The Wellness Wheel – A Guide To Overall Wellness
Written by: Reah R. Hagues, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
This article discusses the components of the wellness wheel. Each component plays a vital role in our overall health. Catering to the emotional, occupational, intellectual, environmental, financial, social, physical, and spiritual aspects of your life and health sets you up for overall optimum wellness and success; this article will tell you why and how!
Vital components
The components of the wellness wheel are emotional, environmental, financial, intellectual, occupational, physical, social, and spiritual. The order of these components is interchangeable, and you can start anywhere! The best part is that you do not have to stress over where to start because the components intertwine so that every individual component affects the others. Understanding the components gives you the ability and opportunity for successful execution. Below, you will briefly read about each component and how it fits in with the others.
Wellness components
Emotional: Our emotional health consists of a sense of self, the ability to acknowledge and understand kindness toward yourself and others. Emotions can be difficult to manage, while emotional health is important to feel, experience, and successfully process emotions. This component can affect all other aspects by how we live, spend, eat, etc., and is impacted by/impact our level of emotional health.
Environmental: Your interactions between yourself and your environment (whether it be the world, your place of employment, or your home), it is important to act, react, and maintain positive relationships with the environment you choose or not to be a part of. Present yourself in a manner that takes care of and respects your environment. Sometimes this includes how you react to unhealthy aspects of the environment to guide their effect on you by reflecting on your emotional, physical, financial, and spiritual health.
Financial: The financial component includes income, assets, liabilities, funding, etc. Living within your means by budgeting, excluding expenses that are not beneficial to your overall health through your financial health, should be a priority to maintain overall health as this often affects our emotional, physical, spiritual, or even environmental health.
Intellectual: Intellectual health is using creativity while learning and maintaining ways to be creative to keep our brain activity healthy, and it is great for de-stressing! Challenge yourself to continue learning and consistent critical thinking.
Occupational: How we earn money and contribute to the world makes a huge difference in things like self-esteem! Seeking career/career goals that keep you creative, happy/positive, bring meaning to your life and environment, and positively impact your community are ideal ways to navigate your occupational health. As we know, our productivity in the world can affect our emotional, physical, financial, environmental, and social health.
Physical: Our physical health is how we take care of our body. This includes what we put into it and what we let impact our physical body (exercise, physical activity, etc.) contributes to our other components of health by affecting our ability to be productive, creative, successful, and vital.
Social: Our social component involves who and how we socialize with. A recent article I published also talks about social media effects on teens but, the same goes for adults and elderly. How we socialize (or our level of socialization) can affect other components like our emotional, intellectual, and even physical health! Stress levels through unhealthy communication can wear our minds and bodies down. Be sure you are caring for your brain and body by communicating effectively and healthily.
Spiritual: Finally, the spiritual component includes how we find meaning in life, whether it be through religion, spirituality, or just connecting with nature. Everyone has (and is entitled to) their way of practicing spiritual health. This component can also affect all other components in how we treat ourselves, others, and the world around us.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this article explains the Wellness Wheel components, how they intertwine, and their importance in our lives and overall health. Each component is part of a wheel that makes up our overall health. There is no specific place to start on the wheel, and every component you work to strengthen affects every other component. Catering to your overall wellness is a necessary part of working to achieve optimum health. You've got this!
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Reah R. Hagues, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Reah is a wife to Quintin and a mother to 5 humans and 3 pets. She is the daughter of Kim (or Ma to her), and big sister to Raven. Reah has earned multiple degrees including a Bachelor's degree in Christian studies, Master's degree in Psychology, Master's degree in Holistic Mental Health and Wellness (with emphasis on family dynamics), and a Master's level certification in Life Coaching.
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