What does wellness mean to you? Maybe your mind immediately goes to your physical health, or you think about your emotional state or spiritual life. Wellness is a broad term, with everything from life experience to culture and region impacting how we think about it. While we may individually focus on a few dimensions of health and wellness most important to us, there are actually 8 dimensions of wellness that impact whether or not we thrive. And each of these dimensions influence our long-term recovery journey, too.
Pursuing the 8 Dimensions of Wellness
Well-being is a positive state that encompasses your quality of life and your ability to contribute to the world with a sense of meaning and purpose, according to The World Health Organization (WHO). But how do you care for your well-being? By pursuing wellness. It’s a multifaceted journey. As you intentionally focus and take action on each of the following 8 components of wellness, according to Northwestern University, you’re cultivating your overall well-being:
1. Emotional and Mental Wellness
No, it’s not thinking happy thoughts and going through life with a smile on your face. You may easily discount emotional or mental wellness as fluff rather than substance. However, emotional wellness is critically important, especially when it comes to getting clean and staying sober from drugs or alcohol, as it can help you learn to better cope in ways that don’t require substances.
Emotional wellness involves coping effectively with life and creating satisfying relationships. This may look like knowing how you’re feeling at any given point, as well as how to express your emotions in a healthy way to others, according to Northwestern University. Learning to see yourself in a positive light and strengthening your self-esteem are also key ways to develop your emotional or mental wellness. At the same time, emotional wellness is about learning to manage your emotions, especially when challenges arise. Part of this process may also involve reaching out to friends or loved ones for help if you are struggling with your mental or emotional health.
2. Financial Wellness
Financial wellness is all about stewarding your money well. It doesn’t mean that you’re rich. It’s based on your ability to afford basic expenditures, keep a budget, and avoid spiraling into insurmountable debt. Instead of being consumed or controlled by your finances, financial wellness puts you in the driver’s seat, allowing you to save money and maintain a long-term financial plan.
Some specific ways you can pursue financial wellness include:
- Learning how to manage checking and savings accounts, budgets, credit cards, and retirement funds
- Setting and making progress towards both short and long-term financial goals
- Knowing where to get help when you face financial challenges
- Pursuing opportunities to develop financial literacy, planning, and management
SOURCE: University of Colorado Boulder
3. Environmental Wellness
Take a look at your surroundings; are they contributing to your health and well-being or making it worse? Your answer will reflect your current state of environmental wellness. While many of the dimensions of wellness are based on your individual pursuit, your environment can be a factor as well. However, you can certainly influence your environmental wellness, or your well-being as it relates to the natural world, the built environment, and natural resources, according to the University of Colorado Boulder.
How can you go about improving your environmental wellness? Start by spending time in places that lift your spirits, such as the great outdoors. Choosing to be an environmentally responsible citizen can also help, which looks like learning about your impact on the environment and taking steps to care for the planet.
4. Intellectual Wellness
Even if you finished school long ago, that doesn’t mean you have to stop learning. Intellectual wellness involves continuously pursuing opportunities to enhance your knowledge, cultivate your creativity, and acquire new skills. So instead of doing the same-old same-old over and over again, you’re expanding your horizons and stepping out of your comfort zone.
Of all the relapse prevention strategies out there, working on improving your intellectual wellness is one of the most effective (and it teaches you new life skills in recovery). It combats situations that can lead to relapse, such as boredom and getting stuck in your own little world.
Some ways you can choose to embrace your intellectual wellness include:
- Starting a new hobby
- Painting or sculpting
- Signing up for a dance class
- Volunteering at a nonprofit
- Learning to play an instrument
- Taking an online course
5. Occupational Wellness
You likely spend much of your days working or in school, so your occupational wellness reflects your well-being related to your job, career, or academic journey, according to the University of Colorado Boulder. Is your current job situation or career path making life more meaningful and fulfilling, or is it dragging you down? Whatever comes to mind is a straightforward gauge of your occupational wellness.
To improve your occupational wellness, it’s a good idea to find a job or academic path that aligns with your interests, passions, and values. This may mean making a career change altogether. If you can’t change jobs, volunteering in some capacity that aligns with your interests can improve your occupational wellness, too.
6. Social Wellness
Ever heard the saying, “No man is an island?” Well, it’s true. We are social beings; the Hollywood image of a heroic lone ranger simply isn’t reality. We need people in our lives, which is why social wellness is a vital aspect of our overall well-being. According to Washburn University, social wellness encompasses the positive interactions and relationships you have with others. It’s based on building close friendships, listening well, practicing empathy, and caring for your community.
When you have healthy social wellness, you have a sense of belonging. You’re in relationships with and feel accepted by people from diverse backgrounds. In the pursuit of health and wellness in recovery, however, these relationships encourage your sobriety and not any self-destructive behavior or substance use.
7. Physical Wellness
According to Northwestern University, physical wellness consists of understanding your need for exercise, physical activity, healthy nutrition, and adequate sleep. At the same time, it encompasses the prevention of illness or injury, as well as managing any chronic health issues. Physical wellness also involves knowing how mental health affects physical health, equipping you to manage stress so that it doesn’t cause you physical issues.
Specific ways you can pursue physical wellness include:
- Knowing how your body works and making informed decisions as a result
- Feeling comfortable with your physical appearance
- Exercising and being competent with physical activity
- Developing healthy, well-balanced eating habits
- Seeking proper medical care when needed
8. Spiritual Wellness
When you think about spiritual wellness, it’s easy to picture a church, dressing up on Sundays, and religious activities. But it’s actually more than that and may or may not include religion. Cultivating spiritual wellness involves finding purpose and meaning in life; it’s rooted in knowing and understanding your values and beliefs and living them out alongside others. At the same time, it may mean pursuing a relationship with your higher power. In many ways, spiritual wellness helps you stay grounded and secure as you navigate the highs and lows of recovery.
A Personal, Well-Balanced Journey
When you look at the 8 dimensions of wellness, it’s important to realize that they all need your attention. Neglect of any one of them over time will negatively affect others. If you’re spending all your time exercising and don’t cultivate your social wellness, it’s likely you may get depressed and less motivated to care for yourself, for example. With that said, these dimensions of wellness don’t have to be equally balanced.Instead, aim for consistency within the dimensions most important to you.
The pursuit of wellness is also, well, a pursuit. It’s not a state of being that you achieve and then you’re good from here on out. Cultivating the dimensions of wellness is very personal and intentional; requiring focus, lifestyle adjustments, and self-discipline. In many ways it’s about setting goals to keep you on track as you work towards a well-balanced, healthy life.
To set goals that allow you to prioritize wellness, you need to be specific. General goals don’t do much for you. Instead, create SMART goals, Arizona State University advises, which can help you determine the actions needed to improve your wellness.
SMART stands for:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Achievable
- Relevant
- Time-bound
Wellness and Holistic Addiction Treatment
In many ways, the pursuit of the 8 dimensions of wellness and holistic addiction treatment very much overlap. Like wellness, overcoming addiction takes a well-balanced approach addressing the various dimensions of recovery. Only medicating physical symptoms or changing bad behaviors would likely lead to relapse eventually. However, a holistic rehab process involves treating you as a whole person, including all the dimensions of wellness in the recovery journey. By doing so, you can heal from both your addiction and the underlying issues driving it, setting you up well for long-term recovery.
Treating the whole person is the heartbeat of our approach here at Discovery Place in Burns, Tennessee. Offering holistic addiction treatment and continuing care for drug and alcohol abuse, our programming takes you on a personal journey through the 12 Steps, helping you get clean, achieve a healthier overall well-being, and pursue a life of meaning and purpose. That’s why we have some of the best long-term sobriety success rates in the country. To learn more, contact our team today.
