Your Wellness Matters...A Whole New Lens for Women

There are many models out there around wellness for women. There is the National Wellness Institute’s Six Dimensions of Wellness. This model includes the dimensions of: physical, intellectual, occupational, spiritual, social, emotional. And defines wellness as “functioning optimally in your current environment”. There is the eight dimensions of wellness from Binghamton University that includes: emotional, environmental, financial, intellectual, occupational, physical, social and spiritual. And they define wellness as “Wellness is an active process of becoming aware of and making a choice that influences quality-of-life outcomes”. There is the SPICE model that includes: spiritual, physical, intellectual, cultural and emotional on some interpretations of it; and on others: social, physical, intellectual, creative, emotional and spiritual (SPICES). Acronyms are easy to remember.

All of these models are meant to self-assess or be used by a professional coach or mentor or therapist to assess the level of functioning in any of the areas and guide the work needed to find greater balance in life.

What I found is that many of the models were lacking the expansion of important, but missing or under amplified areas of a woman’s life that make the most impact in her overall sense of wellness. As I worked with women over the past two decades, I decided that I needed a model of my own to provide a really balanced and accurate assessment of areas of a woman’s life that need attention. No disrespect to the models already in use for many decades. They provide a solid framework and gave me pause on what I would include and what I needed to add. Thus, birthed the Ignite Your Life Wellness Model for Women©.

Over the next few weeks and blogs, I will be sharing with you this model that you can download for yourself. I will be creating a podcast classroom on my Ignite Your Life Classroom Podcast for each of the 11 elements. There you can dive in deep and get real tools and resources to live a more ignited life. What are the 11 elements? Many are the same as what I have shared with the foundational dimensions above, but notice some of the different elements in the Ignite Your Life Wellness Model for Women (IYLW model)©.

The elements are:

  • Emotional

  • Social

  • Health

  • Sexuality

  • Physical

  • Spirituality

  • Creative Expression

  • Work/Career/Purpose

  • Body Image

  • Intelligence

  • Financial

Each of these 11 elements can be in and out of balance at any point in life. They fluctuate across our lifespan and change and evolve or devolve based on life’s experiences. Who I was as a woman in these elements at 20 is very different then who I was as a woman at 30, with a child, relationship, graduate school, and balancing a full time job. And, who I was in these elements and the expression of that element at 40 as a mom of 2 kids, 3 step-children, a wife, building a private practice and managing life balance with all of those competing experiences brought some aspects into greater emphasis and alignment, and others moved out of balance. And, who I am now, as a 50 something woman, with an empty nest, divorced, incredible career, managing aging parents at the same time as adult children, and new relationship energy, is also profoundly different and challenging for me. I am sure for you as well.

The model is meant to be a personal assessment, a guide, a pathway forward. You will most likely never achieve complete and absolute balance in perfect alignment in all areas at once. That actually is not the point. The point of this model is to provide a resource to check yourself in all of these areas. It can be an assessment tool that you can lean into weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly. And, you can use the resources provided, the activities on the podcast classroom, to guide you into greater balance. Celebrate the strengths of certain areas, and work to increase small change in the areas most out of alignment. I provide you the tools to assess and to grow and evolve.

What is different about my IYLW model©?

I pull out two areas often missed. Sexual Wellness and Health. Often these two areas are tucked under the dimension of Physical wellness. For women, we need 3 of these separate dimensions to stand alone. We can be physically doing the right things, exercise, eating, sleeping, water intake, but our health regarding our habits, routines, level of stress or a medical condition might be lacking. Our sexual wellness in general in society is missing from ALL of the wellness models I researched. Yet, it is one of the main reasons couples come in to work with me. Sex is so important to our overall health and includes pleasure as well as understanding ourselves, our partnerships and providing an outlet for play and access to our inner pharmacy. It needs a significant place on the wellness model.

I also add Body Image. How we see our bodies, our relationship with our bodies, our healing of trauma in our bodies impacts every single other area of the model. By pulling it out to stand alone, we add the necessary emphasis of how important this element is in our lives as women.

The financial element is in many models, but lacking in others. How we feel about money, growing our literacy around money and creating a financially secure relationship with money is of paramount importance to women in their sovereignty and their sense of self.

And, lastly, work/career/purpose is named more appropriately for women. Many women choose to stay home and their purpose is to maintain a home. If they have kids, it is to raise their kids. And, for many women it is to find purpose through service, volunteering and philanthropic endeavors. This naming is done for inclusion into all the ways we express our purpose in life.

My hope is this…

That you find value in the IYLW model©. That you SEE yourself in the model, the elements matter to you, mean something to you as a woman. And, that you use the resources and activities I provide for you to grow, evolve, assess, get help and support when needed, and find ways to build on areas of strength (elements you are currently scoring high in) and make incremental commitments to areas of less balance.

AUTHENTICALLY YOURS,

CHRISTIE BEMIS

Christie is a psychotherapist in private practice in Madison, Wisconsin.  She is a mama, a wife, a writer, and an artist.  Visit www.hotpinkyou.com for more information.  Email at hotpinkyou@gmail.com. For more information on coaching with Christie opportunities, CLICK HERE

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She is also a writer, co-authoring Ignite Your Life and a speaker. You can find her Wisdom Cards on sale now. Co-Founder and CEO of Hot Pink YOUniversity


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Christie Gause-Bemis