THE EIGHT DIMENSIONS OF WELLNESS
Though we consider the modern wellness movement to have started in the 1980s, the effort to be healthy and preserve one’s well-being has likely been around since the anatomically modern human emerged in Africa two hundred thousand years ago. One early form of pre-historic wellness is herbal medicine, which was practiced as early as the Paleolithic age, sixty thousand years ago. Herbalism is closely associated with shamanism, or the culture of healers who used both plant medicine and spells to heal the sick. Their approach was both physical and spiritual, aiming to cure the person in a holistic manner - a methodology we are returning to. Our more recent knowledge of wellness covers ancient health practices such Indian Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese Medicine, a book of medical information known as the Edwin Smith Papyrus of Ancient Egypt and medical texts from the Ancient Sumerians and Ancient Mesopotamians.
So what is wellness and how do we define it now? The Global Wellness Institute defines wellness as “the active pursuit of activities, choices and lifestyles that lead to a state of holistic health”. Now, what does that mean? For some wellness is a feeling of lightness, being able to move effortlessly so that they can focus on the combined efforts of mind and heart. For others it might mean achieving inner peace or serenity in the face of life’s myriad of challenges. Wellness can have a formal definition and it can mean something unique to each person. At Sanctuary & Eden we believe there are eight dimensions to wellness. These are, in no particular order of importance:
Physical
Emotional
Environmental
Relationship/Social
Spiritual
Occupational
Financial
Intellectual
In modern life we tend to focus primarily on the physical aspect of wellness. This can be seen in the modern wellness movement with the emergence of running, cycling and racquet sports and group exercise in the 80s. In the next decade we witnessed the mass adaptation of Pilates, yoga and spinning and eventually, at the turn of the century, we saw new practices such as CrossFit, and the appearance of smaller boutique style fitness spaces. Parallel to fitness we also saw the emergence of many diets, each promising weight loss, and/or disease prevention. During this same timespan medicine has mainly become a tradition of disease treatment, with preventive medical care relegated to an annual preventive health visit, a schedule determined by most insurance companies who will only cover a once-per-year visit. Over these past four decades, despite the increased options for fitness, advanced medical treatments, and a long menu of designer diets, the percentage of Americans who are overweight or have obesity increased to 73.6% of the population, with 42.5% identified as having obesity. These statistics were reported by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the years 2017-2018.
When emphasis is placed on one aspect of wellness the other complementary aspects may be overlooked. A person can attend an annual preventive health visit and receive sound nutrition and dietary advice from their healthcare provider. However, if they return to their home environment and the dynamic there is one of poor nutrition the advice is likely to be less effective. The pursuit of physical health requires a coalescence of the other dimensions. A person is more likely to succeed at a fitness plan if they are emotionally healthy, they live in an environment that offers activities, if they are surrounded by supportive people who assist with the effort and if they have a job that allows time for physical pursuits and a salary that will allow the purchase of equipment, services or memberships that enhance fitness. Every dimension of wellness is important.
We can begin to look through this unified prism by assessing where we are in terms of each of these dimensions. We can begin slowly and create a composite of our physical health before moving on to our emotional health and so forth. It’s a step-by-step process that can increase the chances of successfully reaching whatever goal is idealized. It’s always a good time to begin this effort. Simply start with a physical assessment and work your way down the list. If you prefer to collaborate on this effort, Sanctuary & Eden offers coaching services that will guide you toward a clear vision of where you are, and where you’d like to be, with a reliable roadmap to get you there.
