Are you healthy?

Think about this question, but before you answer, think about what your answer is based on.  More than likely it was based on an element of your physical wellness dealing with the physical state of your body such as eating or exercise habits.  Physical wellness is maintaining a high quality of life that allows you to stay energized throughout your daily activities.  Avoiding destructive habits such as drugs and alcohol is also important to optimal physical wellness.

What is Wellness?

Many people also used to consider being healthy as the absence of any major disease or illness.  However, optimal wellness requires a more comprehensive approach.  Wellness is an intentional effort to maintain optimal health.  In order to accomplish this goal, one must take a holistic approach.  Below is a chart that shows six dimensions of wellness that I personally chose for my own wheel.  I removed financial and occupational, because they aren’t applicable to most college students.  Most health educators use a circle chart to represent a wheel.  If you consider the dimensions a wheel, you will need every spoke to be strong in order for the wheel to work well. Thus, achieving optimal wellness.  It is also important to note that additional dimensions such as occupational or financial wellness could also be added to the wheel.

Social Wellness is the ability to connect with other people in our world, and establish and maintain positive relationships.  Good communication skills contribute significantly to social wellness.  Think about the ways we communicate in our modern world.  How has technology affected your social wellness?

Do you try to understand others before you judge them?

Emotional Wellness is the ability to understand ourselves and manage the stressors in life with healthy coping strategies. The ability to acknowledge and share feelings of anger, fear, sadness or stress; hope, love, joy and happiness in a productive manner contributes to our Emotional Wellness.

Is the glass half empty or half full?

Spiritual Wellness is being connected to something greater than yourself and having a set of values, principles, morals and beliefs that provide a sense of purpose and meaning to life, then using those principles to guide your actions.

Example: Prayer

Environmental Wellness is the ability to recognize our own responsibility for the quality of nature; including air quality, the water and the land that surrounds us. The ability to make a positive impact on the quality of our environment, be it our homes, our communities or our planet contributes to our Environmental Wellness.

Examples: Keeping a Clean and Organized Home, Reusable Water Bottles or Shopping Bags, House Plants to Improve Air Quality, Removing Shoes before entering Home, etc.

Intellectual Wellness is the ability to open our minds to new ideas and experiences that can be applied to personal decisions, group interaction and community betterment. The desire to learn new concepts, improve skills and seek challenges in pursuit of lifelong learning contributes to our Intellectual Wellness.  Do you have a Thirst for Knowledge?

Example:  Learning to cook healthy meals at home can save a lot of money, and improve your quality of life.