Cheryl Martin (Host): What impact does our wellness have on our mental health? Here to answer that question and introduce eight dimensions of wellness is Isis Pettway. She's a Senior Clinical Therapist here at UAMS. Isis specializes in treating anxiety, depression, trauma, grief, and more so her clients are able to manage their daily lives with healthy outcomes.

 This is UAMS Health Talk, a podcast from the University of Arkansas for medical sciences. I'm Cheryl Martin. Isis, so glad to have you on.

Isis Pettway: Hi, Cheryl. Thank you for having me.

Host: First off, how do you define wellness?

Isis Pettway: For me, I define wellness as: What is my healthy outcome at this time? What does it look like to be in balance? That's a huge part of the way that I define wellness. Is there anything that is taking away from me being okay? Am I getting enough sleep? Did I drink my water?" And so, I look at it as, "Am I feeling balanced and am I in healthy outcomes right now?"

Host: Great. Now, share with us the eight dimensions of wellness.

Isis Pettway: Currently, in our society, you know, we definitely have a lot of talk around mental health, wellness, and different things of that nature. But it is presented at times as if it's in silos. And my mentor actually introduced me to this particular model, and I'm very glad that he did. So, I have to give him credit.

But when looking at the eight dimensions of wellness, I'm going to give you guys the World Health Organization definition. So according to the World Health Organization, they define wellness as a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. So, that is the definition from the World Health Organization.

And so when looking at the eight dimensions of wellness, what it says is we are interdependent. We have eight areas in our lives that are interdependent, and it reminds us that all of these impact one another. And so, the eight dimensions are our intellectual, career, physical, social; existential, another word for spiritual; emotional, environmental, and financial.

And so, what this does is it says, "Okay, when there's an area that may not be doing well, then it impacts my other areas and nothing is by itself," if that makes sense. So, that's what the eight dimensions of wellness is here to teach us, is everything is connected, and what you are experiencing isn't just happening on its own.

Host: So, how important then is it to understand that each aspect of wellness impacts another, as you mentioned, and nothing is isolated?

Isis Pettway: It's very important. And so when I begin to-- first, thanks to my mentor, when I was introduced to this model, it clicked, it made sense. And so if you go and look up the eight dimensions, you're going to get what's called the will of wellness. And it's going to have those eight interdependent dimensions. And what it does is it reminds us first that, "Hey, adult life is complicated or complex at times. And we've got these multiple things that are happening."

So case in point, I'll start with the financial. And so, let's say that if someone is having issues meeting their rent for the month, or they don't know how they're going to pay this bill or this bill, or they're in danger of something being cut off, then when you can't meet a financial need, then it's going to put you sometimes in an emotional state, whether you are feeling frustrated, whether you are feeling sad, discouraged, and then that can lead into some escalations in your anxiety, put you in a depressive mode because you're trying to figure out how am I going to meet part of this need. How is this going to work? And so, that's one example.

Another one is, let's say that you move to a new city, you know, so that's environmental. You might be motivated to make friends, which is your social, or feel lonely, which is the social and emotional. And so, that could go into beginning to kind of feel isolated, which again can lead into feeling depressed. And so, by giving those examples, you see how that kind of connects to one another. And so by using-- I love the wellness wheel because in the center, it has like your well-being, but I love looking at the eight dimensions because what it does is it gets us to start thinking outside of silos and say, "Okay, what is going on in this area of my life that is impacting these other areas?"

And so, it's very, very important to remember that we've got eight interdependent dimensions that are working together. And it's kind of like the domino effect. If one area is impacted, then all of those other areas can be impacted as well. And so again, your mental health is not an isolated event. Something is happening, and it is causing other things to domino as well.

Host: So when a person is aware of these dimensions and these mechanisms, one can trigger the other. What are your suggestions for them for coping? For example, the finances, because there are people, let's say, who have just discovered that they're losing their job and they didn't see this happening. And it's giving them anxiety. They are full of worry and they are worried about paying bills. So, how should they handle this so they experience wellness in the midst of a crIsis?

Isis Pettway: So, the first thing is, one, we are going to sit with-- so this is where your emotional comes in-- we're going to sit with that emotion. We're going to first sit with what you are feeling at that time, whether it is frustration, whether it is worry. We're going to sit and we're going to acknowledge and accept that this is happening.

And so, once doing that, I always caution to be careful of what we call toxic positivity, where instead of dealing with something, you kind of avoid it and you start using certain sayings, you know, to say, "Well, somebody has it worse than me." True. However, it doesn't negate what you're going through. And so, the first thing we're going to do is we're going to sit in that emotional wellness robe, because we're going to sit and we're going to recognize that it's okay to sit with these feelings. It's okay to own them.

The second part of that is looking at what does your social look like? And what I mean by that is what forms of support do you have? Do you have friends, colleagues that you can lean into who may have resources or who may know how to receive help? And then for some people, they lean into their faith source. They go into their faith. So, that is prayer. That is whatever that looks like for them. They tend to lean into their spiritual well-being to cope as well. So when there is financial stress, because that is one of the number one stressors, there are times when we want to look into our resources.

So, our environments, we want to look into our social supports, who are the people that I can lean into? Who are the people that I can ask for help? What are some of the organizations around my area that might be helpful? Are there any organizations within my state? And then, also for some, they start to lean into their creativity or what are some of my skill sets that I can begin to utilize to make some extra money or pivot me into another career or something that I've wanted to do.

Host: That's great. Now, is there anything else you'd like to add about wellness and how it impacts our mental health?

Isis Pettway: So, the one thing that I will add is, again, remembering that nothing happens on its own. There's a root to most of what we deal with. And that you don't have to try to take on or solve or have an answer right away. And to remember that it's okay to take things one day at a time. Just remembering that we are interdependent beings. And again, that this will of wellness is there to help kind of put some puzzle pieces in place. So for instance, when you look at your intellectual, I'm going to define them. So when looking at your intellectual dimension, this is you recognize creative abilities in finding ways to expand knowledge and skills. So leaning into that, your intellectual, your creative outlet. It's important to have that.

Sometimes a part of alleviating stress is leaning into what are some things that you like to do? When is the last time you threw a Frisbee or got a coloring book or maybe watched your favorite show or cartoon from childhood or even now? And so, leaning into that creative space, that intellectual space, what are those things that give you new insight, new information.

Your social wellness, this is where you are pursuing and developing a sense of connection, belonging, and building community. What does your community look like? Career. Are you creating personal satisfaction and enrichment from one's work? That's the career dimension.

Our physical being is a huge part also of maintaining our mental health and wellness too. And so, in your ability, because I want to be inclusive of that, but in whatever ways you can possibly move your body, even if it's just moving your arms or moving your shoulders, what are some ways to get movement in? And so, that physical dimension says, you know, you want to recognize the need for physical activity, health, food, and sleep. Are you able to go to bed? Our existential, again, our spiritual, this is that dimension of expanding a sense of purpose and meaning in life. The emotional part of our well-being, this is coping effectively with life and creating satisfying relationships.

Our environmental, a lot of times we don't think about our environments playing a big part in our mental health and wellness, but it does. Because if you are living in an environment where you constantly have to be on guard, on watch, on edge for your safety, that absolutely plays a part in your mental health and your overall well-being. Because if it's stressful, your nervous system is consistently escalated. When does your body have time to really decompress and feel in balance if you're in an environment where there's not good water, good air quality. These play a part in your mental health and wellness. So, the environmental dimension says, you know, are you occupying pleasant stimulating environments that support your well-being? Does your neighborhood even have a sidewalk for you to be able to get out and get physical activity? Or is it someplace that unfortunately may not be safe for you? So, environment is something we tend not to think about, but that plays a part in our health and well-being. We talked about finances earlier, but that dimension says, feeling satisfied with current and future financial situations. And so, it's important to remember all of these eight dimensions and to, you know, stop and take a look and say, "Okay, what area is not going well for me right now? And what is the domino impact?" And then, "What other area could be supportive right now? Do I need to lean into some of my creativities to help cope with this right now?

Host: Now, before we wrap up, Isis, please reflect on what's giving you energy and if there's anything that's draining your energy.

Isis Pettway: Absolutely. First, thank you for that. All right. What is giving me energy right now? It is actually leaning into expanding and learning new skills in my current career. And so, I just finished a fellowship and I am excited about putting these new skill sets, learning new things about myself into action. And so, continuing to lean into that intellectual dimension because I'm a nerd. I'm a lifelong learner. I've got new books, which I'm actually going to read. And just really leaning into these new skill sets are very exciting. So, that is what is energizing me right now.

What is draining me is not being as physically active as I was at the beginning of the year. And so, I am trying to get back into my walking into making sure that I'm getting enough sleep. Because if my physical well-being is not okay, then it does domino into those other areas of my life.

Host: So, you are actually modeling and being aware of those eight dimensions of wellness in your own life.

Isis Pettway: Absolutely. Because if I don't feel good, then I'm not going to want to be social, I'm not going to want to go out with my friends and, you know, it's going to impact those other areas. So, yeah.

Host: Isis Pettway, thank you for educating us on the eight dimensions of wellness and their impact on our mental health. Extremely informative. Thank you.

Isis Pettway: Absolutely. Thank you guys for having me. And I would love to come back.

Host: Thank you. We love to have you to make an appointment at the UAMS Psychiatric Research Institute. Please call 501-526-8100. If you found this podcast helpful, please tell others about it and share it on your social media. You may find other topics of interest to you when you check out our entire podcast library. This is UAMS Health Talk, a podcast from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. Thanks for listening.