Usually, we know when we’re sick. Stuffy nose, headache, sore throat, cough. We also tend to know when we’re not well. Chronically sore knee, high cholesterol or blood pressure, smoking or substance abuse, or chronic anxiety or poor sleep. However, a lack of symptoms doesn’t mean you’re well.
John Travis recognized that wellness is more than feeling ok. Wellness is taking good care of your body, challenging your mind, expressing your emotions in a productive manner, exploring your creativity, maintaining positive social connections, creating a healthy environment, and pursuing meaning and purpose in life. On the path to high level wellness is awareness of our behaviors and outcomes, education on how we can push ourselves further, and growth towards our full potential.
Travis emphasized that wellness is not a static state and the direction you’re facing is as important as where you actually fall on the scale. Furthermore, you might be in different places on the continuum depending upon which part of your life you’re looking at: Physical Well-Being, Money/Finances, Relationships, Home/Family, Fun & Recreation, Self-Esteem, Energy/Enthusiasm, Emotional Health, Friendship, Work/School, Contentment, Achievements/Successes.
If you’d like to see where you fall in each dimension of wellness, you can download a free Wheel of Life Inventory at https://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/cur/cardev/gr11_found/blms/blm14.pdf. Follow the instructions so you can see where you lie on the wellness continuum for each area of life. Connect each value on the wheel. Here’s mine:
Generally, I’m pretty happy with most of the areas in my life, although when I look at my wheel, I’m unsatisfied with my fun and recreation. I don’t spend enough time playing. I’m also actively working on my emotional health by pursuing healthy stress management techniques.
How does your wheel look? How would it roll? Is it balanced or are there areas that need work? Unsatisfied with how your wheel looks or did this exercise resonate with you? There is a reason that you may be wanting to explore something new, to stretch yourself with a challenge. If you want to change how your wheel rolls or push yourself towards wellness on the continuum, please reach out and we can discuss what Health & Wellness Coaching could do for you.