Six Dimensions of Wellness Maximizing Your Health Linking Wholeness to Wellness

Six Dimensions of Wellness — Linking Wholeness to Wellness

Your health and wellness affect every aspect of life. So, linking wholeness to wellness is a strategy for maximizing your health. Find out how you can do this by linking and leveraging the relationship between your health and your spiritual path.

First, we’ll review each of these six dimensions of wellness. Then, we’ll see how each dimension links to our spiritual path. Dr. Hettler of the World Health Organization (WHO) (1) outlines the six elements of health and wellness in the following way:

— Occupational
— Physical
— Social
— Intellectual 
— Spiritual
— Emotional

“Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” — World Health Organization (WHO)

Six Dimensions of Wellness

Learning to leverage these dimensions will enable us to achieve better overall health and wellness. Maximizing your health is a matter of applying knowledge. The first thing we learn is if you affect one element, it affects the others, sometimes in ways that aren’t immediately apparent. The goal is to achieve the proper balance to be healthy and durable.

The first step is to make an honest assessment of each dimension. If you understand your relationship to these six dimensions of wellness, you can make the adjustments.

Linking Wholeness to Wellness

Wholeness is the condition of complete harmony and health. Each dimension has its focus, but they work together when in balance to give us our ultimate state of wellness. A deficiency in one dimension affects the others, but an increase in one doesn’t always result in positive changes in the others. As we become whole and balanced, we attain our highest level of wellness.

Occupational

This dimension recognizes the need for us to achieve a healthy, balanced level of personal satisfaction in our work. It follows these tenets:

  • It is better to choose a career consistent with our values, interests, and beliefs than to select one that creates conflict with elements.
  • Focus on developing functional, transferable skills is key to keeping up with technology changes.

Physical

The physical dimension encourages us to use a holistic approach to our bodies, which includes proper exercise, diet, and nutrition. Physical wellness uses these tenets to guide decisions about our bodies:

  • It is better to consume foods and beverages that enhance good health than those that satisfy taste.
  • Focus on being functionally fit to increase your ability to enjoy a wider variety of life activities.

Social

The social dimension encourages contributes to others and the community, it emphasizes the interdependence between others and nature. Social wellness follows these tenets:

  • Contributing to the common welfare of our community is better than pursuing self-interest and thinking only of ourselves.
  • We strive to live in harmony with others and our environment than to live in conflict.

Intellectual

The intellectual dimension recognizes one’s creative, stimulating mental activities. It values expanding knowledge and skills while discovering the potential for sharing its gifts. Intellectual wellness follows these tenets:

  • It is healthy to stretch and challenge our minds with intellectual and creative pursuits, otherwise, we become unproductive and interested only in passive entertainment.
  • A healthy intellect learns to identify potential problems and choose courses of action. It uses data to make proactive decisions. This is better than procrastination, waiting, worrying, and contending with significant concerns later.

Spiritual

The spiritual dimension recognizes our search for spiritual meaning. It includes developing a deep appreciation for the Universe’s depth and expanse of life and natural forces and follows these tenets:

  • It is better to seek your authentic path than to follow myths and superstitions of religion.   We must learn to be tolerant of other positive philosophical views, but not complacent when confronted with injustice, inequity, or prejudice.
  • It is better to live each day in accordance with the universal value for all people and the environment than to be selfish and greedy.

Emotional

The emotional dimension is being aware and accepting feelings. It is the capacity to manage one’s emotions and behaviors, which develops emotional awareness and a realistic assessment of one’s abilities and limitations. The ability to cope effectively with stress and maintain healthy relationships with others. Emotional wellness follows these tenets:

  • An optimistic approach to life attracts more positive support than a pessimistic outlook.

Maximizing your Health

Now, it’s time to assess these principles. You’ll likely spot a dimension or two where you lack action or focus, and achieving the proper balance will require constant adjustments.

For example, you need to lose weight, but your assessment shows you lack proper focus in both the physical and emotional dimensions. You need to know where to put more effort. So, you may need to adjust the time or effort you spend on one or more other elements.

By applying the six dimensions of wellness, we can learn how to maximize our health and wellness because we understand how these dimensions are linked to one another. This is the path of wholeness to wellness:

  • The benefits of regular physical activity, healthy eating habits, strength, and vitality. Our responsibility for self-care and seeking qualified medical attention.
  • Encourage self-awareness, self-control, and determination to find direction and foster creative and stimulating mental activities by sharing our knowledge, resources, and gifts with others.

Apply a holistic wellness approach that benefits all aspects of life. Wellness is the pathway to optimal living. The growth of the holistic health and wellness philosophy is creating new health professions and expanding the tools of conventional medicine. More people are cultivating interests in counseling and medical arts and practices. The National Wellness Institute has three questions to assess the degree to which wellness is incorporated:

1) Will this tactic or activity help people achieve their full potential?
2) Does this recognize and address the whole person (multi-dimensional approach)?
3) How does this affirm and mobilize people’s positive qualities and strengths?

The Wellness Dimensions And My Path

Health and wellness have an exciting relationship with our awareness and consciousness. Sometimes, we find either direct or inverse relationships, and sometimes, there is a correlation. Maximizing your health requires the proper balance of all dimensions. Linking wholeness to wellness helps us maintain balance.

“Know thyself.” ― Socrates

We need to learn about ourselves, and it starts with observing our thought lives. Our wellness needs are unique, so an honest self-assessment is an excellent place to start. Some say that we are spiritual beings having a human experience.

Many people hear the call of the spiritual quest. It’s what Joseph Campbell calls the Hero’s Journey (2). Many people overlook this critical part of our overall wellness.   Spiritual exploration meets the need for the spiritual dimension. We are not talking about religion; instead, it involves using spiritual technologies. You can divide these into four categories:

The Occupational Dimension of My Path

What we do to earn a living can be an entry point to spiritual exploration, even if it is not a career option that provides fulfillment. Learn to use work habits to focus your intent and build your personal power.

If you can choose a career are lucky. If you have this option, share your knowledge and gifts to help others.

Corporate culture consumes much of our life energy and leaves little time for other dimensions that make life meaningful. People come to us for advice on how to reduce stress and carve out time for improving their health and wellness. You can learn to enjoy your work more (see the above reference to Japa/TM meditation). The Japanese Tea Ceremony is an excellent example of learning to find spiritual meaning in what would otherwise be a mundane and tedious ritual.

The Physical Dimension of My Path

Our physical health and wellness directly impact our ability to engage in all activities. The quality of health and well-being are often critical elements in determining readiness to learn. The state of emotional stability, being vibrant, resilient, and durable are all assets of the physical path. Having these qualities is essential, especially for the more physical processes. There are, of course, exceptions.

Basic mindfulness meditation techniques can help reduce the stress of a hectic lifestyle. Even better are more advanced techniques like Japa Meditation and Shamanic Journey.

The Social Dimension of My Path

Spiritual exploration is an individual path. The social dimension seems to conflict with this principle, but it is not. To walk your own path doesn’t mean always walking alone, but we also need time alone to think. It’s important to help others learn and overcome roadblocks on their path will enrich your own. You’ll never understand a method better than teaching it and helping others.

You’ll also face your own “dark night of the soul” at some point, and having friends, you can talk to help in those hard places. Yes, you’ll still be forging a path of your own, but you’ll go farther when you have partners along the way.

You may even find a teacher. A good teacher has a precise way of assessing the student’s readiness to learn. Look for a teacher interested in teaching processes, not making followers. If the Universe brings a teacher into your life, listen to them.

The Intellectual Dimension of My Path

Enhancing your critical thinking skills is not just valuable; it is essential. It will help you avoid many problems. Spotting errors in an argument will save you a lot of time and heartache. We also recommend the use of the Enneagram Personality Profile, which will help you understand your personality.

If you belong to a tradition that controls or bans what you can read, then you’ve got a problem. Religious belief has an inverse relationship with one’s ability to explore ideas and processes. The more rigid the belief system, the more it affects one’s use of reason and common sense.

When you think about it, it makes sense. The greater the number of boundaries, the more roadblocks you create, and the harder it will be. It’s not impossible to have both closely held religious beliefs and use techniques outside the paradigm. It means you will encounter more conflicts. You will be more likely to run into things that conflict with your belief system. Attempting to reconcile conflicting ideas causes what psychologists call “cognitive dissonance.” It is a significant hindrance to maximizing your health.

Cognitive Dissonance

Cognitive Dissonance is a psychological term that describes the mental and physical discomfort one experiences when unable to reconcile conflicting data.

If you are experiencing this, we recommend that you conduct further research, identify the specific areas of conflict, and develop a plan of action to address or at least minimize the conflict.

The Spiritual Dimension of My Path

This dimension creates the most confusion of all the wellness factors because spirituality can mean many things to different people. We use the word spiritual for the processes of spiritual exploration.

Here again, we see the inverse relationship between inflexible beliefs and reason. Closely held and rigid views are the enemy of spiritual exploration. They prevent the investigation of anything new. They prevent you from maximizing your health by limiting the boundaries of your thinking and values.

The Emotional Dimension of My Path

There is a correlation between your emotional health and your ability to learn. To learn advanced spiritual technologies requires good health. The practice of these methods is what we call spiritual exploration. It’s a holistic approach to investigating awareness and consciousness, which contains physical, mental, and spiritual healing elements. We involve our emotions on these levels.

Our emotions are a barometer of our total health and wellness. Some of the best tools for assessing our emotional state are the simplest. The spiritual journal for recording thoughts, dreams, and experiences is indispensable.

The Enneagram Personality Profile is another one of the core tools we recommend and use. It is a tool for understanding the mechanisms of personality and instinct. It’s also a doorway leading us through various intellectual exercises to the Observer. The person we are talking to inside our heads.

Inner work often brings to light aspects of ourselves that typically remain hidden. Inner work can be stressful. You may feel emotionally drained or raw when completing sessions that delve into the psyche. It’s a normal reaction. As we saw above, with intellectual and spiritual dimensions, it is quite probable that we will encounter some roadblocks in our path.

The process of spiritual exploration can be an emotional merry-go-round. We learn something new about ourselves. This new awareness uncovers a roadblock or hidden wound.

In Conclusion

We’ve examined the six dimensions of wellness and how they relate to the path of spiritual exploration. We’ve revealed some interesting correlations that we hope will help you develop your spiritual journey.

Although we travel our “own path,” we should not travel alone. You’ll need partners to help you from time to time for healing and encouragement. We can help you find these people and assist you as a “virtual” partner. The path of wholeness to wellness is an ongoing process of life.

In addition to the information above, proper self-care can help us achieve and maintain a holistic level of health and wellness.

References

(1) Dr. Hettler and The World Health Organization, 
(2) Joseph Campbell’s book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces: Wikipedia