Did you know that wellness encompasses eight aspects of your life— emotional, environmental, financial, intellectual, physical, social, spiritual, and vocational wellbeing?
Understanding these areas of your life and gaining a few tips to improve in each space, can go a long way to boosting your health and wellbeing.
Emotional wellbeing
Emotional wellness is your capability to handle uncertainty and challenges that come up in daily life.
If you feel like your emotional wellbeing has room for improvement, a quick and easy tool to try is self-reflection. Set aside a little time each day to reflect on your day and your reactions to various situations. You could keep a diary of your emotions and what worked to help you cope in various situations.
Sharing your experiences and feelings with a trusted friend or family member is also a fantastic way to improve your emotional wellbeing. You will feel a lot better when you reduce the weight you are carrying on your shoulders.
If you’d prefer to talk to someone independent of your family and friends and someone with the professional skills to support you, reach out to Open Minds and headspace.
Environmental wellbeing
Making a difference, no matter how small, to your local environment can make a big difference to how you feel. Planting a tree or picking up rubbish can be a fantastic way to improve your sense of environmental wellbeing. Not only will you feel a sense of accomplishment and pride, but you will be making a positive difference to your physical environment.
You could also consider joining a local community group with a focus on the environment. This will have the added benefit of supporting your social wellbeing.
Financial wellbeing
Financial wellbeing is not about financial wealth. It focuses on how organised you are when it comes to your personal finances and whether you have financial goals to work towards.
By planning and focusing on future goals, you can improve your financial wellbeing, and this is especially important when unexpected circumstances arise.
A great first step towards improving your financial wellbeing is setting aside money for a ‘rainy day’ so you can avoid unnecessary stress if the unexpected happens.
Intellectual wellbeing
Activities that allow you to be creative and that you find mentally stimulating are great for intellectual wellbeing. Expanding your knowledge and skills helps you to grow as a person and increase your potential.
Try reading a book on a topic that interests you, set aside time for a mind puzzle or start researching the hobby or career you’ve been wanting to try. Set yourself some goals and deadlines to work towards.
Physical wellbeing
Healthy eating, including reduced alcohol intake, regular exercise and enough sleep all play an important part in our physical health.
When it comes to sleep, studies suggest eight hours a day to avoid extreme levels of fatigue, memory issues, sluggishness and emotional instability.
Social wellbeing
Research shows that people with strong networks, tend to live longer and have less feelings of depression and anxiety.
Simple ways to improve your social wellbeing can be joining social sports or exercise classes and saying ‘yes’ to more social invitations.
Volunteering is also a great way to meet new people and improve your vocational wellbeing at the same time.
Spiritual wellbeing
Spiritual wellbeing can look a little different from one person to another, but at its core it relates to purpose and life meaning. For some people, spiritual wellbeing relates to religion, while for others it is about connection to their culture or community through their beliefs and values.
Doing things that you enjoy and that make you smile and lose track of time can help guide you to your purpose. Don’t worry if it doesn’t come to you straight away. The journey to finding your purpose can be rewarding too.
Vocational wellbeing
This is all about the satisfaction you get from your work, including volunteer work, or your studies. If you feel like you’re not as satisfied as you used to be, ask your manager if you could do a training program, or whether there is a new role you could take on. It might be that volunteering is the right opportunity for you.