What Are the Seven Areas of Wellness?

Wellness improves your ability to handle stress, reduces irritability and anxiety, and has positive effects on your temperament, interpersonal relationships, and overall quality of life.

Wellness is a state of well-being that comes from proactively seeking ways to live a healthy, happy, and fulfilling life. Wellness is not simply being free from illness, but a holistic integration of all dimensions of life that help you achieve your maximum potential and enrich the quality of your life.

Wellness is a holistic state of physical, mental, and social wellbeing is an ancient concept that has been practiced in Indian and Chinese cultures for more than 5000 years. Before the Common Era, ancient Roman and Greek systems of medicine emphasized the importance of adopting a healthy lifestyle to prevent illness.

Ayurveda, an Indian alternative system of medicine, includes diet, medicine, yoga, and meditation in healthcare. Traditional Chinese Medicine, another ancient system of medicine integrates herbal medicine, acupuncture, qi gong, and tai chi for achieving holistic wellness.

Since the late 18th century, many alternative medical care methods with a holistic approach have evolved, including homeopathy, osteopathy, naturopathy, and chiropractic treatment. These systems of healthcare became hugely popular in Europe and the US in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Interest in these systems of medicine waned with the rise of modern evidence-based medicine in the mid-20th century. In the 21st century, with an increase in chronic lifestyle diseases and healthcare costs, the focus has once again shifted towards holistic wellness. According to the Global Wellness Institute, the wellness economy grew to become a USD 4.5 trillion dollar industry by 2017.

Wellness is important because it helps prevent many physical and mental ailments, especially as one age. Wellness improves your ability to handle stress, reduces irritability and anxiety, and has positive effects on your temperament, interpersonal relationships, and overall quality of life.

Wellness contributes to higher productivity, creativity, and greater satisfaction with work and personal life. A healthier and happier person tends to live longer and is an asset to society.

The seven areas of wellness are:

1. Physical: Caring for your physical health
2. Emotional: Managing your emotions positively and empathizing with the others around you
3. Intellectual: Keeping your mind stimulated
4. Social: Living in harmony with the society
5. Spiritual: Connecting with your inner self and finding purpose in life
6. Environmental: Caring for the environment
7. Occupational: Satisfaction with your work and financial stability

Wellness comes from actively making healthy choices in life. Finding the right balance with all the different dimensions of wellness is unique to each individual and depends on what you seek in life.

It is often far easier to slip into habits that are detrimental to your wellbeing, and making the right choices may sometimes seem like hard work. The rewards of wellness, however, make your hard work worthwhile and last a lifetime.

Following are some general pointers for achieving wellness in the various dimensions of life:

Physical

• Eat a nutritious diet that includes all groups of food and avoid or cut down processed foods
• Eat mindfully and control your portions
• Exercise regularly
• Get adequate sleep
• Avoid smoking and exposure to second-hand smoke
• Drink alcohol-containing liquids moderately, if at all

Emotional

• Understand and accept your emotions
• Understand the reasons for your emotions and address them
• Seek help and support from others when you need
• Learn to empathize with others around you

Intellectual

• Make learning a lifelong process
• Take up hobbies that are mentally stimulating
• Read thought-provoking books
• Listen and learn from people who stimulate you to think
• Travel and learn about world cultures

Social

• Develop amicable relationships in your neighborhood and workplace
• Make an effort to stay in touch with your friends
• Participate in community activities
• Volunteer in social organizations in your town
• Be generous in sharing your knowledge and skills

Spiritual

• Spend time by yourself and explore your innermost thoughts
• Understand your core values and live by them
• Appreciate the beauty of nature
• Listen to music or do any activity that gives you happiness
• Practice meditation or other mind-relaxing techniques
• Understand and accept the uniqueness in yourself and others

Environmental

• Keep your environment clean
• Avoid wasting water, fuel, and other resources
• Minimize use of chemicals
• Reuse and recycle every way you can
• Live in harmony with nature

Occupational

• Explore your career options before you choose one that suits you
• Keep learning new skills and stay current
• Communicate with your colleagues and develop team spirit
• Be open to change
• Manage your finances with care
• Invest wisely and save for emergencies
• Avoid spending beyond your means