If there’s one thing this year has taught me, it is simply this:
“Life is what happens when we’re busy making plans.”
I still remember the first couple of months, I was so excited about all the intentions I had set, all the plans I had made and all the other things that were ‘meant’ to happen; Khushi’s GCSE exams, celebrating her 16th birthday in Lisbon, her Prom, our travels and the most important one; our move to the seaside – which ACTUALLY happened! Everything else took a backseat.
We’re now a month into the second half of the year, and if you’re anything like me, you’re probably looking into making the rest of the year the best of the year – setting new intentions (goals), and trying to make progress towards achieving them. What are you using to help you come up with these intentions (goals) though? In today’s post, I want to provide you with a personal development tool I’ve been using myself and with my clients for years that’s perfect for helping you brainstorm meaningful ideas.
The Wellness Wheel
The Wellness Wheel is a simple, yet powerful, self-assessment tool commonly used in coaching and counselling. The tool is great for self-reflection and gives you a visual representation of how balanced your life is.
To make this easy for you I’ created’ve shown a sample of a Wellness Wheel below so you can get the idea and get started with your own wheel in your journal or wherever else you like. Do what feels best for you. All you have to do is draw a circle and divide it into 8 equal parts. Then, label each section with a life area.
The life areas I focused on were:
- Physical Health
- Spirituality
- Relationships
- Creativity
- Personal Development
- Career & Finances
- Overall Life Vision
- Emotional Well-being
Here are some questions to ask yourself when deciding where to draw your dots:
- Physical health – How’s your overall diet? Any changes you’d like to make to the way you eat? How do you feel during the day (tired, energetic, fatigued, etc)? How’s your quality of sleep? How often do you exercise?
- Spirituality – How in tune with your beliefs are you? How closely connected do you feel to what you believe in?
- Relationships – Do you have friends/family that you can talk to? How satisfied are you with the quality of relationships in your life? How often do you spend quality time with your loved ones? How easily do you connect with others?
- Creativity – Do you have a creative outlet? Are you utilizing it? How satisfied are you with your creative abilities?
- Career & Finances – How satisfied are you in your current career? Are you in your dream career? or do you need to switch paths? How comfortable are you with your current financial status?
- Personal Development – Are you actively working on your personal development? How well do you really know yourself? How satisfied are you with your personal growth lately?
- Overall Life Vision – How happy are you with the direction your life is headed? How clear is your vision for your future? How satisfied are you with the steps that you’re taking towards that vision?
- Emotional Well-being – How balanced do you feel emotionally? How aware are you of your emotions? How do you process/cope with your emotions?
Here are some ideas to get you started with brainstorming:
- Physical health
- Exercise for 30 minutes, 3 x a week
- Meal prep for lunch every week
- Create a consistent workout schedule
- Try a new form of exercise such as yoga, pilates, Zumba, etc.
- Drink 8 glasses of water per day
- Take a multi-vitamin daily
- Spirituality
- Strengthen prayer life
- Explore new spiritual practices (crystals, smudging, incense, meditation, etc.)
- Form relationships with others who have similar spiritual beliefs
- Relationships
- Spend time with close friends at least twice a month
- Have a small family get together once a month
- Identify the people you are closest to and make an effort to talk to them often and reach out for support when you need it
- Creativity
- Explore a new creative outlet
- Actively practice your creative outlet a few times a week
- Find a community of people who consider themselves to be “creatives” and form relationships with them
- Career & Finances
- Start a side hustle
- Get promoted at work
- Go back to school for a new degree/certification
- Save £1,000 a month
- Personal Development
- Start a daily journaling practice
- Explore more about your personality type
- Listen to an inspirational podcast twice a week
- Read one self-help book a month
- Start a daily mediation practice
- Overall Life Vision
- Create a vision board to reflect on what you really desire in life
- Reflect on your progress towards your goals every month
- Explore different opportunities and possibilities for your life. Push yourself out of your comfort zone.
- Emotional Well-being
- Practice self-care for at least 10 minutes daily
- Create a self-care ritual
- Try coaching
- Surround yourself with positive, like-minded individuals
AN EXAMPLE OF A WELLNESS WHEEL
The wellness wheel provides a visual representation of the concept of wellness that
demonstrates the need for “balanced” or “well-rounded” lives. Write a number between 2
and 10 in each triangle below to indicate how satisfied you are in each dimension of your
life. The higher the number you give a dimension, the happier you are in this dimension.
When you have them all marked, draw a line across each triangle at that number to form a
new outline of the circle.
- Is your life well-balanced or is it unbalanced?
- Which dimensions need the most attention?
- Which dimensions would you most like to address?
Feel free to sign up to my Sunday Morning Letters HERE! It's like having a cup of tea and a chat with me on Sunday mornings - a strong dose of inspiration and encouragement to help you Curate & Live a Well-Designed Life; Consciously, Intentionally & Wholeheartedly. I want you to live your life fully - each day, less on autopilot and more on purpose - living a life of meaning ♡
