What is wellness?

The National Wellness Institute defines wellness as an active process through which people become aware of and make choices toward a more successful existence. Wellness is also a self-directed and dynamic process:

  • Self-directed means you need to identify activities and make choices that are positive and work for you.
  • Dynamic process means things may change depending on your current life events.

Self-awareness is key to identifying and consciously choosing daily habits that support your wellness.

Wellness often includes emotional, physical, social, intellectual, financial, spiritual, professional and environmental domains. The Disaster Recovery Self-Assessment you completed focuses on many of these domains.

In completing your assessment, we hope you identified areas where you are taking daily steps to positively impact your health. You may also have identified areas that need some more attention and growth. The information below includes resources that may help you enhance some aspects of your wellness.

Emotional Wellness

The emotional wellness dimension is “understanding and respecting your feelings, values and attitudes, appreciating the feelings of others, managing your emotions in a constructive way, and feeling positive and enthusiastic about your life (Stoewen, D.L. 2017).”

Helpful tips and resources to support your emotional wellness:

Social Wellness

The social wellness dimension is about “maintaining healthy relationships, enjoying being with others, developing friendships and intimate relations, caring about others and letting others care about you (Stoewen, D.L. 2017).” It can also involve the ways in which you give and contribute to your community, including where you live and work. Social wellness can contribute to a sense of belonging, and at work, this dimension promotes motivation and collaboration.

Helpful tips and resources to support your social wellness:

  • Find ways to contribute to your community.
  • Invest your time in healthy relationships.
  • Take the time to learn and use good communication skills to support healthy relationships: Small Things Often Podcast (Gottman Institute)
  • At work, create or join events and activities that bring people together. These can be virtual or in-person wellness activities.
  • Reach out and help others who need support.

Spiritual Wellness

The spiritual wellness dimension is about “finding purpose, value and meaning in your life with or without organized religion” and can involve “participating in activities that are consistent with your beliefs and values (Stoewen, D.L. 2017).”

Helpful tips and resources to support your spiritual wellness:

  • Take the time to wonder and be curious.
  • Be in nature and appreciate its beauty.
  • Reflect on how spirituality drives your behaviors and supports your sense of meaning in life.
  • Learn about other values, beliefs and religions.

Physical Wellness

The physical wellness dimension includes “caring for your body to stay healthy now and in the future”
(Stoewen, D.L. 2017).”

Helpful tips and resources to support your physical health:

Workplace Wellness

The workplace wellness dimension is about “preparing for and participating in work that provides personal satisfaction and life enrichment that is consistent with your values, goals and lifestyle (Stoewen, D.L. 2017).” It may also involve, “contributing your unique gifts, skills, and talents to work that is personally meaningful and rewarding (Stoewen, D.L. 2017).”

Helpful tips and resources to support your professional wellness:

  • Being open to learning new ways of doing things to support your wellness at work: Employee Wellbeing Is Key for Workplace Productivity (Gallup)
  • Write your goals and have a vision for the future.
  • Encourage flexible hours and family-friendly activities and policies.
  • Encourage co-workers to take regular walking breaks throughout the day.

Intellectual Wellness

The intellectual wellness dimension is about “growing intellectually, maintaining curiosity about all there is to learn, valuing lifelong learning and responding positively to intellectual challenges (Stoewen, D.L. 2017).” It is also about “expanding knowledge and skills while discovering the potential for sharing gifts with others (Stoewen, D.L. 2017).”

Helpful tips and resources to support your intellectual wellness:

  • Do something challenging and fun that grows your mind.
  • Read and consider joining your local library.
  • Listen to a podcast that you find intellectually interesting.
  • Learn a new language with a class or using online resources.
  • Seek out people how engage with you in an intellectual way.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Explore these additional materials to support your wellness after a natural disaster.

Reference

Stoewen D. L. (2017). Dimensions of wellness: Change your habits, change your life. The Canadian veterinary journal = La revue veterinaire canadienne, 58(8), 861–862. (nih.gov)