Everyone is talking about wellness these days as a way for everyone to improve not just our physical and mental health, but also our ability to develop, thrive, succeed, enjoy life, and meet challenges head-on with confidence and resolve. With all the microaggressions, stress and challenges that surround us to achieve this type of overall wellness, Black women must be healthy in nine interrelated dimensions of wellness:
Physical Wellness
Black women who are physically well actively make healthy decisions daily. They eat a nutritionally balanced diet; they try to get an adequate amount of sleep, and they visit the doctor routinely. They make a habit of exercising three to five times per week; they can identify their personal needs and are aware of their body’s limitations. They maintain positive interpersonal relationships and make healthy sexual decisions that are consistent with them with their personal values and beliefs.
Emotional Wellness
An emotionally well black woman successfully expresses and manages her entire range of feelings, including anger, doubt, hope, joy, desire, fear, and many others. Black women who emotionally well maintain a high level of self-esteem including having a positive body image and the ability to regulate their feelings. They know where to seek support and help regarding their mental health, including but not limited to, seeking professional counselling services.
Spiritual Wellness
Black women who are described as spiritually well have identified a core set of beliefs that guide their decision-making, and other faith-based endeavours. While firm in their spiritual beliefs, they understand others may have a distinctly different set of guiding principles. They recognize the relationship between spirituality and identity in all individuals
Social Wellness
A socially well black woman ensures that she builds healthy relationships based on interdependence, trust, and respect. Those black women who socially well have a keen awareness of the feelings of others. They develop a network of friends and co-workers who share a common purpose, and who provide support and validation.
Financial Wellness
Black women who are financially well are fully aware of their current financial state. They set long- and short-term goals regarding finances that will allow them to reach their personal goals and achieve self-defined financial success
Cultural Wellness
Culturally well Black women are aware of their black own cultural background, as well as the diversity and richness present in other cultural backgrounds within the communities that they live. Having cultural wellness implies that these black women have an understanding, awareness and intrinsic respect for aspects of diversity. A culturally well black woman acknowledges and accepts the impact of these aspects of diversity on sexual orientation, religion, gender, racial and ethnic backgrounds, age groups, and disabilities
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