths, tendencies, and aptitudes. With self-awareness, you can cultivate habits that work for you.
  • Circadian rhythms reflect natural tendencies for sleeping and waking and influence energy and productivity at different times of the day (11). For example, rising an hour earlier to exercise may not suit a night owl as well as a morning lark (11).
  • Self-awareness includes knowledge about other personality and behavioral factors, such as whether you are a marathoner or sprinter; procrastinator; under- or over-buyer; simplicity-lover or abundance-lover; finisher or opener; familiarity-lover or novelty-lover; promotion- or prevention-focused; and whether you prefer small or big steps (8).

Strategies

  • Change becomes more achievable when you choose strategies that support success. Examples include:
    • Monitoring
    • Scheduling
    • Investing in systems of accountability
    • Abstaining
    • Increasing or decreasing convenience
    • Planning safeguards
    • Detecting rationalizations and false assumptions
    • Using distractions, rewards, and treats
    • Pairing activities
    • Beginning with habits that directly strengthen self-control (8)
  • Most successful habit change requires coordinating multiple strategies to establish a single new behavior (8).
  • New habits, on average, take 66 days to form (12); the more strategies you use, the better.

Change your habits, change your life

  • Change can take time and involve repeated experiments and failures, but ongoing betterment is worthwhile and one success often leads to another.
  • When considering wellness and the health, well-being, and quality of life you aspire to, ask:
    • “Are you going to accept yourself or expect more from yourself?”
    • “Are you going to embrace the present or consider the future?”
    • “Are you going to care about yourself or overlook yourself?”
  • Wellness is a dynamic, ever-changing process. It’s a lifestyle and a personalized approach to living life in a way that allows you to become the best kind of person your potentials, circumstances, and fate will allow (13).
  • The past is history; the present and future lie in the choices you make today. Don’t worry about perfection—just get it going and aim to become the best kind of person you can be.

Table 1. Dimensions of Wellness

  • Physical Dimension: Caring for your body to stay healthy now and in the future
  • Intellectual Dimension: Growing intellectually, maintaining curiosity about all there is to learn, valuing lifelong learning, and responding positively to intellectual challenges; expanding knowledge and skills while discovering the potential for sharing your gifts with others
  • Emotional Dimension: Understanding and respecting your feelings, values, and attitudes; appreciating the feelings of others; managing your emotions in a constructive way; feeling positive and enthusiastic about your life
  • Social Dimension: Maintaining healthy relationships, enjoying being with others, developing friendships and intimate relations, caring about others, and letting others care about you; contributing to your community
  • Spiritual Dimension: Finding purpose, value, and meaning in your life with or without organized religion; participating in activities consistent with your beliefs and values
  • Vocational Dimension: Preparing for and participating in work that provides personal satisfaction and life enrichment aligned with your values, goals, and lifestyle; contributing your unique gifts, skills, and talents to work that is personally meaningful and rewarding
  • Financial Dimension: Managing resources to live within your means, making informed financial decisions and investments, setting realistic goals, and preparing for short-term and long-term needs or emergencies; being aware that everyone’s financial values, needs, and circumstances are unique
  • Environmental Dimension: Understanding how social, natural, and built environments affect your health and well-being; being aware of the earth’s unstable state and the effects of daily habits on the physical environment; demonstrating commitment to a healthy planet

References

  • 1. 8 Dimensions of Wellness, University of Maryland’s Your Guide to Living Well. Available from: https://umwellness.wordpress.com/8-dimensions-of-wellness/ Last accessed June 27, 2017.
  • 2. Ardell DB. Definition of Wellness. Ardell Wellness Report 1999;18:1–5.
  • 3. Standards of Self Care Guidelines, Green Cross Academy of Traumatology. Available from: http://home.cogeco.ca/~cmc/StandardsofSelf_Care.pdf Last accessed June 27, 2017.
  • 4. Murtagh AM, Todd SA. Self-regulation: A Challenge to the Strength Model. JASNH 2004;3:19–51.
  • 5. Psychology Glossary. Available from: http://www.alleydog.com/glossary/definition.php?term=Self%20Regulation#ixzz4G60TdnKX Last accessed June 27, 2017.
  • 6. Stosny S. Self-Regulation: To feel better, focus on what is most important. Available from: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/anger-in-the-age-entitlement/201110/self-regulation Last accessed June 27, 2017.
  • 7. Duhigg C. The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business. New York, NY: Random House, 2012.
  • 8. Rubin G. Better Than Before: Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives. Toronto, ON: Penguin Random House; Doubleday Canada, 2015.
  • 9. Wood W, Quinn JM, Kashy DA. Habits in everyday life: Thought, emotion, and action. J Pers Soc Psychol 2002;83:1281–1297.
    1. Neal DT, Wood W, Quinn JM. Habits — A repeat performance. Assoc Psychol Sci 2006;15:198–202.
    1. Hamada T, LeSauter J, Venuti JM, Silver R. Expression of period genes: Rhythmic and nonrhythmic compartments of the suprachiasmatic nucleus pacemaker. J Neurosci 2001;21:7742–7750.
    1. Lally P, Van Jaarsveld CHM, Potts HWW, Wardle J. How are habits formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world. Eur J Soc Psychol 2010;40:998–1009.
    1. Ardell DB. Definition of Wellness. Ardell Wellness Report 1986;18:1–5.