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Eight Dimensions of Wellness + Mental Health: What’s the Connection?

Writer's picture: Serenity  Co-OpSerenity Co-Op

The 8 dimensions of wellness is a wellness model created by Dr. Peggy Swarbick and has been spreading through medical communities and forums since its inception in the early 1990’s. This wellness model was inspired by Dr. Jerry Johnson’s “Wellness and Occupational Therapy” from 1986 and it stemmed from a greater desire to address disparities facing people with or at risk of developing mental or substance use disorders. This model has evolved over the years based on lived experiences of those facing traumatic events, substance use, and mental health challenges. In the beginning this model only included 5 dimensions but over time there more dimensions have been added. The eight dimensions are:


•Financial

•Social

•Environmental

•Occupational

•Intellectual

•Emotional

•Spiritual

•Physical


This model (pictured below) shows overlapping dimensions to convey the idea that all of these things are linked, or interconnected. Each one of these dimensions has the ability to impact, both positively and negatively, others which relates to our overall wellbeing.




Now, let’s dive a little deeper into these 8 dimensions individually.



Financial- financial wellness is not only how to budget and manage your finances, making smart investments -or financial literacy- though that is an important part. It also includes being financially secure, being paid a wage you can thrive on, and not have to worry about losing said wages or about the cost of things rising to make them unaffordable.



Social- Social wellness is all about developing a sense of connection and belonging. It’s also about being able to access spaces that accommodate disabilities, chronic illnesses, etc.. As well as how you maintain relationships (friendships, familial relationships, romantic relationships, etc) and handle conflict in those relationships.



Environmental- Environmental wellness doesn’t just mean being in safe, loving, and accepting environments that support wellbeing. While these are important aspects of environmental wellness, it also includes making sure the environment you live in, work in, relax in, etc., aren’t harming your health.



Occupational- Occupational wellness is referring to the satisfaction you get from your job as well as how safe and healthy the environment is. It is also making sure you have a healthy work-life balance.



Intellectual- Intellectual wellness involves your brain health and growth via thought provoking mental processes. We know that human brains never stop learning or adapting and we crave knowledge, being involved in thought-provoking communities or groups is known to increase our mental wellness overall



Emotional- Emotional wellness isn’t about being happy all the time but rather being able to identify, sit with, process, and move through your emotions



Spiritual- Spiritual Wellness addresses all aspects of wellness that pertain to the search for purpose and meaning in life. We all need to feel like we have meaning in our lives and our time here, spiritual wellness is about



Physical- Physical wellness is typically thought of as eating well and exercising, and while that’s part of it other aspects include physical health, ability to access and afford healthy foods, health anxiety, access to safe spaces for immunocompromised individuals, as well as the impacts of chronic pain, disability and so much more.




We chose to base our mental health cooperative on the knowledge and understanding that our mental health isn’t just mental and is impacted by every aspect of our lives.


We feel like therapy and the mental health community individualizes and pathologizes too much. While these things are important aspects of western cultures, there are many more aspects that aren’t talked about enough and we’d like to talk about them. Things like how being disabled impacts your mental health, Intergenerational trauma, collective trauma, harm reduction, and the -isms that impact our day to day lives. (Racism, ableism, sexism, etc.)


We believe that we can progress as a society and break the mental health stigma by not just having conversations about mental health, but also making sure to address and name the bigger issues that affect our communities.


Another unique thing about our cooperative is that unlike many nonprofits who work from a top-down model byway of philanthropy, we are working directly in the communities we live and work in everyday as well as with the organizations that are already there. We believe that using this lateral approach rather than a top-down approach it better helps us serve the communities while also not taking away resource opportunities from our communities.


We hope you’ll join us in fighting to change the way the world sees and talks about mental health.

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