8 Dimensions of Wellness (in Recovery)

 

HEALTH

  • Emotional – Coping effectively with life and creating satisfying relationships.   Emotional health can be maintained or improved by engaging in regular leisure and recreational activities. Do activities that involve each of your senses: smell, taste, touch, sight, and sound. Listen to music, eat your favorite food, light your favorite candle, play with your pet, and watch your favorite movie or the sunset.
  • Physical – Recognizing the need for physical activity, diet, sleep and nutrition.  There are many examples of physical activity that range in levels of intensity from light to vigorous. Maintaining your physical health can include yoga, bike riding, jumping rope, engaging in sports, running, walking, jogging, skiing, dancing, tennis, and gardening. 

COMMUNITY

  • Social – Developing a sense of connection, belonging and a well-developed support system.  Building a healthy social dimension might involve asking a friend or family member out for lunch, joining a club or organization, setting healthy boundaries, using good communication skills that are assertive rather than passive or aggressive, being genuine and authentic with others, and treating others in a respectful way.
  • Occupational – Personal satisfaction and enrichment derived from one’s work.  Occupational wellness involves balancing work and leisure time, building relationships with coworkers, and managing workplace stress. An occupational wellness goal might include finding work that fits with your values, interests, and skills can help maintain occupational wellness.

HOME

  • Environmental – Good health by occupying pleasant, stimulating environments that support well-being.  Ways to manage environmental wellness include creating neighborhood watches, recycling, planting a personal or community garden, purchasing products with minimal packaging, avoiding littering, and conserving energy and water by turning off lights and water when not in use.
  • Financial – Satisfaction with current and future financial situations.  Options for managing financial wellness include having a household budget, starting a savings account and adding to it every month even if it is just a small amount, saving some of your income in an emergency account, cutting back or limiting unnecessary expenses, avoiding credit card debt, donating to a meaningful charity, shopping at thrift stores, utilizing the library for free books and DVDs, and cooking your own meals instead of dining out. Try tracking your spending for a month to see where your money is going and set goals based on what you find.

PURPOSE

  • Spiritual – Expanding our sense of purpose and meaning in life.  This may come from activities such as volunteering, self-reflection, meditation, prayer, or spending time in nature. Signs of strong spiritual health include having clear values, a sense of self-confidence, and a feeling of inner peace. To improve your spiritual health, it can help to create a quiet space for solitude and contemplation or a place of curiosity and playfulness. Spiritual wellness can help offer hope, purpose, and meaning.
  • Intellectual – Recognizing creative abilities and finding ways to expand knowledge and skills.  Reading, doing challenging puzzles such as crosswords or Sudoku, learning a new language or musical instrument, trying a new hobby, or teaching and tutoring others are all ways to maintain or improve your intellectual wellness.  People who pay attention to their intellectual wellness often find that they have better concentration, improved memory, and better critical thinking skills.

 

Self-Care Resources

 

My Self-Care Bingo – Create your own self-care bingo game and challenge yourself to reach your goals. 

My 8 Dimensions of Wellness – A resource to help you personalize the 8 Dimensions of Wellness in your recovery.  

My Self-Care Action Plan – A personalized self-care plan with important crisis numbers for the Beaver valley. 

My Self-Care Wheel – Draw, collage or write your self-care plan; be creative!