Hi All,
Welcome back to the blog. Today I want to mention three integral parts of life which, if developed, can lead to a life lived well. These aspects include:
1. Personal Wellness (internal)
2. Temporal Wellness (relational & material)
3. Participational Wellness (external)
If you’ve ever heard of the 9 Dimensions of Wellness, my abbreviated list above captures all 9 of these dimensions into three. I think that these really encompass wellness at its core. Achieving wellness starts with oneself, which is the foundation for life lived well.
Personal Wellness: Looking upward & inward
Before you can live well, you must have a sense of your calling. God has entrusted us all with a mission that only we can do, and the mission He gives is the basis for living well. It indicates that there is a standard, a purpose that has been prescribed for each of us, that we can either answer or ignore. We are given this purpose once we begin a relationship with God and inquire of Him what He’d have us do.
Once we’ve spent the time with God to get a sense of what He’s called us to do, we then have to be physically able to do it. Our bodies are His temple, and we must take care of ourselves in such a way that we are ready and able to answer the call.
The next piece of your emotional state goes hand-in-hand with the physical. Emotional baggage and issues can hinder us from operating in the fullness of what God has for us. We have to surrender body, mind, and soul to allow for our God-given potential to come forth.
Temporal Wellness: Looking around us
Once you have sought out your calling and have developed an ongoing relationship with God to allow for you to operate in that- you also need to find others to aid in grounding yourself in supportive community that will help to encourage and edify you. We were created for relationship- both with God and with others. We aren’t meant to do life alone.
You might also want to take into account your workplace. Many of us spend extensive hours at our jobs, so it’s also important that you have a certain level of contentment there. While we all don’t have the luxury of doing our dream job, the place in which we work should be somewhere that we are challenged in a healthy way and allows us to maintain balance for our wellness- not a draining, miserable, unhealthy environment.
More into the material aspect of temporal wellness is having a good grasp on your finances. While not everything will be perfect, having goals of where you want to be and being intentional and accountable with how you handle your money is key. Saving, investing, paying off debts, having a plan- these are things that if neglected, can negatively affect other aspects of your life.
Participational Wellness: Looking beyond us
Lastly, to truly have an enriching human experience, I think it is absolutely vital that we engage and interact with the world around us. Taking the time to learn and glean what we can from the world, take it all in, and pay it forward in our own unique expression. In so doing, we continue to learn, grow, and thrive.
This is just a brief introduction to wellness her on my blog, and I hope to delve more deeply in future posts. I think that wellness at it’s core is a journey of self-actualization that never ends, so that we can be and offer our best selves to others as well as the world around us. What aspect of wellness are you working on this year? Let’s share down in the comments and start a dialogue.
Until next time, live well.
Kay's Dossier 