Know! to Support All Dimensions of Wellness

August is National Wellness Month. Wellness is about being healthy in multiple dimensions of your life. It means having the support and resources to make healthy choices for your well-being across multiple areas of your life. Everyone deserves to nurture their own well-being. Caring adults especially have a critical role to play in supporting the wellness of the young people in their lives. This August, start a conversation with a young person in your life about how you can support all aspects of their well-being. Use the tips below to guide your conversations!

Physical Wellness

Physical wellness is all about taking care of your body by maintaining healthy habits such as eating nutritious meals, exercising regularly, getting plenty of sleep, and avoiding harmful substances like alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis. Encourage the young people in your life to reflect on their physical wellness by asking about their habits and how those habits make them feel. You might ask:

Do you move your body daily? What types of physical activity are fun for you?
Do you listen to your body when you feel hungry, full, or thirsty?
What helps you get a good night’s sleep? How can we work together to create a healthy nighttime routine?

Intellectual Wellness

Intellectual wellness means keeping your brain healthy, active, and well-rested. Signs of intellectual wellness include good time management and study skills, critical thinking, creative expression, and development of personal opinions and values. Start a conversation about intellectual wellness with these questions:

What is one skill you would like to learn or a topic you would like to learn about? What resources might exist in our community to support you in your learning?
How do you study for school? What changes could you make to your study strategies that would help you learn?
How do you form your own opinions? How often do you talk to people with different opinions than you?

Spiritual Wellness

Spiritual wellness involves tending to one's values, sense of purpose, and search for meaning in life. It is often tied to an organized religion or spiritual practice, but it does not have to be. Help young people to nurture their spiritual wellness by asking:

Do you take time during your day to slow down and just be? What activities help you pause and reflect?
How do you decide what values are important to you? Do you practice those values in your daily life?
Are you connected to a community that practices the same religion or shares your beliefs? If not, where might you find a group or organization to take part in?

Emotional Wellness

Emotional wellness encompasses identifying and expressing one's feelings, adapting to change, and coping with stress. Being able to share one’s feelings with others, as well as feeling good about and being kind to oneself, are all signs of emotional wellness. Check in with your young person’s emotional wellness with these questions:

What body sensations do you feel when you are stressed? How do you take care of yourself when you are feeling stressed?
Is there someone in your life that you feel safe talking to about your emotions?
How do you talk about yourself? Do you treat yourself with compassion?
How do you recognize what you are feeling? What activities help you express your feelings?

Social Wellness

Social wellness refers to one’s ability to build and maintain healthy, trusting relationships with friends, family, and the community. Start talking about social well-being with the following questions:

How do you stay in touch with your friends and family? Do you make time in your schedule to spend time with them?
What does it mean to be in a “good” relationship? How do you treat the people you care about?
Do you have a good friend you can count on? Are you a friend that someone else can count on?

Occupational Wellness

Occupational wellness involves developing personal satisfaction in your job or career and pursuing a path that supports your goals. It can also pertain to your educational path. Use the following questions to encourage youth to examine their occupational wellness:

Is there a job or career that you think you would enjoy? What support do you need to help you achieve your career goal?
Do you take time to rest between work and school? How do you relax when there is a lot going on at work or school?
How do you celebrate your achievements at school or work?

Financial Wellness

Financial wellness is the ability to understand financial processes and manage money in the short and long term. For young people, this might include understanding some financial literacy basics or practicing managing small amounts of money. Ask the following questions to prompt a dialogue about financial wellness:

What kinds of things are important to save money for? How do you decide what to spend money on?
Have you ever used a budget? What questions do you have about managing money now and in the future?

Environmental Wellness

Lastly, environmental wellness is about building and participating in safe, sustainable, and accessible spaces. Feeling comfortable in your environment supports all other aspects of your well-being. Consider these questions to get young people thinking about their environmental wellness:

Is your room a place where you feel comfortable and safe?
Do you spend time outdoors? What places in your community would you like to explore?
What are some things in your room that make you happy? Is there anything you would add or remove to your space that would make it more comfortable?

Sources & Resources

CREATING A_HEALTHIER LIFE, A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE TO WELLNESS (samhsa.gov)

8 Dimensions of Well-Being | Health Education & Prevention | CSU Pueblo

The Well-Being Wheel | Health & Wellness (unh.edu)

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