Wellness isn’t waking up at 6am, journaling, and drinking a green juice. Wellness is so much more. There are 8 pillars of wellness that impact your state of wellness: Physical, Emotional, Social, Spiritual, Nutritional, Intellectual, Financial, and Environmental. These are the different aspects that have a role in determining your ever-changing state of wellness.
Discovering what each pillar actually stands for is the beginning of a self-discovery journey to figuring out what you really should be doing to improve your personal wellness.
Physical Wellness
Physical wellness includes exercise but it is more than just that. Physical wellness also includes personal and sleep hygiene.
It is important to push yourself while working out but not so much so that it deters you from exercising at all. There’s no need to intensely workout 7 days a week for maintenance wellness. On the other hand it isn’t a great option to go half a year without intentional fitness. This is a thin line to balance on, but with a proper mindset and a healthy relationship with exercise, it is very possible!
Personal hygiene to maintain wellness means keeping yourself clean. This usually includes routine showers, hair washing and combing, brushing your teeth, and nail maintenance. Personal hygiene is a key basic step in achieving your personal well state.
It may seem strange to hear a ‘good night’s sleep’ as sleep hygiene but really it just means to be getting enough, good quality sleep. Sleeping is another key basic to the physical wellness pillar. Without adequate sleep you will not have the energy or mental abilities to further take care of yourself.
Emotional Wellness
Emotional wellness sounds like being able to manage your own emotions but it goes further than just that. According to MSU, there are actually 10 factors involved in emotional wellness:
- Be here, now
- Inside-out world view
- Personal accountability
- Accepting what is
- Internal balance
- Respect new thinking
- Appreciation of differences
- Respect for the unknown
- Connection to something greater than ourselves
- A sense of meaning and purpose
Of course these are not all necessary to achieve emotional wellness but can be useful ways to improve oneself.
If you feel your emotional wellness is not where it should be consider speaking with a therapist or psychologist. This can or cannot be a long-term relationship. For some, a therapist can help them overcome a certain trauma while for others it is nice to consistently talk to a professional to maintain their emotional wellness.
Social Wellness
Social wellness is your connectedness and relationships you have with others. Some people tend to need less interactions with others and some need more. Either is perfectly fine.
Having beneficial and positive relationship with others aids your social wellness. Having no one to interact with in a positive manner can harm your self-belief and mental state.
These people are the ones you can rely on in difficult times through communication and interactions. They are the people that will support you when you are needing more help.
Having these figures in your life that are not beneficial may cause more harm than not having anyone! When first developing new relationships give it time to grow and develop. You will have a greater genuine connection with some but that doesn’t mean if they’re not your best friend they aren’t crucial to your social wellness.
Spiritual Wellness
As with the other pillars of wellness, spiritual wellness varies from person to person. Geneseo defines spiritual wellness as, “recognizing our purpose and feeling a sense of meaning and belonging in our lives.”
To some this can be giving themselves to their faith while for others it can simply mean they understand where they stand with what they believe in!
This pillar has a strong grasp on your mental state and can help you get through difficult times. When you are feeling low or need some guidance or hope try:
- Practicing gratitude
- Meditation
- Speaking or writing a note to a figure of your faith
- Be mindful
- Take a moment to appreciate where you are
- Work on self-acceptance
Nutritional Wellness
The nutritional pillar of wellness does not specifically require you to have daily hot lemon water and green juice. Actually, you can be completely nutritionally well without ever having either!
Being nutritionally well includes a balanced diet of not only fruits, veggies, healthy fats, protein, and whole grains but also the foods that bring you joy! Do you really think you could live well without your favorite dessert? I would say that would cause more upset than if you had it!
There is no specific diet you have to follow to be ‘well’. If you have any issues with figuring out what this looks like for you feel free to reach out to me! We can work together to discover a plan individual for you!
Intellectual Wellness
Intellectual wellness is the constant strive to continuing to learn new information and staying receptive to new ideas.
This doesn’t have to look like reading peer-reviewed scientific articles everyday. This can be challenging yourself to brain games such as sudoku or having a friendly debate with a friend!
Financial Wellness
If you’ve ever been struggling financially you will understand what it means to be financially well. It is both having enough income to support yourself, can manage it adequately, and can also plan for your future.
You don’t have to have millions set aside in your portfolio but it also isn’t having to return cans in order to pay rent. Having to constantly stress about money takes a lot out of you, so to be financially well you have to have enough income that allows you to at least live within your means.
Adequately managing your money is being able to purchase yourself the things that make you happy but also not having to over-indulge. For some this looks like spending a little extra on a local coffee now and again and for others it could mean being able to donate to their favorite charity.
Being financially well includes planning for your future. Managing your finances is not just your day-to-day expenses but also setting aside money for when you are no longer working. You don’t have to specifically know how to do this. There are professional financial planners for this. You just need to be smart enough to utilize them!
Environmental Wellness
Unlike the other pillars of wellness, environmental wellness is less about you and more about what you do. It is inevitable that the damage we cause to the environment will catch up to us. Including the environment as a pillar to our personal wellness places a greater emphasis on living a lower-waste lifestyle. For some this could be more effort with greater reward in the feeling of knowing the difference you’ve made.
8 Pillars of Wellness
Being well is a constant change of state. These 8 pillars come together to form the structure of you. At some times certain pillars will lack but others will stand stronger. This is the ebb and flows of wellness. Being accepting of these fluctuations is a way to not put too much pressure on yourself to be ‘be well‘.
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