Happy New Year and the 4th birthday of this blog. I know I haven't been the best with writing since the summer of 2021 and truthfully I haven't been myself in a long time. I deprived myself of activities that bring me joy to prioritize things I thought I needed to do to be successful. However, I have had many instances that always guide me back to things like this blog. So I am back with a whole new set of knowledge that I hope can guide you on your own personal development journey.
As the year comes to an end and we are entering a new one, content that discusses leveling up, re-inventing yourself, and starting a new era takes the spotlight. When people refer to “glowing up”, many times there is a huge emphasis on how a person looks, the objects they possess, and generally the aspects other people can recognize growth in easily. If not that, it’s people claiming all others need to do is manifest in order to start living the life of their dream.
These aspects reflect the desires of the individual (which is valid), but the only way to really elevate your experience in life is by understanding the areas of life, reflecting on where you are at in terms of areas that need the most work, and the areas that aren’t as high as a priority and the understanding how all aspects of life connect so you can be aligned with the life you want and the person you want to be. This approach can be recognized as holistic wellness. In short holistic wellness is a connected way of living that focuses on you as a whole and understanding how all the pillars can influence your state of well-being.
Understanding the areas of life
When speaking about holistic wellness, understanding the areas of life is the best way to fully grasp this concept. To the left is a traditional wheel of life and to the right is my revision of it that makes sense to me. Holistic wellness is a subject that is really personalized so it makes sense when you start by reflecting on the elements of life in a way that you can clearly process the information. So below will be the detailed breakdown that I revised.
Category 1: Health
I like to think of health as one giant category and then have the subcategories as physical and mental.
Physical would refer to:
- Exercise
-Nutrition
-Sleep
-Hormones
-Periods
-Sexual Health
-Hygiene
Mental would refer to:
- Cognitive health (Thoughts)
-Emotional health (emotions, stress management)
-Behavioral (Self-esteem, coping skills)
To me this grouping makes sense but both sub-categories intertwine a lot to make up Health and often these things play a role in each other. Sometimes people have such bad mental health that doing something like showering or brushing their teeth is too much for them. On the other hand, when a person isn't getting the proper nutrients they can't function properly or if have an issue with hormones it can lead to low self-esteem which can then manifest in them not taking care of themselves further, creating a bad cycle.
Category 2: Personal Development
Personal development is closer to something that wasn't on the traditional cycle which was intellectual. This category focuses more on designing our lives and the pursuits we have our knowledge and skills.
Personal Development would refer to:
- Lifestyle
-Hobbies
-Education and learning
-New ideas
-New challenges
-Skill development
-Routine and habits
Category 3: Beliefs
This is a category I have not talked about a lot on my blog. however this upcoming year this is something I would like to express more. beliefs can be things that are spiritual, but they can also be the way your mind thinks and can play into your mental health.
Beliefs would refer to:
- Political values
-Spiritual values and practices
-Religious beliefs
- Limiting beliefs
-Life purpose
-Self-worth (mindset)
Category 4: Social
This is a category that has everything to do with you and others. the others can be something as close to you as your family or the people you choose as your family and you can be as wide as people in society in general.
Social would refer to:
- Family
-Friendship
-Romantic Partners
-Boundaries
-Discrimination issues
-Community
-Culture
-Societal issues
Category 5: Recreational/ Experiences
I haven't seen many Lifestyle blogs talk about this area because there has always been a focus on productivity. However, with the switch in societal values, there has been more emphasis on the importance of rest and doing things that make you feel alive.
Recreational/Experiences would refer to:
- Vacations
-Dates (can be romantic or you can try solo dates)
-Bucket lists
-Events
-Memorable activities
Category 6: Financial
I redesigned this category to include occupational as an aspect of financial because I don’t believe occupational should be its own category. In my eyes, I don’t see occupations as anything more to fund the things I genuinely am interested in. Sometimes a person is passionate about their career and that is valid. However, for me, it is very easy for a person’s career to become their personality when there is so much emphasis on it. I feel like the only career truly for me is working for myself, but since I do not come from a well-off family that it will take having a career first to do what I am passionate about.
Financial would refer to:
-Career
-Monetized hobbies and businesses
-Savings
-Retirement
-Investments
-Financial Literacy
Category 7: Environmental
I never knew how important this aspect is but as I grew older my space and everything around me started to impact me and my other categories of life. This is something I hope to talk more about on the blog and my experience going from a person who suffered in silence in their environment to someone who tries to make their environment designed to be more intentional.
Environmental would refer to:
-Home
-Work environment
-Geographic location
-Access to clean water
-Air quality
- Community activities (beach clean-ups, planting trees, etc.)
Category 8: Technological
Technology should be an aspect of life as we are heading towards a gig economy, the metaverse is expanding, and even though as people we at times are ashamed to admit these technological inventions have a huge influence on our well-being because of the things we get exposed to at a rapid pace.
Technological would refer to:
-Content exposure
-Screen time
-Digital footprint management
-Media (Social, news, radio, etc.)
-Device impact
Which category of life do you feel is the most overlooked?
- Physical and mental health
- Personal development
- Beliefs
- Social relationships
Important reminder: It is okay to have things done at different paces and take your time with each area instead of burning yourself out trying to be everything at once
Since it is the new year season, this is something I wanted to end this blog with. Towards the end of the year, there is always this ocean of content that shows like vision boards and says things like “set your intentions” “make your goals” etc but is important to acknowledge that you have goals in different areas of your life and not every area is urgent. Sometimes you can only focus on three areas of your life and that's okay. We don't need to rush our entire lives. It only gets worse by trying to be this perfect human being so try to limit how many goals you set. Goals fluctuate a lot and you can always go back to other goals.
As mentioned in the beginning, I lost myself trying to enhance every area of my life at once. I burnt myself out to a point where I lost interest in everything and even last winter when I tried to come back it simply wasn't the right time. I want to come back to this because I remember reading how much this blog helps people and in a lot of ways, it has helped me too. I let perfectionism get in the way, I let things that were out of my control take priority but at the same time, I don't regret any of it. I want to create content that is a guide for people, that, makes them feel safe and offers a different perspective.
Life isn't easy, but that isn't a negative statement. I think of it as things are always adjusting, our minds change as we go through new experiences and it isn't something that can just be categorized so easily, but we all can put things in ways that we can easily interpret which is what I did with this list. I am a person who gets overwhelmed easily because my brain at a time can feel like there are multiple tabs open at once. Life at high speed can feel like a person that is trying to multitask because, for the longest time, it was believed that was the way to maximize your potential. The reality is we need to have an understanding of what there is to look at so we can choose what to focus on instead of spreading ourselves so thin. Know what your priorities are and become great in those areas and a lot of time the other things you desire fall in line with that.
Thank you for reading and if you have anything you want to see more of, be sure to comment with suggestions or email me. Remember to subscribe to my Youtube channel, and follow my Instagram and Twitter to connect and stay up to date. I am excited about my next blog post so make sure you come back. Until then, there’s a lot more content on my YouTube channel. I hope you have a good day, evening, or night.
Until next time,
xoxo Lay 💋