The wellness wheel represents each wellness category visually on a wheel. Due to the interconnectedness of all the dimensions, your ability to achieve optimal well-being may be hampered by an imbalance in one of the wellness wheel’s axes. It’s critical to keep in mind that well-being affects all facets of your life, not just your physical and emotional health. By working through each component of the wellness wheel, you will be able to raise your general quality of life, enhance your health, and concentrate on realizing your full potential.
Join us as we further discuss wellness wheel activities, assessments, and examples.
Wellness Wheel Meaning
A wellness wheel is a self-discovery tool that supports the idea that finding balance is the secret to well-being. Wellness is a benchmark for people to achieve a well-rounded, healthy lifestyle and live a life of purpose and meaning.
The wheel has expanded through time to now have seven categories. Physical, emotional, intellectual, spiritual, environmental, social, and vocational wellbeing is now the dimensions on the wellness wheel. These are all distinct yet related categories that help one achieve a balanced existence.
The wellness wheel can help you understand what lifestyle adjustments you might want to start implementing by allowing you to reflect on your progress over time. You may enhance your overall quality of life, boost your health, and pursue your maximum potential by focusing on each area. Continue reading to find out more about the various wellness wheel categories.
Wellness Wheel Examples
A wellness model with eight components is represented by the wellness wheel: social, physical, emotional, occupational, spiritual, intellectual, environmental, and financial. A balanced and well-rounded lifestyle requires consideration of all the dimensions because they are all interconnected. It serves as a reminder that improving our sense of well-being requires effort in many areas of our lives; concentrating only on one is insufficient.
#1. General Health
The physical health of your body is guided by the wellness wheel’s physical dimension. It entails engaging in all forms of exercise; eating a balanced diet; getting enough sleep; building strength, and caring for your health by seeking medical attention when required.
Steps to improving your physical health
- Outline Your Objectives
Just like an oil change, mobility requires planning. When we have visual cues, it’s simpler to follow through.
- Find a Workout Partner
Not only will it motivate you to work out, but as a bonus, you’ll catch up with a friend.
- Find a motivator
Setting goals can help reduce ambivalence and boost motivation. These don’t have to be pricey and can be fluid. Sometimes all it takes to start a new routine is a nice cappuccino!
- Begin Modestly
And keep in mind that a mile is still a mile, no matter how it is measured. Long-term commitment is more viable and effective with cumulative effort.
- Diversify
When we have too much of anything, we tend to lose interest, but switching things up keeps things fun and jovial.
#2. Emotional Well-Being
Your sentiments and emotions are referred to as emotional wellness as well. What kind of emotional response do you have? Are you aware of your emotions to the point where you can comprehend and express them? When you have a solid foundation in emotional health, you are better able to adjust to life’s changes and handle stress.
To manage your overall stress, take care of your emotional wellness by getting adequate sleep, seeing a therapist when you can, seeking assistance when you need it, and periodically checking in with yourself.
Follow these steps to ensure a healthy emotion
- Recognize Your Emotions
Check in with yourself and find out how you actually feel. It’s okay to take some time to sob or feel depressed, but never forget to rise up afterward!
- Establish a Self-Care Routine
To relax your body and mind, try meditation, yoga, stretching, or breathing exercises. You cannot begin to imagine the tremendous effect this has on your emotional health.
- Be Realistic
There may be more stress during some seasons of the year than others (like holidays). Even if it means declining some invitations, it’s crucial to put your mental health first, especially when you’re not feeling your best. You should look after yourself.
- Always Keep in Touch
Reach out to family, friends, a religious community, online support groups, or virtual events if you feel alone or lonely.
- Develop the Ability to Say No –
Saying “yes” when you really want to say “no” might make you feel angry and overburdened. Setting clear boundaries is a way to respect and care for yourself, and it can be a good approach to stop resentment from escalating.
#3. Mental Well-Being
The lifelong learning, knowledge expansion, and skill development components of the intellectual well-being dimension are highlighted in order to keep your mind sharp and healthy. Reading inspirational books, staying current on social and political problems, and mentoring people are all examples of activities that would be considered to be part of intellectual wellness. When you are mentally healthy, it pushes you to be confident and curious about learning new things and engaging in creative endeavors.
To ensure a sound and healthy mind, observe the following methods
- Start a Book Group!
Book clubs are a terrific opportunity to participate in social group activities while simultaneously holding yourself accountable for reading. If you don’t live close by, make a regular Zoom hangout with your fellow bookworm buddies. It helps to broaden your mind.
- Make a List of Topics that Interest You
Keeping track of a list of intriguing topics and devoting some time each month to further investigate them will support your intellectual health.
- Get Active
Look for ways to give back to your neighborhood by joining a neighborhood political, educational, or social organization.
- Spend Some Time Writing Every Day.
Here comes the interesting part! Don’t just spend the whole time learning and reading. That’s okay though, but not enough if you are interested in your mental well-being. You should resort to writing down your ideas and thoughts as it is a great way to engage and enhance your mind’s intellect.
- Regularly Practice
your problem-solving skills to keep your mind sharp. You can start with logic games or puzzles.
#4. Religious Wellbeing
The beliefs, values, and ethics that direct your behaviors and provide a foundation for your life are referred to as the spiritual or religious wellness component. In order to find serenity, it encourages you to search within and consider your life’s meaning and purpose from a spiritual perspective. Whether it be through religion or by practicing mindfulness or meditation, spiritual well-being offers many people the chance to connect with something bigger than themselves and participate in communities.
The following guide will help you stay spiritually healthy
- Include Spirituality in Your Daily Routine.
I don’t know how often you do this, but waking up 5–10 minutes earlier in the morning to meditate will help you start your day in a little more of a spiritual, peaceful mood. Like I said, when you connect spiritually, you expose yourself to something bigger than yourself.
- Make Friends
Yes, you should make friends. However, if you are concerned about your religion and spirituality, you should know better than to get acquainted with individuals whose beliefs and spirituality are different from yours. In other words, join a group of people who hold the same spiritual values in person or online.
- Find Mementos –
Have mementos that symbolize your spiritual path and display them prominently.
- Create a Vision Board
Vision boards are an excellent method to keep track of your objectives and reflect on your spiritual growth.
- Celebrate
We should always rejoice when we reach important milestones in our spiritual development.
#5. Environmental Well-Being
The influence of your surroundings on your general well-being is referred to as the environmental wellness dimension. Our physical environment has an impact on our mental health at all scales, from the micro level in our own homes to the global level. It significantly affects our attitude and way of life. Environmental well-being is concerned with how you interact with your surroundings, including your home, place of employment, and place of education.
We can all do our part to encourage a clutter-free, cleaner, organized, and more productive living space as well as a peaceful home atmosphere by decluttering a room, recycling the garbage, or emptying the dishwasher, to name a few minor actions. Other approaches to concentrating on your environmental wellness include learning about environmental challenges throughout the world, taking care of the environment, and creating environments that promote happy emotions.
The following will ensure your environmental wellness as it concerns your general well-being
- Conduct Research on Clean Substitutes
Look for cleaner substitutes for some of your frequently used household items.
- Spend Time Outside.
Being outside has various health benefits and can help us get closer to nature.
- Make Use of Natural Light
When it’s possible, make use of natural light to foster a tranquil and creative atmosphere. Natural light has the power to reduce stress, enhance sleep, and prevent the symptoms of seasonal depression.
- Lastly, start a garden, even if it’s just a few apartment-friendly houseplants.
#6. Social Wellness
The level of your relationships with other people is referred to as the social wellness dimension of the wellness wheel. Maintaining a strong network of individuals with whom you feel connected is essential for your social well-being and can aid in warding off emotions such as stress, loneliness, and even depression.
Healthy social wellness requires taking part in group activities with family or friends, joining groups, being open to new interactions, and appreciating and preserving valuable relationships.
#1. Establish Boundaries
Our society puts a lot of pressure on us to live fast-paced lives. Sometimes, we make decisions based on how we believe others will view us, even when those decisions may not be what we actually want to make. Setting limits helps to develop good relationships and trust. Additionally, it raises self-esteem.
#2. Make an effort to Minimize the Amount of News and Social Media you Consume
Both can be overwhelming and increase stress levels. Think about turning off app notifications and banning or muzzling anyone who makes you feel stressed out unnecessarily.
#3. Deal with Your Own Emotions
Be open to being vulnerable, and fight the impulse to downplay them. Make time to think about your thoughts even if your pals don’t comprehend what you’re going through. Consult a therapist, a spiritual guide, or other emotionally secure allies.
#4. Arrange Activities You May Look Forward to in Advance
Pick particular days to do your chores, go shopping, bake, interact with friends, and do other hobbies.
#5. Take Part in Enjoyable and Stress-Reducing Activities
such as playing games, solving puzzles, watching movies, gardening, creating art, reading, exercising, or even napping.
#7. Workplace Wellness
The aspect of occupational wellness usually referred to as financial wellness, deals with the satisfaction you derive from your profession and the ways in which financial security affects your life. You can assess your occupational wellness in this dimension by taking into account your job happiness, money, and career goals. Finding the proper employment for you, creating a budget, and maintaining your financial health are all examples of occupational wellness.
#1. Keep Work and Home Life Separate
Avoid having too many of your personal and professional obligations intersect. If you work from home, construct an area just for work that you can leave when you want to relax or spend time with your family.
#2. Establish Social Connections
It’s crucial to feel connected to your coworkers. Catching up over breaks or eating lunch together is a terrific opportunity to connect and get to know one another better.
#3. Request Feedback
Request regular input from your manager, not only during performance reviews.
#4. Take Mental Health Days
Keep an eye on yourself to prevent burnout and remember to speak with your supervisor about your mental health. An occasional day off can increase productivity and provide us the time and space to concentrate on our mental health.
#5. Communicate
Tell your coworkers and managers how you’re truly doing at work, and don’t be hesitant to ask for more help when you need it.
Wellness Wheel Activities
Having a healthy mind, body, and spirit as well as good physical health is essential to overall wellbeing. Good physical health includes not just the absence of sickness but also making lifestyle decisions that keep preventable illnesses at bay.
What You Can do to Take Care of Yourself:
- Healthy eating
- Regular exercise
- Get sexy (safely)
- Create a sleep routine that works for you
- Go on vacation
- Take a break and allow for downtime.
- Plan to have regular massages
- Find a licensed acupuncturist.
- Bathe in calming water
- Kiss (your partner, family, or your dog)
- Request nurturing
- everyday strolls (if possible in nature)
- Put your phone on silent or off.
- Take into account the following:
- Adequate housing
- Regular medical attention and examinations
Activities for Self-Care in the Psychological Realm
Your mental and physical health are both impacted by your psychological well-being. The American Psychological Association defines psychological wellness as having a positive outlook on life, feeling content and joyful, experiencing little suffering, and having a high quality of life.
What you can do to take care of yourself:
- Reflect and become aware of yourself.
- Journaling
- Senses are involved
- Plan an aromatherapy session
- Create something; cook, quilt, paint, sketch, etc.
- Visit a concert, ballet, or symphony
- Relax in your backyard, in a nearby park, or on a beach.
- Garden
- Check out a self-help book.
- Consider your advantages and your points of strength.
- Practice asking for and receiving assistance (while visualizing it)
- Practice being mindful.
- Take into account implementing:
- Therapy
- Join a group of supporters
Activities for Self-Care in the Emotional Realm
Understanding your feelings, being conscious of them, feeling at ease with them, and being able to express them positively are all characteristics of emotional well-being.
What You can do to Take Care of Yourself:
- Use affirmations.
- Cry
- Engagement with social justice
- Laugh
- “I love you,” say (show positive emotions more often, and mean them)
- Watch a heartwarming or humorous film.
- Choose a hobby
- Flirt (if appropriate)
- Buy something for yourself.
- Time spent with your pet
- Learn to forgive.
- Take into account implementing:
- Self-love
- Self-compassion
Activities For Self-care in the Spiritual Realm
Each of us has a distinct definition of spiritual wellness. Typically, it involves having the opportunity and drive to connect your actions with your values and beliefs, which give your life meaning.
What you can do to take care of yourself:
- Self-reflective action
- Spend time outside
- Self-cherish
- meditate or use mindfulness techniques
- Dance and sing
- Play games with your kids.
- Be motivated
- Exercise yoga
- bathe in a lake, river, or the ocean
- Observe the dawn or the sunset
- Pray
- Identify a spiritual guide
- Give your time to a cause you care about
- Encourage self-forgiveness
- Take into account implementing:
- Join a spiritual Group that Shares Your Values and Principles.
Self-Care Practices for Your Private Sphere
Engagement in your behavior, environment, and social group on an intellectual and deeply personal level is likely to foster growth and wellbeing in your personal domain.
- What you can do to take care of yourself:
- Find out who you are.
- Examine your goals in life.
- Set short- and long-term objectives.
- Creating a vision board
- Encourage friendships
- Attend dates
- Get a drink or coffee with a pal.
- Learn to unwind.
- Write a book, short story, or piece of poetry.
- time with family and friends
- Cook
- Take up music instruction
- Take into account implementing:
- Pay off your debt (this may be aspirational)
Self-Care Exercises for Your Line of Work
Professional happiness is most likely to occur when your work and studies leave you feeling fulfilled and you are continuing to learn, grow, and make significant contributions.
What you can do to take care of yourself:
- Make lunch reservations and schedule periodic breaks.
- Don’t work late all the time.
- Don’t work on holidays.
- Find a suitable mentor
- Obtain assistance from coworkers
- Take time for yourself.
- Say no more often.
- Plan your present or upcoming career
- learn, enroll in a course
- Use your time off and sick days.
- Take into account implementing:
- Establish limits. Where do tasks begin and end?
Wellness Wheel Assessments
Read the descriptions and illustrations of each wellness component that are provided below, and while you do, give careful thought to each illustration for yourself.
#1. Environmental: Using sustainable practices and organizational abilities to protect both the global environment and your local environment.
Examples:
- recycle paper, glass, and plastic wherever I can.
- keep my house and room tidy and orderly.
- enjoy being outside.
#2 Spiritual: Creating peace and harmony in our lives by acting in accordance with your values and beliefs and acting with personal purpose.
Examples:
- My life feels meaningful and purposeful.
- I am able to forgive and let go, and I trust myself and other people.
- My morals, ethics, and principles serve as my compass in life.
#3 Emotional: Having a positive outlook and a strong sense of self to help you understand and manage your moods and emotions.
Examples:
- I enjoy laughing and having a good time.
- I am able to recognize my emotions and express them in a productive and acceptable way.
- I feel in charge of my life and am adaptable to change.
#4 Professional: Whether you work for a living or are in school, you should enjoy what you do. The balance between work and play is also present.
Examples:
- My action is consistent with my ideas and values regarding money and education.
- I am able to balance employment, school, and my other responsibilities.
- I have future plans for my finances and education.
#5 Intellectual: Being open to new ideas and experiences by exercising critical thought, creativity, and curiosity as well as by looking for fresh challenges.
Examples:
- I want to study a certain subject or pick up a new skill.
- consider myself to be a lifelong learner.
- • I invest time and effort in my own growth.
#6 Social: Relating to and interacting with people through contributing to the community and creating and joining helpful social networks.
Examples:
- I am sensitive to the feelings of others and can react appropriately.
- have relationships with people I can trust.
- I am able to establish and respect boundaries, both for myself and for others. Personal space, property rights, and safety are examples of boundaries.
#7 Physical: Keeping your body in good shape by making wise dietary and exercise decisions.
Examples:
- My diet is nutritiously balanced.
- I work out for at least 2.5 hours per week for adults or 60 minutes per day for children.
- I live a preventive lifestyle and am typically healthy.
The Wellness Wheel FAQs
What is a wellness wheel?
A wellness model with eight components is represented by the wellness wheel: social, physical, emotional, occupational, spiritual, intellectual, environmental, and financial. A balanced and well-rounded lifestyle requires consideration of all the dimensions because they are all interconnected.
What are the 5 components of the wellness wheel?
Personal health is divided into five categories: physical, emotional, social, spiritual, and intellectual.
What is the main purpose of the wellness wheel?
A tool and visual aid that aids in evaluating one’s overall wellness is the wellness wheel. The 7 Dimensions of Wellness are one of the many wellness wheel variations that highlight various aspects of wellness.