4 Categories of Wellness + Why They’re Important

AD // I talk about “wellness” on my blog and read about “wellness” a lot elsewhere. It’s one of my favourite topics to explore, write about and practice in my daily life. But the term “wellness” is so broad. Almost too broad to refer to as one generic term when there are so many different aspects and levels to wellness that we need to focus on.

Wellness in not a once size fits all approach. Wellness refers to our mind, body, spirit, emotions, mental health, intellect, sexual preferences and so much more. So why we would talk about wellness in this one very generalized approach doesn’t make much sense when you think about it!

There are endless things that can impact our wellness on any given day. And it’s important to know that our wellness will fluctuate every day, as well based on any number of factors such as the weather, hormones, your schedule, even the moon cycle can influence your wellness!

So now let’s look at 4 categories of wellness, why they’re important and how we can tend to them:

Physical wellness

You physical wellness refers to anything related your physical body. The food you eat, your blood pressure, the amount of exercise you do, any aches and pains you have, check ups and appointments you attend. You get the gist. When we say wellness, this category is the one most of us immediately think of.

Tending to your physical wellness is obviously incredibly important as it’s the only body you got and you have to take care of it in the best way you can. Not to the detriment of your mental wellness, though. Some things you can do to tend to your physical wellness are:

• Making sure you book medical appointments when you need them (such as mammograms or cervical screenings)
• Eating a balanced diet the best you can (eating enough fruit and veggies, drinking enough water etc and taking supplements like that from Nature’s Happiness)
• Moving your body in a way that feels good for you (Yoga, going for a walk, kickboxing – whatever!)

Sexual wellness

Sexual wellness is an area of wellness that gets overlooked and not focused on enough. But with sex being a big part of a lot of our lives, it’s also an important area of wellness. And when I say sex, I don’t just mean penetrative sex. I’d highly recommend checking out this video from Hannah Witton about What Actually Is Sex? to explore this further!

I wrote more about How To Boost Your Sexual Wellness in that point but sexual wellness can cover the sexual relationship with your partner, the sexual relationship with yourself, consent, finding out what you like whether that’s BDSM or tantric massage from somewhere like London Tantric, sexual health and so much more. Some things you can do to boost your sexual wellness are:

• Explore, explore, explore! With yourself, your partner, others.
• Learn what’s normal for you “down there” so you know to look out for signs that might need checking out
• Put yourself and your pleasure first and never be afraid to say no

Mental wellness

Mental wellness is one of the most important areas of wellness for me, personally. After an almost decade long anxiety disorder, I have well and truly felt the rock bottom of this category of wellness. And it is dark and bleak and an awful place to me. Your mental health should be as high a priority as your physical wellness. No question about it.

When I say mental wellness, I don’t just mean journaling every night and having some chocolate to cheer you up after a bad day. Whilst those two things are great, your mental wellness runs much deeper than that. Some things you can do for your mental wellness are:

• Setting boundaries with people, places and things that negatively impact you
• Check in and be honest with yourself about how you’re feeling
• Don’t be afraid to seek help, find a therapist, see your GP or call the Samaritans if things are really bad

Emotional wellness

I decided to put these two back to back because a lot of people can get mixed up with the two. Whereas mental wellness is much more focused on your MENTAL HEALTH. Mental illness is something not everyone will have to deal with. Emotions however, we all possess. And we’re all going to have to deal with varying emotions throughout our lives. That’s normal.

So staying on top of your emotional wellness is a good way to prevent those emotions getting the better of you. Even positive emotions can get too much to handle, if we let them. Some things we can do to keep our emotional wellness in check are:

• Finding an outlet for our emotions: Painting, music, exercise, writing etc.
• Journaling how we feel to get our emotions off our check
• Talking to a friend or family member about how we feel

Which areas of wellness do you feel like you need to work on the most? Are there any that you feel like you’re on top of? Let me know!

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