You know when you just feel stuck? Maybe you’re feeling heavy, depressed, overwhelmed, or just plain bored, and those tried-and-true coping strategies start to lose their potency. We’ve all been there. It can feel incredibly discouraging when those nature walks and Epsom salt baths lose their spark.
This is when I like to spend a session or two working with the Wellness Wheel. It’s a comprehensive, visual, and interactive tool that I use with clients, and for my own growth. Originally created by Dr. Bill Hettler as a six-part model for wellness, it has since been expanded to include eight dimensions of wellness.
Source: https://www.headspace.com/mindfulness/wellness-wheel
The 8 dimensions include: Emotional, Physical, Social, Financial, Intellectual, Spiritual, Environmental, and Occupational Wellness. Each one forms a wedge of the wheel, so I’ll refer to them interchangeably as “dimensions” or “wedges” from here on out.
How It Works
We start by exploring what each dimension means to you-the person actually filling out the wheel. This helps us understand which wedges you naturally attend to or not without even thinking about it. It can be interesting to explore which feel more or less important, challenging, or unfamiliar.
Then, we typically rate each wedge by level of fulfillment (0 = not fulfilled at all, 10 = completely fulfilled) and begin brainstorming action steps in the dimensions with the lowest scores. That said, sometimes the clarity comes just from reflecting on the current state, with no action steps needed right away.
Why I Like It
So what makes this stand out against the hundreds of other worksheets and self-development tools floating around? It helps us get out of autopilot and look at our lives from a new, holistic perspective, offering both structure and spaciousness, both of which can be hard to come by when we’re feeling stuck.
- It Helps Find New Perspectives
Seeing eight organized wedges laid out on a wheel helps allows up to zoom out and take a systematic look at what’s working and what’s not. Sometimes we don’t realize when a dimension feels empty or unattended to, which means that we likely haven’t looked there for solutions, strategies, or self-discoveries.
For example, I know someone who felt a low-level, persistent anxiety, even though most areas of their life were peaceful and stable. Looking at the Environmental portion of the wheel revealed that while their life felt “put together,” their actual living space didn’t reflect their personality or needs. They began to attend to sensory details – visual aesthetics, organization, scents, textures – and felt a shift in their mood and energy.
- It Connects You With Your Values
When we take time to define what each wedge means to you, we can look at how you’re fulfilling each wedge in a way that aligns with your values. Clarity and fulfillment look different for everyone. The mystery novels I love may sound boring or unsupportive of your learning or leisure priorities right now.
By helping us identify what feels aligned and eliminate what does not, the wheel can bring us clarity about who we are, who we want to be, and what moves us.
- It Makes Things Feel Less Overwhelming
One of my favorite things about the Wellness Wheel is that a small shift in one dimension can create a ripple effect. Fulfillment in one dimension spills into another. You might notice that once you figure out how to get a few more hours of sleep, you’re better able to take on new challenges at work, engage with friends and family, or lean into new interests. Those new experiences might then help you sleep even better, maximizing wellness benefits with just one change.
Some action steps can “double dip” into multiple wedges at once. For example, if you want to nurture your Physical and Social dimensions, you might look into workout classes, running clubs, or cooking classes for opportunities to meet new people and socialize, rather than choose to exercise alone.
- It Helps Prioritize Action Steps
Once you identify which wedges feel like priorities, that “double dipping” can be a great way to decide what to do next. Choosing activities that attend to your primary foci can help keep that to-do list manageable while giving you confidence that you’re on the right track.
- It Encourages Creative Thinking
The structure of the wheel helps shake things loose when you’re feeling stuck, and it also leaves space to create your own wedges. Working through the eight dimensions can highlight additional facets of wellness, like Creative, Family, or Community, that don’t seem to fit in the existing wedges. It gives you space to self-reflect and honor your unique wellness needs.
Final Thoughts
At the end of the day, the Wellness Wheel is what you make of it, but the more I work with this tool, the more surprised I am by what it brings forward. It’s been exciting to watch clients move from stuck and disillusioned to hopeful, excited, and curious about something new. The structure is great, but most important is how it illuminates and supports deeper self-awareness and personal agency.