Quick health assessment to help you find your wellness focus

Maintaining healthy lifestyles often require us to leverage our personal strengths and interests. Depending on the source, there are between six to ten different categories of wellness. This short health assessment will help you find your focus and identify areas that may enhance your overall welfare.

Easy 5 question quiz for finding your focus

Read through each question and select the best option that fits your personal preferences then match your results to the wellness categories featured at the end of this post.

1 - How do you spend the first 10 minutes of your day?

a.   Check my social networks for the latest happenings
b.   Do some light stretching to get my blood flowing
c.   Check my work email and make a mental to-do-list
d.   Meditate or pray to center myself
e.   Determine the positive outcomes I want to achieve for the day
f.    Wake my brain up by reading the day's top headlines

2 - In a group meeting to discuss a new project you...

a.   Consider the cultural implications it may have on others
b.   Bring some healthy snacks for your peers to get their minds ready
c.   Make sure the project is meaningful and rewarding
d.   Ensure everyone knows their thoughts and opinions are valued
e.   Consider the mistakes of past projects and apply the lessons learned
f.    Encourage collaboration by kicking off with a team building exercise

3 - When planning your week, you make sure you schedule time for...

a.   Family and friends
b.   Your exercise regiment
c.   Reviewing and optimizing my personal performance
d.   Relaxing to create balance in my life
e.   Checking that I'm using my time effectively
f.    Reading or learning about a new topic

4 - How do you cope with change?

a.   I lean on my personal network for support
b.   I hit the gym to clear my mind and find a new direction
c.   I talk to my co-workers or peers to analyze the implications
d.   I reflect to find its meaning and purpose
e.   I understand that its a natural part of life and easily adapt
f.    I consider what new skills I can learn from it

5 - What do you most value in a relationship?

a.   Positive and rewarding experiences
b.   Mutual care for each other's well being
c.   Motivating one another to strive for success
d.   Shared values and living out our principles
e.   Expressing our feelings effectively
f.    Encouraging one another to think creatively

This quick health assessment covers six categories of wellness. Evaluate your results by identifying the most frequently selected answer letter. We recognize that there can be additional dimensions not represented here including environmental and financial wellness. Although it is not fully comprehensive, it is intended to provide reflection and awareness for developing additional healthy living habits.

Answers

Mostly A's - Social Wellness

Those who focus on social wellness place precedence on living in harmony rather than conflict and seek positive, interdependent relationships with others. They are willing to actively pursue different ways to preserve the beauty and balance in the world and are inspired by exploring other cultures, backgrounds and value systems. These individuals generally have good communication skills and high respect for themselves and others as they create strong support systems to rely upon. They are the optimists in our lives who are often in good moods and believe in sharing their happiness with others.

Mostly B’s – Physical Wellness

People who believe that keeping themselves in top condition is of high importance are generally focused on their physical wellness. This involves consistently balancing physical activities, such as muscular strength and endurance and flexibility, with healthy eating habits. Developing physical wellness empowers people to keep tabs on their own vital signs and understand how situations positively and negatively impact their bodies. The benefits of looking good and feeling great most often lead to psychological benefits of higher self-esteem, self-control, determination and sense of direction.

Mostly C’s – Occupational Wellness

Because our careers take up so much of our time, it is important for our overall well being to do what we love and love what we do. This category includes individuals who achieve a balance between work and leisure time and often address workplace stress in effective ways. They enjoy going to work most days and manage their workload efficiently by contributing their unique gifts and skills to work that is both meaningful and rewarding. Their values are conveyed through their involvement in activities that are gratifying and can easily communicate with individuals at all levels of their organization.

Mostly D’s – Spiritual Wellness

This category is interesting because it can be interpreted many different ways depending on personal views. Those who focus on spiritual wellness continuously seek out the meaning and purpose of human existence. According to the National Wellness Institute, these individuals believe that it is better to be tolerant of others than to close our minds to the world and to be true to themselves by living each day in alignment with their personal values. In addition they seek to find harmony between that which lies within and the social and physical forces that come from external forces.

Mostly E’s – Emotional Wellness

This dimension involves feeling positive and enthusiastic about ourselves and life in general. Development in the emotional wellness dimension includes recognizing and managing our feelings, being able to develop autonomy, maintaining satisfying relationships and the ability to cope with stress. These individuals enjoy life despite its occasional frustrations and can easily adjust to change. They are willing to arrive at personal choices based on the combination of thoughts, philosophies and behavior. Trust, commitment and respect are important elements to their interdependent relationships with others and they recognize conflict as being potentially healthy.

Mostly F’s – Intellectual Wellness

Intellectual wellness encourages continued learning, problem solving and creativity. This involves improving verbal skills, keeping abreast of social and political issues and reading books, magazines, and newspapers. They cherish mental growth and stimulation, explore new understandings, and search for lifelong learning opportunities. For students this may mean taking classes outside of their academic degree or program curriculum to help broaden their perspectives and increase their skill sets.