Spring Into Self-Care: A Washington DC Therapist Shares How To Find Balance Using The Wellness Wheel
Written by: Michele Chichizola, LPC
Creating an authentic, meaningful, and balanced life may be a never-ending endeavor.
All of us have a handful of ideas of what we are missing in order to consider ourselves to be whole. For example, “I should go to grad school”, “I should be married by thirty”, “I should exercise every day”, and “ I should own property by now.” It is so common to be actively meeting all of our “shoulds,” but still feeling like something is missing. This is because so many of us were raised to choose a handful of needs to focus on that are often misaligned with our authentic selves, and don’t actually lead to feeling fulfilled.
The philosophy of the Wellness Wheel is the idea that, as humans, we all have needs that must be met in several aspects of our lives in order to feel whole. When we only cater to parts of our lives, we neglect other important pieces to feed our whole selves and develop our personal identities. Wellness Wheels give us a good idea of different aspects of our lives to cater to regularly in order to continue our journey toward self-actualization while feeling balanced and complete.
Self-Care Is The Secret Sauce:
If you want to get in touch with your authentic life, you’re going to need to start honoring yourself. Most things can be self-care if you actively choose to do them for yourself. Don’t be afraid to give to yourself abundantly! Adopting this mindset shift will make a major difference in your perception of each choice that you make. Remember you are the main character of the life that you are actively creating every day, and you deserve to fully experience every aspect of it.
So many people ask me: “What about my ego?” to which I say: “What about your ego?” Your ego is a part of you that actively works to protect you. Your ego is directly related to personal identity, self-importance, self-esteem, self-respect, and self-worth. Sure, at times it needs to be checked, and that’s perfectly fine! You deserve to feel important because you are here because you matter. There is nothing arrogant about caring for yourself. In fact, self-care is the ultimate act of love.
Below are other spokes on the wellness wheel of life that are important to cater to regularly.
Being intentional about choosing to honor yourself by meeting these needs can help you get in touch with your authentic self in a balanced, and fulfilling way.
Activity Suggestion: Free Smithsonian Events
Intellectual Wellness creates opportunities to stimulate our minds by expanding knowledge and creativity. We can develop intellectual wellness by being open-minded, being willing to learn, actively listening to others, trying new activities, visiting new places, and immersing ourselves in other cultures.
Activity Suggestion: Spring Cleaning
Environmental Wellness is being able to recognize and cater to your interactions with the environment. It is important to note that “environment” is not just nature, it also includes your personal space, your surroundings (physically and socially), and your communities. In order to cultivate environmental wellness we can be intentional about creating welcoming social spaces, creating homes that promote health, wellness, and safety, and of course, being conscientious about how we interact with the planet.
Activity Suggestion: Language and Culture Exchange Event
Social Wellness is about maintaining healthy supportive relationships. Social wellness allows us to be vulnerable in order to build trusting relationships, engage in healthy conflict resolution, develop our communication skills, set boundaries, respect others’ boundaries, and diversify our social groups.
Activity Suggestion: Walking Through Your Local Park
Physical Wellness is engaging in healthy habits that nourish our bodies and avoiding activities that can be harmful to our health. We can do this by exercising, eating healthy, getting enough sleep, spending time in nature, regularly seeing medical providers, and being intentional about moderating substance use.
Activity Suggestion: Volunteer Locally
Spiritual Wellness is being in touch with personal beliefs and values that add meaning or purpose to your life. We can access spiritual wellness by getting in touch with something that is bigger than ourselves, caring for others, giving back to the community, practicing mindfulness, or engaging in personal reflection.
Activity Suggestion: Revisit Work Boundaries
Occupational Wellness is actively developing in work and academics in a way that feels fulfilling and creates opportunities to highlight your strengths without compromising leisure time. In order to achieve occupational fulfillment it is essential to find paid or unpaid opportunities that interest you, allow for individual growth and skill building, and leave you feeling that you are making progress toward your goals.
Activity Suggestion: Reflect & Build Coping Skills
Emotional Wellness is being in touch with all emotions and allowing ourselves to fully experience and communicate them to others. In order to be emotionally well we need to develop skills that help us cope with everyday life. Actively reflecting on yourself, and developing confidence that we can overcome life’s difficulties is essential in the journey to finding peace.
Activity Suggestion: Find a Wasington, DC Therapist At The Sterling Group!
If you want to take a Wellness Self-Assessment, feel free to visit this link! Our team would be happy to offer support from our Washington, DC-based practice. We can work together to learn new self-care skills and cultivate a feeling of fulfillment. To get started with therapy at The Sterling Group please follow these steps:
Schedule a consultation using our contact form.
Check out our team of caring therapists to see who would work best with you.
Start learning new self-care techniques!
Other Services at The Sterling Group
Our team knows that you may experience more than one mental health concern at a time. This is why we offer a variety of services including life transitions, navigating relationships, coping with depression symptoms, and handle anxiety. We also specialize in ADHD and executive function support, trauma therapy, and therapy for self-discovery. For those in relationships, we offer guided couples therapy to improve your bond. Start your therapy journey today!
