What Does Wellness Mean to Me?

What Does Wellness Mean to Me?

The term “wellness” can be hard to define, but I like to think of it as a personalized, dynamic state of contentment, wellbeing, and fulfillment.

It is personalized because everybody has their own unique version of what wellness means based on their values and priorities. Wellness is also dynamic; it is an ever-changing state that could depend on factors such as our immediate environment or the stage of life we are in.

Wellness can be considered across multiple interconnected dimensions that often overlap with each other. These dimensions include:

• Physical
• Emotional
• Social
• Spiritual
• Financial
• Occupational
• Intellectual
• Environmental

While all dimensions are important, there doesn’t have to be a perfect balance among all of them. The amount of time, energy, attention, and effort spent on each dimension depends on an individual’s personal values, goals, priorities, stage of life, and meaning of wellness.

Remember, wellness is both personal and dynamic!

For me, all dimensions are vitally important to my overall wellness. Like everyone, I focus a little more time and energy on some more than others.

 

Physical Wellness

Simply put, physical wellness is our physical health. Elements of our lifestyle that directly contribute to this include getting enough quality sleep, eating a healthy diet, and exercising regularly.

It helps to establish healthy habits and routines that make maintaining your physical wellness easier and more “automatic”. Here are somethings that I do:

Physical activity

Schedule regular exercise and physical activity throughout the day. I have made it a daily habit to jog or do a set of push-ups in the morning shortly after I wake up. In the afternoon, I go to the gym on days I am not working late.

Getting any form of physical activity is better than having a sedentary lifestyle. Whether you play sports, enjoy walking with friends, or dance with your kids, find a way to move your body in a way that pleases you.

Sleep

Sleep hygiene is important for getting enough (at least 7 hours!) quality sleep. Having a consistent bedtime and wake time definitely helps.

We try to avoid screens as much as possible, especially within one hour of bedtime. The blue light from electronic screens really mess with your melatonin.

Keeping the bedroom cool, comfortable, and dark is also key. And it can be helpful to have a relaxing bedtime ritual to prepare you for sleep. Without fail, reading my daughter bedtime stories always puts me to sleep!

Diet

Eating a healthy diet that minimizes processed foods and maximizes whole, plant-based foods allows us to positively impact our physical health.

We also cook a vast majority of our meals at home. Not only is it healthier since we know exactly what we are consuming, cooking at home is also cheaper too!

Developing healthier eating habits can be challenging and might take some time, but nowadays it is easier than ever with healthy meal kits and community farm boxes with fresh produce that can be delivered directly to your home. Plus the internet has so many healthy recipes you can try!

 

Emotional Wellness

Emotional wellness involves developing an awareness of your feelings and your response to everyday interactions. Having emotional intelligence is an integral component of emotional wellness. It is the ability to understand, use, and manage your own emotions in positive ways to relieve stress, communicate effectively, empathize with others, and overcome challenges with resilience.

Managing emotional wellness is a constant work in progress. Here are some helpful tips:

• Periodically checking in with yourself to see how you are feeling then consciously acknowledging those feelings
• Examining how your behaviors and actions affect others
• Taking time to quiet your mind and self-reflect
• Having self-compassion and being kind to yourself
• Practicing gratitude (a positive emotion that can be infectious!)

While these tips can be helpful, sometimes it is not enough. Yes, we can do many things ourselves, but we are not an island; we often need the help of others. If you are overwhelmed and under a lot of emotional distress, never be afraid to ask for help.

 

Social Wellness

Social wellness focuses on having meaningful relationships with individual, groups, and communities. Everybody’s social dynamic is uniquely different. For some people, a big part of their social wellbeing can be fulfilled by hanging out with family and friends. Many people also have a strong social support from co-workers. For others, a sense of wellness can be derived from volunteering in the community or place of worship.

Our social wellness is very important. In fact, studies demonstrate that close and meaningful relationships are more correlated to happiness than money or fame.

For me, my family dynamic has changed as we recently welcomed a new child. Because of this, I spend a significant amount of time giving extra attention to my four-year-old daughter, providing extra support for my wife, and helping to care for our newborn.

 

Spiritual Wellness

Spiritual wellness comes from creating a connection to something greater than ourselves as well as seeking meaning and purpose in life. It is a dedicated pursuit that is unique to everyone that may or may not involve organized religion.

To maintain a good sense of spiritual wellness, take the time to periodically self-reflect and work towards living a life consistent with your core values and beliefs.

 

Financial Wellness

Financial wellness involves managing your resources to live within our means, making informed financial decisions and investments, setting realistic goals, and preparing for short-term and long-term needs or emergencies.

Needless to say, the dimension of financial wellness comes easily to us. My family is frugal and we are minimalists in the sense that we don’t buy things we don’t want or need.

For the people who seek better financial wellness, there are so many free resources out there from blogs, podcasts, books, etc. that can be incredibly helpful.

 

Occupational Wellness

Occupational wellness entails doing meaningful work that provides personal satisfaction and life enrichment consistent with your values, goals, and lifestyle.

Achieving occupational wellness may look differently to each person, but here are some general tips:

• Rekindle your your passion for work. For physicians, it could be remembering why you became a doctor in the first place.
• Set career goals that are aligned with your personal life goals. For example, if you want to spend more time with your family, see if you can work less hours.
• Find ways to maximize what you enjoy at work and minimize the less enjoyable aspects. For example, a common goal for many physicians is to spend less time on the electronic medical record so that they can spend more time engaged in helping people and building more meaningful patient interactions.
• Look for opportunities to learn and grow at work in a way that brings personal meaning to you. Take continuing education classes to learn more skills and teach your colleagues. Join work committees for causes that you are passionate about. And if you’re ambitious, make a positive impact by taking on a leadership position.

 

Intellectual Wellness

Intellectual wellness means that you are always striving to learn and that you are taking an active role in engaging in creative and mentally stimulating activities.

Hobbies and passion projects keep our lives in better balance and help to foster our intellectual wellness. It can be playing the violin, traveling, journaling, dance, art, woodworking, photography, acting, athletic competition– anything!

 

Environmental Wellness

Environmental wellness involves understanding how your natural and built environments affect your health and well-being.

Of the two, our built environment is easier to modify and improving this aspect may have more immediate impact. Consider decluttering unnecessary “stuff” in your physical space (home, office, etc.) so that you can better focus on the things that matter. Decluttering your physical environment will in turn also help clear more mental space for making better decisions, increasing efficiency and productivity, and living a more intentional and fulfilled life.

The idea of minimizing excess “stuff” and maximizing our focus toward the important things in life are key components of the popular lifestyle concepts of “minimalism” and “essentialism”.

In addition to possibly improving your life and well-being, living a more minimalist / essentialist lifestyle could also improve another aspect of environmental wellness—improving the health of our planet. Minimizing excess consumption, reducing waste, re-using or recycling goods, and overall being more mindful of the natural environment makes the world a better place.

 

What does wellness mean to you?