Most people have an intuitive understanding of wellness. Yet they might have a difficult time explaining the phenomenon. This is because wellness is dependent on a multitude of factors. Also, everyone has different circumstances, interests, and abilities. So there is no one-size-fits-all formula on how to optimize your wellness. Well & Empowered aims to provide content that will help you explore this matter.
A Review of the Hierarchy of Human Needs
Any discussion of how to optimize your wellness warrants a review of Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs. Maslow was a psychologist who focused his career on studying human wellness rather than human illness. Individuals who he considered the most “well” were those who appeared to have become self-actualized. Self-actualized individuals are those who have reached their human potential.
From his studies, Maslow developed a theory of human motivation based on human needs. His theory is often depicted in the form of a pyramid that lists the various levels of human needs.
Of these needs, self-actualization/self-transcendence needs are the higher level needs. These needs consist of a commitment to constantly improve themselves and the world around them. The rest of the needs are considered lower level (or basic) needs. These needs are: physiological, safety, love and belonging, and esteem.
People are able to lead decent lives by satisfying only the lower level needs. Yet they do not experience the more fulfilling life that satisfying the higher level needs would bring. It is difficult, if not impossible, for people to pursue higher level needs without first having satisfied lower level needs to a reasonable extent.
A Multi-Dimensional Approach to How to Optimize Your Wellness
WellandEmpowered.com uses the following five dimensions in presenting information to assist you in your exploration of how to optimize your wellness:
• Physical Wellness – This dimension focuses on the preservation and optimization of the human body and targets the physiological level of human needs. A healthy body is necessary to best be able to tackle all other dimensions of wellness. It will in itself lead to increased energy and wellbeing.
• Environmental Wellness – This dimension involves keeping an orderly and safe environment and targets the safety level of human needs. Being in an organized and non-threatening environment will make it easier to focus on things that bring about greater fulfillment. An organized environment brings one a sense of comfort and satisfaction.
• Social Wellness – This dimension involves having close relationships with other individuals. It targets the human needs of love and belonging. Having family and/or friends who care about you and whom you care about will create a sense of purpose and comfort in your life.
• Mental Wellness – This dimension focuses on improving human reason, drive, spirituality, and emotions and targets the self-esteem, self-actualization, and self-transcendence levels of human needs. As the saying goes: “knowledge is power.” It is your knowledge and mental processes that will guide your interpretation of the world, your decisions, and, perhaps most importantly, your actions.
• Financial Wellness – This dimension involves having the monetary resources to achieve your goals and indirectly relates to all levels of human needs. Although being financially prosperous does not guarantee a sense of fulfillment, lack of financial resources can be a limiting factor in terms of satisfying your various needs.
The Inter-relatedness of the Dimensions of Wellness
The wellness dimensions Well & Empowered uses parallel Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Being cognizant of these dimensions of wellness can guide you in terms of how to optimize your wellness.
Admittedly, it is sometimes difficult to differentiate one dimension of wellness from another since they are oftentimes interrelated. For this reason, when writing posts, Well & Empowered will categorize posts under the most relevant dimension of wellness.
Healthcare related posts will be categorized under the healthcare category.
Learning How to Optimize Your Wellness
Learning how to optimize your level of wellness empowers you to reach your full potential. Not only does this make your own life better, but it also makes the lives of those around you better.
Sure it might be hard work, but who said hard work can’t be fun and rewarding? Life is short. Why not strive to make the most of it by striving to be the best version of ourselves?
It might be hard to bring out the best in ourselves especially when the world is not being kind to us. However, it is especially during hard times that we must seek to become our best selves.
Perhaps it might take a bit longer than planned to achieve your wellness goals. Or perhaps things might turn out a bit differently than planned. In the end, however, you will feel happy that you gave your attempt at achieving optimal wellness, and thus your true potential, your best shot.
With determination – as well as with the right tools and knowledge – you can achieve your wellness goals.
How to Optimize Your Wellness with the Help of Tools and Technology
Oftentimes, you will come across products you wish you had learned about sooner since they could have made your life much easier.
This is true not just of digital technology, but also in terms of all the innovative tools and gadgets that are created each day with the purpose of simplifying your life and enabling you to use our time and energy in other valuable ways.
While you should be cautious of spending money on unnecessary items, it is usually a good idea to invest in items that will help you improve your life.
For this reason, WellandEmpowered.com will periodically offer reviews and/or recommendations of tools which it believes you can adopt in a manner that will facilitate your journey of optimizing your wellness and becoming a better you. If you would like to browse products recommended throughout this website, you can do so at our Wellness Tools page.
Conclusion
Learning how to optimize your wellness can lead you to take actions to lead to a more fulfilling life. This site uses five distinct, yet inter-related, dimensions to organize its wellness knowledge content. It will also aims to make you aware of tools that you may use to improve your wellness. Please subscribe to our mailing list to be notified of new content pertaining to tools and knowledge relevant to wellness and healthcare!
Last updated: Dec 6, 2020
Sharing is Caring
If you enjoyed this post, please share it with your friends on social media.