EDWB: The First Four

The Eight Dimensions of Well-Being or “EDWB” for short, are a collective group of eight individual aspects of your life that either destroy or manifest happiness, peace, and health. These individual dimensions are vitally important and coexist within one another. As mentioned in my previous post (“Self-Improvement: How to Not Suck”), the Eight Dimensions include your physical, emotional, mental (intellectual), spiritual, financial, environmental, social, and occupational wellness regarding your life. How we decide to care for those dimensions is up to us.

Before I begin, I want to label these dimensions of well-being as the First Four. The reason behind this is because the dimensions are strictly related to the individual and not the outer world. Without understanding these first, it becomes increasingly difficult to understand and improve the Final Four (spiritual, financial, environmental, social, occupational).

Physical

Our physical dimension is probably the easiest dimension to care for in order for us to be at our optimal health and functionality. Our body is affected by our diet, exercise, and drug use (medical prescriptions, legal/illegal substances). When you exercise, you gain more energy, a healthier appetite, and clarity for your mind. This helps provide a healthier diet, one that makes your body feel good as opposed to lethargic or “heavy.” Everything that we put in our body has some type of effect on us, hence the old saying “you are what you eat.” Whether it is food, drinks, or drugs, each substance that we allow in our temple (body) will impact us beneficially or detrimentally. When it is detrimental, we become ill, can’t think straight, and must rest until we feel healthy again. It is best to take care of our physical body as early as possible because we only have one (and it is constantly deteriorating).

Mental (Intellectual)

Our mental/intellectual dimension is contingent on our physical health but is not solely reliant on it. The reason our mental health relies so much on our physical health is that our brain is a physical part of our body (obviously). Our brain, however, is simply more than a piece of meat that sits on our shoulders. It is the processing power behind our whole body; it is the reason why our hearts pump, our lungs breathe, and we live. It is also where all of our information is stored: our memories, emotions, wants/needs, knowledge, wisdom, etc. Our mental is who we are and how we view our self, reality, and what we believe in. Our brain is us and we are it. If you do not take care of your brain, then you will be unhealthy during your lifetime. To take care of your mental dimension, be open-minded and curious, this allows your brain to become more understanding, diverse, and creative.

Emotional

The emotional dimension can be a bit tricky for multiple reasons, but the biggest reason is not feeling your emotions when they occur. A lot of people tend to avoid their feelings (especially men) or rationalize them just to ignore them. An easy way to deal with your emotional well-being is staying optimistic and, again, open-minded. Emotions are an incredibly strong force of nature that reside in animals, AKA human beings. They are not meant to be an excuse for your temper tantrum but are meant to be a useful means of expressing what you are feeling at any given moment. Deriving from the left side of your brain, emotions make you a fully-rounded human and are meant to create sympathy, empathy, and emotional understanding within ourselves and others. Without emotions, we just become another robot unable to understand people on a more personal level. We must also learn from our mistakes to emotionally mature. This means accepting when we were wrong and learning from our mistakes.

Spiritual

The spiritual dimension involves our inner self reacting to the outer world, as well as noticing “signs” from life events that help define our purpose in life. It is (in my opinion) the least talked about dimension in our EDWB mainly because it is unpopular to teach, takes a great deal of personal investment to understand, and is strictly focused on one’s self. The only way your spiritual dimension can improve is by you and you alone. This involves self-reflection, analyzing your daily life, and taking an honest look at yourself and how you contribute to this world. “This dimension of wellness strongly emphasizes the importance of building inner resources and inner thoughts in order to give meaning to experience” (Life of Wellness). This dimension teaches you gratitude and mindfulness so that you can see the world for how it is truly. One incredible tool to becoming more spiritual is meditation (sitting in silence with no distractions in order to see your life and those around you from an honest and unbiased point-of-view).

The First Four is special in their own way; however, these specific four are focused on the individual person instead of the outside world. Our physical, mental (intellectual), emotional, and spiritual dimensions of well-being are all internal forms of our EDWB. They can only improve if we decide to improve them, and we can only mature if these improvements persist. Remember, you must understand the First Four before continuing onto the Final Four because the Final Four cannot be improved without mastering the First Four. (Wow, try saying that three times fast).

Firstly,

E.

References: https://www.lifeofwellness.ca/8-dimensions-of-wellness/

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