The Seven Pillars of Wellness are the main areas of your life that can affect your overall well-being. To achieve your full potential in life, these 7 Pillars must be balanced. If one pillar is out of balance it can affect all the other areas of your life.
If you want to live a healthy and fulfilled life, then all seven of these dimension of wellness need to be balanced within your life.
7 Pillars of Health
Physical Wellness
Sleep Wellness
Emotional Wellness
Spiritual Wellness
Intellectual Wellness
Environmental Wellness
Social Wellness
Occupational Wellness
There are 3 major factors to focus on when improving your physical health.
Physical, Nutrition, and Sleep
Physical Wellness
Physical wellness is an essential part of the pillars of wellbeing and is very simple to achieve, listen to your body and give it what it needs to perform at its best. Eat the right food, move your body throughout the day and get a good night’s sleep. As simple as this may seem, it’s something most of us struggle with daily. However, even small changes can have a major impact on your overall health
7 main benefits of exercise
- Controls weight
- Combats health conditions
- Improves mood
- Boosts energy
- Improves sleep
- Improves your sex life
- Keeps you young
Starting after age 30, people can lose 5% of their muscle mass every decade.
Nutrition Wellness
So like most people, I have tried many trendy diets throughout the years and had some success but also developed a few health issues along the way. Some of the diets I have tried are; eat right for your blood type, Atkins, Jenny Craig, vegan, pescatarian, raw food, keto, and weight watchers—-woof that’s a lot.
Over the years some of these diets worked great but were not sustainable, some helped me lose weight but made me very sick or even gain weight.
Here is my advice to you, everyone’s body responds differently to different food and diets, and there is not one diet out there that is the holy grail. The trick is to find out the following:
- What foods work best for your body
- How does your body react to certain foods
- Do you enjoy what you are eating
- Can you eat this way for 90% of the time
I will never promote a specific diet and will never encourage people to try certain diets. I think its best to try out different eating plans and see what works best for your body and what food makes you feel good
The only healthy “diet” I will encourage is a whole-food diet. Stick to eating natural whole foods and won’t be wrong. this is a very important part if the dimension of wellness protocol.
If you are unable to recognize an ingredient on a food label, your body cannot recognize it either
Sleep Wellness
Bedtimes are not just for kids.
Sleep is one of the most overlooked tools when you want to improve your health. It’s not something we think about, go to bed when you are tired. Wrong.
An important part of the pillars of health is to make sure our body is well-rested so everything else works more efficiently.
Our body needs a routine to operate at its highest level. It all starts with a proper sleep schedule. When you go to bed at the same time and wake up at the same time, it helps your body set its internal clock. If your internal clock is set correctly, your body knows when to produce the most energy throughout the day and when it’s time to call it quits. In addition to a nightly routine, you will also need to create a healthy morning routine, you can check out my article ” why you need a morning routine” to learn more.
Think about how much Jet leg can affect you, this is an extreme example I know. However it does prove how sensitive our bodies are to follow the morning, afternoon, and night rhythm in a 24h period. When we are going to bed and wake up at different times our bodies get confused and have a hard time adjusting to the rhythm of the day.
Related: the 9 pillars of wellness
Anyone who has worked shift work knows how hard it is to get into a proper sleeping schedule and the effect it has on their body. According to webmd.com these are some of the many health issues shift workers experience
Short term effects
Gastrointestinal symptoms like upset stomach, nausea, diarrhea, constipation, and heartburn
Increased risk of injuries and accidents
Insomnia
Decreased quality of life
A general feeling of being unwell
Long Term Effects
Cardiovascular Disease
Diabetes
Obesity
Depression
Problems with Fertility and pregnancy
Cancer
When it comes to our physical wellness we need to make sure we move our bodies, feed it the proper food and get plenty of rest
Emotional Wellness
Did you know that your emotions can affect how your body functions?
People with a negative or depressed outlook on life tend to have a high level of health issues and a weakened immune system. Whereas people with a positive outlook on life suffer from fewer colds and illnesses. brightside.com has an awesome article on how emotions affect the body
The good news is there is a way to train your mind to produce more positive emotions than negative ones. It takes work and patience but it can be done.
Driving Analogy
The neurons in our brain are a little boring and like taking the same emotional driving route from A to B over and over again ( anger, sadness, doubt). The more they drive along the route, the more they want to keep driving on it. But when a new passenger enters the car ( say gratitude, love, optimism) and forces them to take a new path they will. However, They will keep going back to their original path when no one is looking. But, the more persistent the new passenger is in wanting to go down the new path, the more the driver unconsciously starts driving down the new path.
Related: how having a grateful heart can improve your life. –this is an essential dimension of wellness
So how do we train our brains to be positive? Through practice, patience and habit.
Observation: Become aware of what your negative thoughts are
Gratitude: Make a habit of waking up and saying thank you for all that you have, no matter how insignificant it seems.
Share: helping others can have a major effect on your well-being. When we help others we start to understand what it means to be part of a community and help our fellow man.
Find your tribe: Who you surround yourself with, greatly affects your emotions and how you see your life.
Mind: keep your brain active and always learning, the brain is a muscle like any other part of the body and needs to be workout daily
Body: exercise has been shown to improve endorphins and improve your mood almost immediately
Pause: Take a moment throughout the day: to walk. Listen to music, and meditate. Give your brain a chance to relax and not work so much.
“Emotions can get in the way or get you on the way” -Mavis Mazhura
Spiritual Wellness
One of the pillars of wellbeing that is often overlooked is Spiritual Wellness and this is because it means something different to everyone. I don’t think anyone should ever push their beliefs on people, but I think it’s important to talk about and discuss what resonates within us.
Maybe you are a Christian, Muslim, Catholic, Buddhist, or don’t believe in any religion at all, the bottom line is that we are here and it’s a miracle. Think of everything that had to occur in the universe for this planet and the people on it to be alive, many things had to go right and evolve at just the perfect time for the world to exist as it is today.
When it comes to your spiritual wellness you need to dive deep within yourself and start asking yourself hard questions.
- What is the purpose of my life
- What do I value in myself and other people
- What do I want out of this existence
questions like these and more like them can never be fully answered? Life is a continual journey that is forever evolving.
Power of spirituality on our health
- It gives our life meaning and a purpose
- Through our faith, we can heal from emotional wounds
- having faith in something greater than ourselves gives us hope
- Through our beliefs, we can find like-minded individuals and create powerful connections.
Related: 3 ways to be more spiritually healthy
Intellectual Wellness
If you don’t use it you lose it.
There is this unspoken consensus that after a certain point in our life, we no longer need to focus on learning. This can not be farther from the truth.
Part of the pillars of health is keeping your mind healthy
For most people, we follow the educational path of Elementary School, High School, and College/University. By our mid-twenties, we are no longer expected to continue our education or learn new skills. In fact, by 30 you should already know everything and be successful.
Like any other muscle in your body, the brain needs exercise to be challenged and stay healthy into your twilight years it’s essential to your physical wellness.
“ Learning never exhausts the mind” -Leonardo da Vinci
How to keep the mind healthy
- Learn a new skill
- Find time to explore your creativity
- Making reading a daily habit
- Get your body moving
- Meditation
- Play critical thinking games or puzzles
- Proper sleep routine
Environmental Wellness
Who you are, is greatly influenced by your surroundings. The environment can have a huge impact on our overall well-being. This involves the area in the world you live in and what environmental threats your area of the world are prone to; pollution, floods, fire, earthquakes, or hurricane
It said that about 60% of the population lives in a city or largely populated area. This can be great for social well-being and career growth it can also have a major impact on your overall mental well-being.
- Loud noise and constant stimulation can produce a higher level of cortisol in the body. Since the body always has to be on alert.
- Largely populated areas have a drastically high level of pollution that can affect a person’s health on a cellular level. Pollution has been shown to increase a person’s chance of developing a respiratory infection, heart disease, and even lung cancer.
Suggestions to combat a toxic environment
Forrest Bathing
This mindful practice is becoming more popular during the last few decades. The practice first appeared back in Japan in the 1980s ( though most cultures have embraced this way of healing). The purpose is for people to immerse themselves in nature to recover from technological burnout.
“Look deep into nature and then you understand everything better”- Albert Einstein
Studies have shown that a few hours a week spent in nature not only reduces anxiety but also promotes overall well-being and contentment.
Lake/Ocean Swimming
Swimming in a natural body of water is a great way to expose yourself to earth energies. The natural coldness of the water has shown to benefit the body in many ways
- Boost your immune system
- Burns calories
- Improves the circulation in your body
- Releases endorphins.
Social Wellness
The people you spend your time with a have major influence on the choices you make in life, this is why social health is an essential part of the pillars of wellness. We are communal creatures and tend to follow our flock. If you want to excel in your job, surround yourself with people who will help you learn and grow. If you want to get healthy join a wellness group for support and encouragement.
Just like a healthy relationship can help us grow, unhealthy relationships can detour us from our dreams and even sabotage us in our life goals.
Depending on the relationship, some people you can easily cut from your life but other people are too important to sever a relationship. This is why learning to set boundaries is very vital for your wellbeing.
Social wellness is not just about how people treat you but has to do more with how you treat the people in your life. You get what you give. Close relationships do not happen overnight, you have to work at it and make sure there is a healthy balance of giving and receiving from both people.
The article “how to improve social wellness in your life” is worth checking out if you want to learn a bit more about social wellness.
Occupational Wellness
let’s face it most of us would love to be able to enjoy life and not worry about paying bills and making an income. But that is not the way our society works. So if you’re going to spend your precious time working, please make sure it’s something you love to do and helps you grow and learn in your career pursuits.
Just like any environment, the workplace and the co-workers you interact with can affect your overall well-being including your physical wellness. A few examples of positive and negative workplaces that can affect your well-being.
Positive
- Managers with an open door policy
- programs/incentives to move up within the company
- Social committees that focus on team building
- Flexible work hours or the ability to take time off for personal matters
- Equality and no favoritism
Negative
- Closed doors and cubicles (do not promote a community environment in the workplace)
- Other people take recognition for the work you do.
- Favoritism. Where friends of the managers are given the best shifts or promoted over other people who are more qualified for the positions.
- No proper compensation for the workload. When a worker is given more tasks over time but their wage stays the same
If you are stressed going to work or have anxiety about starting another work week, it’s time to look elsewhere. A job is a job and is not worth sacrificing your well-being over.
7 Pillars of Wellness
If you truly want to live a balanced life, then focus on these 7 wellness Pillars or also known as dimension of wellness.
Neglecting one area can greatly damage the other areas of life.
You can eat right and have an amazing social group/family life, but if you have a stressful job and are always worrying about work, this can have a damaging impact on your physical health and personal relationship.
If you have a great job, exercise, and eat healthily but have a negative home life with no boundaries, the mental stress and anxiety will eventually impact your work performance and may even lead to emotional eating/binge eating.
Of course, these are just a few examples and don’t apply to everyone. But take a look at your life and be honest about what areas in your life are unhealthy and how are they affecting you.
Life is about learning and growing. Our life will never be perfect but that doesn’t give us an excuse to ignore things that are causing us stress and damage to our health.
[…] There are five foundations of physical wellness: proper nutrition, sleep, hygiene, rest, and exercise. If you want to be physically healthy, you need to make sure you are taking care of all these areas. Physical Wellness is 1 of the Seven essential foundations needed for a healthy life. […]