Wellness Wheel: Occupational Wellness

Wellness Wheel: Occupational Wellness

Finding Meaning in Your Work

Dr. Peggy Swarbrick’s Eight Dimensions of Wellness paradigm addresses whole-being wellness and each week we will choose one dimension to explore. This week we focus on Occupational Wellness

Considering the amount of time we spend doing what we do - whether its working, studying, running our own business, taking care of others, or maintaining the home - it makes sense to evaluate if what we do is bringing us or anyone else joy. Are our efforts noticed, appreciated or indeed - are they even needed??

Occupational Wellness is about aligning your values with the work you do, whether paid or unpaid.

Finding personal satisfaction, enrichment, and meaning through work, maintaining a healthy work-life balance, aligning career/work choices with personal values all relate to Occupational Wellness. It is a key dimension of holistic health that encourages professional growth, positive relationships, and managing stress to achieve overall life fulfillment.

Research has linked job satisfaction to lower stress hormone levels, better sleep, and increased longevity. Burnout, on the other hand, is associated with sadness and an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.

Aligning your career goals or your daily tasks with your core values is a fundamental step toward achieving true occupational wellness. If you believe caring for your family is an important core value to you - then cooking meals, keeping the home clean, cosy and running smoothly, will be less of a chore as you’ve connected it to a higher/more meaningful value:

Caring for those you love.

However, if your core value is spending time with those you love; then the time it takes to perform daily chores takes away from the time you have to devote to your highest value. And this may leave you feeling resentful.

Using the following key points to guide you, reflect on how well these aspects are met in your current Occupational dimension.

• Purpose and Meaning:

Once you have determined your core values, you can assess how they appear in your job/daily work. This knowledge will help you engage in work that aligns with personal values, skills, and interests. (Emotional and Spiritual Wellness)

• Work-Life Balance:

Balancing career/family demands with leisure, rest, and personal time is important to help keep your own cup filled so you are not pouring from an empty cup and feeling increasingly more frustrated (Emotional and Spiritual Wellness).

• Professional Growth:

Always being on the lookout for opportunities for skill development, career advancement, self development and learning; all of which will enrich your life’s vibrancy (and affects your Financial Wellness too). Engaging in purposeful activities such as volunteering, mentoring, or community service may create a sense of fulfilment and grow your EQ (and improve your Social Wellness). Alternatively, finding free online content or registering your interest in summits that share the newest science/learning in a field that interests you, helps to keep your brain active and nimble (Intellectual Wellness).

• Positive Environment:

Fostering good relationships with family, friends, colleagues and managers allows your environments to be calmer and more satisfying (Environmental, Social, potentially Financial Wellness).

• Stress Management:

Developing strategies to handle workplace stress, stress in the home and with extended family and avoiding burnout is essential to everyday wellbeing.

While all of this sounds like a tall order… keep in mind that things cannot be changed overnight, and knowledge and awareness is the first step towards change.

Here are some tips on how to start shifting towards Occupational Wellness:

• Reflect on Goals: regularly evaluate if your current job/work/occupation aligns with your long-term goals and brings you joy.

• Communicate Effectively: practice open communication and conflict resolution with colleagues/family - which may require you to acknowledge that you need to grow your knowledge base and learn how to perform these skills.

• Set Boundaries: establish firm boundaries to protect personal time whether at work or at home. You need time to tend to your personal needs, thoughts, dreams (Spiritual Wellness), it is not a luxury but a core requirement of wellness.

• Utilise Resources: Take advantage of Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs), training, and career counselling if available at work. Outsource tasks that do not bring any meaning to your life or any meaningful appreciation. Eg cleaning the family home. Almost everyone feels better in a neat, clean, well-run home. This could mean that you can encourage full family participation to achieve such a home; or alternatively, discuss hiring a cleaning service so the burden doesn't fall on just one person predominantly.

Occupational Wellness is aligned with the Japanese concept of Ikigai.

Ikigai represents the intersection of what you love, what you are good at, what the world needs, and what you can be paid for, balancing passion with practical purpose. The concept encourages finding a unique, flexible purpose that can evolve over time, allowing for a joyful and meaningful life.

To learn more about the Wellness Wheel and its practical applications, SAMHSA produces a Step-By-Step Guide to Wellness called Creating a Healthier Life. This guide has helpful resources to help you break down the dimensions of wellness and apply them to your lifestyle. You can use this workbook to more deeply understand the dimensions, to set goals, and develop an action plan for creating lifestyle habits that will strengthen your eight Dimensions of Wellness.

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