The Wellness Wheel

College is hard. College in the midst of a pandemic is harder. We’re faced with new stressors every day— and when those stressors pile up, it becomes hard to even identify what is stressing us out. Our minds grow congested and our schedules grow hectic.

Self-care is no easy task. It’s really hard to put aside time to think about how we’re treating our bodies and our minds. This method of self-care requires no more than ten minutes of your day, and it results in a clear picture of your individual wellness and how you can improve it moving forward.

WHAT IS WELLNESS?

According to the National Wellness Institute, wellness is defined as a “conscious, self-directed and evolving process of achieving full potential”. It’s important to remember that wellness is multi-dimensional, and it’s individual. Every one’s process and journey to achieving their full potential is completely unique and there is not one approach that works for everyone.

This is why the wellness wheel activity is so helpful. It allows you to build your own personalized assessment of where you’re at, in terms of your well-being. And you can always revisit this activity to see how much you’ve grown and improved.

THE WELLNESS WHEEL

 This is what it looks like. There are tons of different models online that vary in the number of dimensions that wellness includes. I find that using a wheel with the six dimensions of wellness (physical, social, emotional, intellectual, spiritual and environmental) works best for me.

Since everyone’s journey is unique, you can choose whatever method you want to go about completing a wellness wheel. There are lots of different online quizzes you can take that will actually create a personalized wellness wheel for you. Or you can print out a blank wheel template and color in each dimension yourself by following a series of questions and rating each statement with the level of your own agreement or disagreement.

Once you’ve finished your wheel, you can take a look at each dimension and pinpoint where you might be lacking. From there, you can find ways to incorporate habits into your daily life that will result in improving a specific dimension.

Remember to take it one day at a time—the small changes to your daily habits will go a long way.