Living Your Best Professional Life by Adopting a 5-Dimensional Approach to Your Health and Wellness

Dr. Christine Sauer MD ND is a German-trained physician and naturopath, as well as a gastrointestinal disease specialist, currently working as a Holistic Brain and Mental Health Professional, Coach, and Educator. Her own struggles with chronic pain, weight loss, and mental health issues have led her to dedicate her life to improving the gut health and brain/mental health of others and enabling them to drop unwanted pounds – all with natural means. She wrote #1 bestselling books, and lectures on the topics and coaches individuals, groups as well as families. As “The Doctor who Knows how You Feel” she is known to make a lasting impression and positive difference in the lives of her clients and followers.

We all want to live our best life. The issue seems to be that there are always roadblocks coming along, circumstances that life throws our way that derail our best intentions.

It is time to check if you are truly living your best professional life – and your best personal life – in all 5 dimensions – physical, mental, social, financial, and spiritual.

You will see how this approach to true individualized whole-person health can positively impact healthcare costs for families, employees and corporate healthcare plans.

The 5 Dimensions of Health and Life

We all are multidimensional beings. And we like to separate similar issues in a category. I have done that with whole-person health.

If all dimensions or determinants of health are in an ideal state and in balance we live in homeostasis, resulting in heightened quality of life and happiness.

Here are examples of what I mean by each dimension of health and life: (not complete)

Physical Dimension

Physical Health means the functioning of our physical body, the organ systems, the mechanical parts, biochemistry, physics, anatomy, physiology, and more.

Examples of issues that need to be looked at in the physical dimension are:

Exercise
Nutrition
Genetics
Medication
Supplements
Toxins
Lab Testing
Air Quality
Sleep
Hydration
Physical Illnesses
Hormones
Immune System Health
Blood Sugar Levels
Trauma/Injuries/Accidents
Allergies
Infections
Sexual Function

Mental Dimension

This is generally understood to encompass feelings, emotions, beliefs, values, thoughts, schemas, and mental patterns.

But have you ever thought about what it really means? Mental health is much more than just what we think is going on in our minds, or what we think about. Here are some examples of determinants of mental health.

Emotions
Discipline
Thoughts
Upbringing
Environment
Procrastination
Happiness
Body image
Self-Love
Self-Care
Self-Talk
Emotional Trauma
Emotional Abuse
Sense of Control/Power
Anger
Assertiveness
Selfishness?
Selflessness?
Being submissive
Responsibility for self
Leadership of Self
Generational History
Losses/Grief
Sense of Hope
Successes
Failures
Experienced Stress
Worries
Intimacy
Sexual Satisfaction
Sense of Fun
Sense of Humor
Addictions

Social Dimension

Humans are Social Beings. We thrive of being part of a group, of a community. Many factors go into how we function in relation to our own self and others outside of us, be it family, friends, acquaintances or strangers. Here are issues that need to be looked at when assessing this dimension

Relationships
Sexual Relationships
Toxic Relationships
Conflict
Narcissism
Loving Others
Dealing with Loss and Grief
Co-Dependency
Boundaries
Sense of Connection
Sense of Belonging
Loneliness
Partnership Quality
Abuse in Relationship
Stress from Work and Life Environment and others
Loss of a partner
Divorce
Marriage
School Success
Work-Life Integration?
Leadership of others
Information Sources
Health Habits of Friends/Family
Illness of Friends/Family
Leadership
Dealing with difficult people
Relationship with pets and animals and the environment
Satisfaction at Work
Cultural Issues
Intergenerational Trauma (e.g. holocaust)

Financial Dimension

In our modern world, we are no longer growing or making everything we need to live. We are dependent on a monetary system to buy necessary resources. A steady source of income means feeling secure, not having to be afraid of going hungry, losing a safe place to live, and being able to afford the lifestyle we desire and deserve. Here are factors that influence our functioning in this dimension and directly – or indirectly – our health

Work
Basic Security
Having enough Food
Security of Home – Avoid Homelessness
Having enough saved for retirement
Having enough saved for emergencies
Affordable healthcare available
Afford supplements
Afford prescription medications
Afford Transportation
Afford a healthy environment (air pollution, water pollution etc.)
Afford healthy food
Afford education
Work-Life Integration
Leadership issues
Budgeting
Investing
Saving Habits
Spending Habits
Giving to others/ charitable spending
Gambling
Financial Risk Taking
Lending – Debt
Insurance-Life
Insurance-Health
Insurance-Disability

Spiritual Dimension

The spiritual dimension of health is often neglected in modern medicine and often left to clergy that are most often not trained to deal with the intersection of spirituality of health. In this dimension we also many charlatans, but also many serious and effective healers in the spiritual or, as they often call themselves “energy” dimension. Spirituality, whether in the context of organized religion or not, is one of the most human issues and one that hasn’t been researched well by science, in part because the effectiveness of spiritual interventions is very hard to quantify with the currently available means of science. I wouldn’t be surprised if, in the future, we see many more studies evaluating the efficiency of health interventions targeting this dimensions.