Your Healing Space: We\'re Almost There

Wellness @ Columbia

Your Healing Space is embracing a new, longer-form format to share more detailed information with the Columbia community. This month's edition covers the 8 Dimensions of Wellness and encourages you to think about supporting your overall wellbeing as we get into the sprint towards the end of the year.

W@CSubmissions
We want to hear from you! Send us your thoughts on wellness in word or visual form. Select submissions will be shared in future W@C communications. Email Richard your submissions - rchin@colum.edu 

We have just a few weeks left in the semester, and as we rush towards the end, it is important not to lose sight of your wellness in the midst of final projects and summer or graduation plans.

Caring for Yourself

Last month, we reviewed the Circle of Control and centering your actions and energies in areas over which you have the most impact. Hopefully you have had some time to think about how you are directing your energy and can continue to use that framework as you consider this month's topic: The Wellness Wheel.

The Wellness Wheel is a graphical representation of the 8 Dimensions of Wellness:

• Physical Wellness - Physical wellness is not merely the absence of illness, but about maintaining a thriving lifestyle. This area of wellness includes adopting healthy habits such as routine medical exams, immunizations, safety precautions, sexually transmitted infection screenings, adequate sleep, a balanced diet, regular exercise, and more. It is also about avoiding or minimizing risky behaviors like alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs. Most importantly, physical wellness is about discovering what healthy habits make you feel better and suit your lifestyle and level of mobility and fitness.
• Social Wellness - Social Wellness focuses on connecting with your community and the people around you, which includes being aware of your own social and cultural background as a bridge to understand the diversity and depth present in other backgrounds. This dimension encourages taking an active part in improving your communities, connecting with others, establishing supportive social networks, developing meaningful relationships, and creating safe and inclusive spaces.
• Emotional Wellness - Emotional wellness encompasses optimism, self-esteem, self-acceptance, and the ability to experience and cope with feelings independently and interpersonally. Emotional wellness includes: practicing self-care; fostering inner resources and resiliency; finding unique ways of coping with stressors; creating satisfying relationships; empathizing with others; and being realistic about expectations and time; and knowing when to ask for help.
• Intellectual Wellness - Intellectual wellness encourages participating in mentally stimulating and creative activities. Improving intellectual wellness can happen in and out of the classroom. It is the ability to think critically, reason objectively, make responsible decisions, and explore new ideas and different points of view. It also emphasizes lifelong learning and inspires curiosity.
• Vocational Wellness - Vocational wellness involves preparing for and participating in work that provides personal satisfaction and life enrichment that is consistent with your values, goals, and lifestyle. This dimension includes taking a thoughtful and proactive approach to career planning and assessing personal satisfaction and performance in one’s work.
• Environmental Wellness - Environmental wellness inspires us to live a lifestyle that is respectful of our surroundings. It involves understanding the dynamic relationship between the environment and people and recognizing that we are responsible for the quality of the air, water, and earth that surrounds us and in turn, that social, natural, and built environments affect our health and well-being.Our environment and the way we feel about the environment can play a big role in how we live our lives. Examples of our environment include out social environment (i.e. bullying, fat talk, and racism), out natural environment (i.e. air, nature, and climate), and our built environment (i.e. proximity to resources and living conditions).
• Spiritual Wellness - Spiritual wellness involves seeking and having a meaning and purpose in life, as well as participating in activities that are consistent with one’s beliefs and values. It is more than prayer and believing in a higher being. A spiritually well person seeks harmony with the universe, expresses compassion towards others, and practices gratitude and self-reflection. When we integrate practices of spiritual wellness we are able to connect in mind, body, and soul.
• Financial Wellness - Financial Wellness includes our relationship with money, skills to manage resources to live within our means, making informed financial decisions and investments, setting realistic goals, and learning to prepare for short-term and long-term needs or emergencies. Part of this dimension includes an awareness that everyone’s financial values, needs, and circumstances are unique.

The idea of this framework is that while we can break apart our sense of wellness into pieces we can work on individually, each of these dimensions has the potential to impact the rest of them. If you are struggling with your physical wellness, other areas are likely to struggle as well. If you are doing very well with your intellectual wellness, you may find that areas you do not do so well in are not as impactful as they might otherwise be.

We encourage you to consider each of these dimensions and think about whether you are embodying your potential in them. What areas are you doing well in? What areas are you struggling in? Are there things you can do to improve any of these areas? After completing this exercise, you might consider checking out the Spring Wellness Fair to see what resources are available to help you in those dimensions you want to target.

Spring Wellness Fair
 

Registration starts Monday!
If you need help with process, stop by RegLab at the Student Center Monday through Thursday from 10-3 or visit students.colum.edu/thenewmycolumbia for more information about the registration process.

Highlighted Events This Month

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