Wellness!
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has a model for holistic wellness that utilizes the balance of wellness in eight different dimensions. Maintaining wellness in multiple aspects of one’s life is optimal for those who might be feeling unbalanced and down. This model captures a clear picture of the multiple aspects leading to one’s wellness, the connections between the dimensions, and how imbalance in the dimensions might be negatively impacting one’s life.
The Eight Dimensions
- Social – balance in social interactions with peers and co-workers
- Physical – balance between getting enough sleep, exercise and nutritious food
- Emotional – balance in having the ability to express one’s self emotionally
- Spiritual – balancing a connection with a higher power or spiritual belief system
- Environmental – Balancing the atmosphere and environment one finds themselves in
- Occupational – balancing satisfaction and productivity in one’s jobs
- Intellectual – balance of intellectual stimulation and growing in knowledge
- Financial – balance between financial responsibility and utilizing resources effectively
Finding balance in each of these dimensions and working to attend to each one on a regular basis brings us to a more balanced mode of functioning in our lives. Some people are better at attending to some of their dimensions than other and that attentiveness to the dimensions tends to be an ebb and flow. There are definitely times where we are better at it than at other times.
NRAP offers one on one wellness assessments and goal planning so if you are feeling as though this might be a benefit to you, come on in and make an appointment to sit down with one of our PRSS’s to evaluate your balance of wellness.