A delicious pie, whether sweet or savory, needs quality ingredients.
Think of your wellbeing as a pie with different ingredients, such as health, family, friends, relationships, work, finances, hobbies, to highlight a few. Each slice of the pie represents these ingredients. One slice is for health and wellbeing. Another is for work. There’s a slice for friends, family and meaningful relationships. And one for hobbies. There should be a slice for quality sleep and rest. Every slice is important and contributes to your overall wellness. Just like a delicious pie, a balanced lifestyle requires a combination of many important ingredients.
Use this wellbeing pie analogy to assess your overall health and wellbeing by creating your own wellbeing pie.
Draw a circle on a piece of paper and divide it into six to eight different-sized slices. Much like a pie, each slice represents a key aspect, or ingredient, of your wellbeing. Physical, emotional, psychological, financial, social, spiritual, and so on. The bigger the slice, the more importance you give that ingredient. You can use contrasting colours for each slice to compare proportions.
Take a moment to look at your pie.
What does it look like? What are your initial impressions of your pie? Is your pie reasonably portioned? Is one slice way too big (work and career)? Are you neglecting a key ingredient (family, for example)? Perhaps one slice is missing completely (hobbies and having fun)? Do you need to make adjustments in order to improve your overall wellbeing?
This simple exercise can help you recognise the importance of balancing various aspects of your life for a healthy and holistic lifestyle. These aspects are interconnected and influence each other. Focusing excessively on one area only often leads to many physical and emotional problems. If one area is out of balance, the others are affected too. Yes, each area needs to be addressed, but don’t aim for a "perfect" balance between all ingredients. Everyone is different, and the right balance is unique to you. Remember too, that this balance shifts and changes as you, and your priorities, change.
Creating a wellbeing pie chart is a great way to "get out of your head" and visually break down how you currently spend your time. It can help you identify patterns and behaviours that aren’t serving you well. Instead of putting your time and energy into just one thing, you can start focusing on other, equally important areas of your life.
A good wellbeing pie incorporates many quality ingredients for optimal health and happiness. Not too much of anything but enough of everything!!!
So, what does your pie tell you about your wellbeing?
Eila Mikkonen
Counsellor, Clinical Supervisor & Mental Fitness Facilitator