Wellness 8: The Eight Dimensions to Achieving Incredible Health, Increased Happiness and Continual Well-being

From my own research and from my dad’s precious teaching I’ve extracted eight basic dimensions of wellness: emotional, environmental, financial, intellectual, occupational, physical, social, and spiritual. I can almost hear my dad’s voice teaching me correct principles in each of these dimensions. This book is about what I am learning. It’s about eight things to do to get life right. It’s like a wheel with eight spokes. If just one of the spokes is broken or missing, the whole ride is bumpy at best-and ruined at worst. I call them the Wellness 8. In life, wellness is more than just being healthy. It’s about doing well and even more about being well. I could be physically toned and have lots of money and be the life of the party and still have a miserable life. Each of the Wellness 8 is about the kind of person I am, not just the stuff I do or the things I have. We begin down inside the human heart with Emotional Wellness. I believe that healthy living begins with the emotions. People who are sharing, contributing and making a difference are emotionally well. People in emotional turmoil can’t get their lives right in any other dimension, but once they are at peace inside, they can move forward with greater ease. The environmental dimension is all about managing your personal surroundings to bypass the negative (people, thoughts, media, self-talk) and to increase the positive (serving and sharing with others). It necessarily follows emotional wellness. My emotional life is like a well of water. If it stagnates, I’ll be a source of poison to the outside world. If I do the things that create good emotional health, like reading good books, exercising, meditating, doing regular deep breathing exercises, the water springs,