Personalized Self-Care Through 8 Dimensions of Wellness

Personal Growth
Written By Vanessa Wong
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We often forget about self-care when we are so busy with learning and fulfilling other professional and educational goals. Our education system doesn't advocate enough that taking good care of our personal well-being is an essential skill in life as it affects our holistic health. Especially when this pandemic is both physically and emotionally draining, as more time passes, it is important to practice self-care to help us overcome the unexpected in the best mindset. To find out ways that are suitable for your personal self-care, we first need to understand our 8 dimensions of wellness. 

The 8 dimensions of wellness consist of:

8 dimensions of wellness model adapted from SAMHSA and Process Street

8 dimensions of wellness model adapted from SAMHSA and Process Street

Think of this as the wheel of life. Each of these 8 dimensions of wellness is interconnected and acts as a balance to your holistic health. Wellness is not only being free from sickness or stress but also having a purpose in life and emotional involvement in your day-to-day. Many universities and companies have been investing more in wellness programs as research has shown that focusing on the 8 dimensions of wellness can increase productivity and improve your quality of life. 

First, identify which values and wellness you feel lacking based on this wheel of life. Do you experience optimal health and fulfillment in all eight areas of your well-being? After acknowledging the areas that you want to improve on, see below for ways to practice self-care to fulfill your area of wellness during the pandemic. 

• • •

Emotional Wellness

Emotional wellness helps you to reduce stress and develop the inner strength to handle both positive and negative feelings. Practicing emotional well-being leads to improvement in proper decision making and the ability to grow from experiences. Here are some ways to calm your mind, gain optimism, and reflect on your emotions:

  • Listen to a feel-good podcast. Podcasts can help you relate and gain optimism on how to see situations from different perspectives. Here are some recommendations:

    • The Happiness Lab - “Yale professor Dr. Laurie Santos will take you through the latest scientific research and share some surprising and inspiring stories that will forever alter the way you think about happiness.”

    • Kind World - “Andrea Asuaje and Yasmin Amer bring you deeply intimate stories and interviews that uplift your spirit and restore your faith in humanity.”

    • Heavyweight - “Jonathan Goldstein seeks to provide closure for people haunted by unresolved questions or painful moments from their past.”

    • Happier with Gretchen Rubin - “This supportive podcast offers practical tips to help you find happiness as well as tackling common worries, such as the dread of photo anxiety and how often we should visit family.”

    • Spilled Milk - “If you’re into your food, then you’ll probably like this one. Each week on Spilled Milk, hosts Molly Wizenberg and Matthew Amster-Burton pick a food topic and run with it as far as they can.”

  • Practice journaling: Journaling can help you reflect your gratitude and build awareness of your values and emotions. Here are some recommendations:

  • Doodle or color: Calm your mind with a doodle or coloring book. Here are some recommendations:

• • •

Financial Wellness

Financial wellness is not just about budgeting and saving for the future, but the bigger picture is to understand and manage how your financial situation affects your overall mental and physical health. Remember, financial well-being is our relationship with money, not how much your income is. Here are some ways to improve your financial well-being:  

  • Learn more about personal finance: Work on improving your personal finance knowledge through books, podcasts, and online resources. Explore our world of personal finance here.

  • Spend 10 minutes a day decluttering your things to donate or resell: Decluttering things can help you ease your mind, while also can help you gain some side profit if you want to resell your items, which also helps with your environmental wellness through advocating sustainability. Popular resell apps include eBay, Depop, Poshmark, ThredUp, Craigslist, and Offerup.

  • Set up short/long term financial goals: Having goals like saving for college, a staycation/future trip, or even your own place can help you have something to look forward to and gain motivation to budget your spendings! Learn how to start budgeting and saving here.

• • •

Social Wellness

Social wellness is about maintaining healthy relationships and enjoying connecting with others for a healthier outlook on life. COVID-19 has not only made staying connected a huge challenge, but also a bigger need than ever before. We may feel more isolated from social distancing, yet there are still many creative ways to still spend time (virtually) with friends or family, such as:

• • •

Spiritual Wellness

Spiritual wellness contributes to our values, ethics, principles, and morals whether it is through a religious group or not. It helps us find meaning and belonging in life with optimism and compassion. 

  • Practice meditation: Meditation is a great way to clear your mind and help you put things back in perspective. Try popular guided meditation apps like Headspace, Calm, Insight Timer, or Aura.

  • Give back to the community: Volunteering is a great way to gain compassion and connect with your community. During this pandemic, online platforms like Catchafire or Taproot foundation allow people to provide virtual skill-based volunteering. Learn more about other ways to connect and give back to your community here.

• • •

Occupational Wellness

Occupational wellness is the balance between work and leisure, as you’ve probably heard of the phrase, “work hard, play hard.” While you don’t necessarily have to be too hard on yourself to keep up with both, you should find your personal balance to stay inspired and challenged at work and prevent yourself from feeling burnt out. Here are some ways to stay more engaged and increase productivity with your work: 

  • Take 20-minute breaks between work: Research by DeskTime has come up with the 17 (break time)-52 (work time) ratio to reach optimal productivity. By taking breaks from working, you will also have more time to reflect if you are satisfied with your work and how you can make your work more enriching. 

    Especially as we are looking at our screens more often than ever with online classes or work from home, medical professionals recommend taking a break from your screen every 20 minutes to prevent computer vision syndrome. Practicing ergonomics is a great way to take a break from our working positions and to give your mind a rest.

  • Connect more with your teammates or manager: Set up chats to help communicate your needs and let others help you if you feel stuck or unchallenged with your work. 

• • •

Physical Wellness

Physical wellness helps us recognize small healthy habits like a nutritious diet, adequate sleep, and regular physical exercises can make a big difference to our body and quality of life. Learn more on how to set habits for physical fitness here or later in the reading. Here are some ways to be more mindful of your body:

  • Exercise for at least 30min a day: There are many online yoga classes or workout videos out there for guidance and to have fun. Here are some suggestions:

    • Go for a daily walk or run: A good habit is to plan ahead and set an alarm so you do not forget your walk or run! 

    • Alo Moves: Unlimited yoga, fitness, and meditation classes

    • Corepower Yoga: Free classes or unlimited yoga, sculpt, and meditation classes

    • Obe Fitness: 22 live classes daily or 5,482 on-demand classes with different levels and fitness categories

  • Cook yourself something healthy: Start a healthy meal habit that makes you feel good.

  • Get off-screen time to improve your sleep: Improve your sleep by avoiding computer or phone screens 30 minutes before you go to bed. Start a skincare routine or read a book before instead. Try to get at least 7 hrs of sleep a night as part of your sleeping schedule. 

• • •

Intellectual Wellness

Intellectual wellness expands your creativity and curiosity to lifelong learning. It’s not about how smart you are or how much knowledge you have, but more about your attitude towards gaining new skills and perspectives in life through active learning. Here are some ways to spark your learning curiosity: 

  • Pick up a book: Reading is the best traditional way to learn. If you prefer ebook or online reading, explore reading apps like Blink, Medium, or Kindle for more reads.

  • Learn a new skill: Expand your knowledge through online learning. Here are some suggestions: 

• • •

Environmental Wellness

Environmental wellness is your awareness towards your impact of your actions on the environment and community. Here are some ways to practice self-care while caring for your environment:

  • Get a new plant: Plants can help remove toxins from your environment and maybe becoming a plant mom or dad can be your new thing during this pandemic.

  • Treat yourself to eat something local: You can obtain more nutrients from local foods and also save pollution by reducing your carbon footprint.

  • Unsubscribe to “junk” mails: Removing all unnecessary paper mails/emails or choosing electronic mail instead can save a lot of paper and also ease your mind from receiving tons of useless mails/emails.

• • •

Check out this daily self-care checklist by Process Street to look after your 8 dimensions of wellness. Remember that working on your personal wellness is a constant journey as a marathon, not a sprint. Everyone’s journey is different and you are your ultimate support for your happiness, so take all the time you need to work on each of the wellness areas and create your personal unique ways to care for yourself.

Vanessa Wong
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