The Nine Dimensions of Wellness
A few years ago, my life looked fine on paper. I was running a lab at Duke, writing papers and grants. Learning and problem-solving came naturally. My finances were stable. I was also pushing through inflammatory bowel disease, moving too little, eating badly, and sleeping worse.
The physical problem did not stay physical. My energy dropped. Emotional steadiness got harder to hold, the creative work faded, and even my job lost its spark.
That is why Well-IQ scores nine dimensions separately. A single wellness score would have averaged my strong numbers against my weak ones and called me fine. Nine scores side by side show which one is pulling the others down.
The nine
Each dimension has its own episode of Wellness, Rewired, the podcast, and its own essay.
Emotional
Noticing and managing feelings, stress included, and recovering from setbacks.
Intellectual
Curiosity, learning, and the capacity for long stretches of focused thought.
Existential
Purpose, meaning, and connection to something larger than yourself, through faith, nature, or service.
Occupational & Purpose
Whether your work, paid or unpaid, fits your values and uses what you're good at.
Environmental
The feedback loop between you and your surroundings: light, noise, space, and access to nature.
Where the nine came from
Bill Hettler, a physician and co-founder of the National Wellness Institute, developed a six-dimension wellness model in 1976: physical, emotional, intellectual, social, spiritual, and occupational. Margaret Swarbrick, an occupational therapist in New Jersey, built a separate eight-dimension model through the 2000s that included financial and environmental wellness. SAMHSA, the federal agency for mental health and substance use, adopted her eight around 2010.
I kept six of those eight as they were and changed two. Spiritual became Existential: meaning, values, mortality, and awe, with room for faith but no requirement of it. Occupational became Occupational & Purpose, because caregiving, creative work, and volunteering are roles too. The ninth, Creative, is my addition. Earlier models folded creativity into Intellectual wellness. I think making things is a need of its own, and it kept turning up in the research I read, in my own life, and in conversation after conversation.
The longer account is in the essay that opened the series, A Map, a Compass, and a Creative Spark, and in its episode.
Reading them together
The nine dimensions are not ranked against one another, and most people score unevenly. A retirement can lower Occupational & Purpose while Financial stays strong. Moving to a new town can reduce Social and Environmental at the same time.
When I review a set of scores, I look first for the lowest one, then for the scores that fell with it. In my case it was Physical. Financial strain can lower other scores too. It often disrupts sleep, which the assessment scores under Physical.
The Well-IQ assessment is free and takes about 15 minutes. It scores all nine and shows them side by side.
For organizations. I offer team workshops built on the Well-IQ assessment. Practitioners and other groups interested in using the framework can also reach me at jtaekman@knowvigate.com.
Educational content, not medical advice.