DISEASE MANAGEMENT: The self-care wheel
I found this online a few weeks ago and I’ve been giving a lot of thought to it. I think the whole idea makes a lot of sense. Personally, breaking down your well-being into six different areas really helps focus me on making sure I’m not ignoring one part of myself.
Here’s the wheel:
See the information at the bottom of the graphic for attribution.
The six parts are:
- Physical
- Psychological
- Professional
- Emotional
- Personal
- Spiritual
I think the best way to go about using this self-care wheel is to figure out where you’re adequately taking care of yourself and where you’re dropping the ball. Once you know what parts you’re neglecting, you can do further investigation into that area and make some decisions about actions to take to re-balance your life.
Many of us chronic illness warriors especially ignore the professional side, which can be to our detriment in a variety of ways. For instance, you may not know this, but I’m a romance writer. Unfortunately I can’t write as fast as I used to, and my royalties have gone down drastically as a result. I need to figure out how to manage my energy better so I can write more, so I’m trying to do things listed on the physical side in order to help the professional side.
What part do you think you’re doing well? Where are you lacking? Tell me in the comments!