On Wellness: Definitions, Dimensions, & Self-care
Substantiating Material for Blue Hacks 2019 + Reflection Points
Last month, the Computer Society of Ateneo invited me to be a resource speaker for Blue Hacks, a two-day hackathon that they organized so that students from different schools can apply their skills in designing and developing applications.
The theme was self-care for students, which I realized is a really relevant topic given that this is the second talk that I’ve been invited to in the past six months to discuss mental health. I’d like to think that more and more people, students in particular, are being made aware of how important it is to take care of yourself. And I think it’s even more commendable that CompSAt decided to make the theme of the hackathon not just about psychological well-being, but wellness as a whole — taking a holistic approach.
Like with any talk I’ve held lately, I thought it was important to start with why, to communicate to the students participating in the hackathon why wellness and self-care are important to begin with:
Being well, in my own simple terms, meant being able to live your best life. And who wouldn’t want that?
We discuss wellness because understanding what it means is the first step towards doing self-care correctly. There are a lot of misconceptions on the action of self-care and one must understand the goal of self-care if one is to design and develop an application to help students do that.
Defining Wellness
The term “wellness” had its humble beginning by simply being the opposite of illness. And it’s not an old term. In fact, people only started thinking about the concept of wellness after the second world war.
“Wellness has evolved over time, first being defined as the absence of physical and psychological illness, to a concept encompassing many more complexities.”
(Horton & Snyder, 2009)
And evolve it really did. It was (and actually still is) interchanged with terms like health, quality of life, and well-being. This is understandable given that early definitions of it are quite close to how these are defined. So before we go ahead and discuss what wellness is, let’s discuss what wellness is NOT (based on Rachele et al., 2009):
- Wellness is not just health. The term does not account for the journey towards optimal functioning beyond the lack of illness. When a person is deemed to have good health, it means that the person is not suffering from any identifiable disease.
- Wellness is not just quality of life. The term focuses on conditions that impact the functional status of the individual but does not account for life fulfillment. Basically, it directs attention to the ability to complete physical tasks, activities of daily living, and the avoidance of non-communicable disease.
- Wellness is not well-being. Well-being is considered to be an outcome measure, so there is little room for process variables where manipulation of particular dimensions can result in whole individual changes. So although well-being finally takes into account the individual’s entire context, it is a state to be achieved.
So for example: one diagnosed with AIDS, by definition, will not be considered to have good health, but may achieve quality of life if one can still continue to perform daily functions. One living with social anxiety, on the other hand, may have good health and quality of life but can one be called well?
Horton & Snyder (2009) explain that the goal of wellness is to maximize an individual’s potential well-being. So the way I understand it is: a person with AIDS or social anxiety or even one who lives below the poverty line can experience wellness when they achieve the maximum attainable well-being given their individual contexts. I noticed that most people approach wellness as a strict set of criteria, a checklist of what should and should not be part of a general lifestyle, when it’s not; it is highly personalized.
Along with noting that in literature, wellness takes into account individual differences, there are two other themes that I noticed: 1) there is a clear indication that wellness covers beyond physical health or capabilities, and 2) there is an implication that wellness is not a state, but a process.
“When examined holistically, wellness is not static, it is a process of obtaining optimum health for an individual versus a state of health predetermined by society.” (Horton & Snyder, 2009)
These three identifiable features of wellness guided me in the discussion:
- Being holistic and multidimensional
- Being about actions or processes
- Being relative, subjective, and perceptual
Dimensions of Wellness
The World Health Organization itself aligns with the key features of wellness I emphasized above, and even takes it further by detailing the dimensions:
“Wellness is the optimal state of health of individuals and groups. There are two focal concerns: the realization of the fullest potential of an individual physically, psychologically, socially, spiritually and economically, and the fulfilment of one’s role expectations in the family, community, place of worship, workplace and other settings.” (Smith, Tang, & Nutbeam, 2006)
Remember: wellness is holistic and multidimensional.
There’s tons of literature out there exploring the different dimensions to consider when discussing wellness. Lucky for me, Miller & Foster (2010) have summarized the dimensions mentioned in recent literature:
The five marked in green are the dimensions commonly tackled and therefore were a no-brainer for me to include in the talk. Occupational wellness is the sixth one I decided to include over environmental wellness because (despite my opinion that environmental wellness is the semantically appropriate dimension when talking about the holism of wellness,) I thought that occupational wellness would be more relevant and simpler to attack given my audience.
Remember: wellness is a process and involves actions.
Instead of going deeper on the theoretical foundation of these six dimensions, however, I focused the discussion on the behavioral indicators of wellness for each one. First, it’s because in my experience, one of the better ways to get the main ideas across in talks like these is to give concrete examples that the audience can picture. But also it’s because it further drives the point that wellness is about the activities we engage in.
The content of the following are heavily derived from Horton & Snyder’s 2009 paper and Miller & Foster’s 2010 paper:
Physical Wellness incorporates all aspects of lifestyle choices and the physical self. To emphasize that this is only one aspect of one’s wellness: Ryan & Deci (2001) explain that a person can be ill and have a positive state of mind, while a physically healthy person can experience a poor sense of well-being. The following are some indicators of physical wellness:
- Maintaining a healthy exercise regime and diet
- Getting 7 to 9 hours of sleep a day
- Monitoring internal and external physical signs of the body’s response to events (like stress)
- Seeking medical care when appropriate
- Taking action to prevent and avoid harmful behaviors (e.g. tobacco and excess alcohol use)
- Maintaining healthy physical indices (muscle tone, cholesterol level, blood pressure, etc.)
Emotional / Psychological Wellness is a continual process that includes an awareness and management of feelings, and a positive view of self, the world, and relationships. Gaining a strong sense of purpose or identity, while maintaining optimism, is important, as is having high self-esteem and a positive and realistic self-concept. The following are some indicators of emotional / psychological wellness:
- Dealing with conflict and life circumstances
- Having a realistic, positive, self-valuing, and developmental view of the self
- Being able to reflect on emotions & communicate with others in a constructive manner
- Experiencing satisfaction, curiosity, and enjoyment in life
- Being able to anticipate the future with a positive or optimistic outlook
- Bouncing back from setbacks or failures
- Having strong feelings of empathy and affection for all human beings, having a greater capacity for love and deep friendships, having a more complete self-identification with others (self-actualization)
- Finding solutions to emotional problems with the help of a therapist if necessary
Social Wellness is the ability and willingness to give and receive support from others. This encompasses the degree and quality of interactions with others, the community, and nature. It includes the extent to which a person works towards supporting the community and environment in everyday actions. The following are some indicators of social wellness:
- Getting along with others / accepting others different from self
- Being comfortable and willing to express one’s feelings, needs, and opinions
- Having supportive and fulfilling relationships
- Being able to contribute to one’s community
- Being able to seek help from others
- Maintaining healthy social indices (e.g. size and density of one’s social network, frequency of contact with relatives and friends)
Intellectual Wellness involves acquiring an optimum level of stimulating intellectual activity. This is associated with the degree that one engages in creative and stimulating activities, as well as the use of resources to expand knowledge and focus on the acquisition, development, application, and articulation of critical thinking (Hatfield & Hatfield, 1992). The following are some indicators of intellectual wellness:
- Exerting effort to share knowledge with others
- Developing skills and abilities to achieve a more satisfying life
- Having awareness of and/or attending cultural events
- Seeking out opportunities to gain knowledge of current local and world events
- Gaining stimulation from reading, studying, traveling, or exposure to media
Spiritual Wellness involves a belief in and respect for someone or something larger than one’s self, a “unifying force”. It is found within shared community and there is a continual process of finding meaning and purpose in life, while contemplating and coming to terms with one’s place in the complex and interrelated universe. The following are some indicators of spiritual wellness:
- Having principles or ethics to live by
- Seeking meaning and purpose in existence
- Having a commitment to / relationship with God (or ultimate concern)
- Recognizing, accepting, and tolerating the complex nature of the world
- Acknowledging powers that go beyond the natural and rational
- Being motivated by truth, beauty, and unity
Occupational Wellness is gaining satisfaction and enrichment from one’s work and is the extent one’s occupation allows for expression of one’s values. This includes the contribution of one’s unique skills, talents, and services to the community and the level to which the individual views their work as rewarding and meaningful (whether paid or unpaid). The following are some indicators of occupational wellness:
- Achieving a balance between occupational responsibilities and other commitments
- Having opportunities for positive social interactions at work
- Gaining personal satisfaction and enrichment
- Having opportunities to express one’s own values through work tasks
- Recognizing attainment of vocational goals
- Reducing exposure to physical hazards
Wellness & Self-care
Remember: wellness takes into account the unique individual.
“Wellness is an active process through which the individual becomes aware of and makes choices towards a more successful existence.” (Hettler, 1980 in Rachele et al., 2013)
Given everything that was just presented, self-care becomes a simpler concept: self-care means engaging in activities that address the different dimensions of wellness.
Throughout the talk, I gave examples of how I myself engage in self-care and the applications I use to help me (of course I needed to circle it back to the whole point of the talk — designing and developing apps):
- Physical: Sleep Cycle to keep me in check on my quality of sleep, NikeRunClub to remind me to exercise every now and then
- Emotional/Psychological: Headspace to guide me in mindfulness
- Social: Twitter to quickly express current emotions
- Intellectual: Audible and Pocket to learn new things, Medium to share what I learned
- Spiritual: SheReadsTruth (but now, Bible) to participate in reading plans
- Occupational: messaging apps like Viber and Skype to remain open for positive interactions with people I work with
Some of these apps, I mentioned, cater specifically to my own preferences. For example, I have the Achiever strength (according to Gallup’s StrengthsFinder) and it helps that NikeRunClub, Headspace, and Audible have badges or content that I can unlock when I reach a milestone. Someone who has the Competition strength enjoys comparing himself with others and would therefore appreciate apps that have a social aspect to it like seeing their friends’ progress and achievements.
The key here is that when you self-care, try to make sure that the activities you engage in are a fit to your own needs and preferences.
Some Concluding Notes
Beyond imparting this knowledge to the students participating in the hackathon, I wanted my audience to reflect on the following points:
(1) Are you well? In general, do you think you’ve achieved the maximum attainable well-being for yourself? (If yes, do you think you can push that boundary further?)
(2) Are you physically well? How about psychologically? Socially? Intellectually? Spiritually? Occupationally?
(3) What are the activities you engage in to take care of yourself in each of these dimensions? Are they working?
I think every now and then we need to ask ourselves these questions to make sure that on our individual journeys of wellness, we never stop. We never give up.
