Occupational Wellness
This September OSU Extension is offering a Connection Café series on the Dimensions of Wellness. To learn about different dimensions of wellness, register for the series at go.osu.edu/ConnecttoWellness, follow the OSU Extension Family and Consumer Sciences Facebook Page, and watch for more blogs to be published on this site this month.
Occupational wellness is more than just a person’s happiness in their career. Occupational wellness can also include the personal satisfaction and enrichment one obtains through participation in activities that are meaningful and rewarding.
What can you do to improve your occupational wellness? There are a few questions you can ask yourself to help set wellness goals related to occupational wellness.
Have you tried volunteering? Volunteering has many health benefits such as decreasing the risk of depression, providing a sense of purpose, teaching valuable skills, helping you stay mentally and physically active, and improving social wellness by helping you meet new people and develop new relationships. If you’re not currently volunteering, identify causes that you might be interested in and check in your community to see what organizations exist. For example, you might be interested in working with seniors, disaster or crisis support, children and youth, animals, poverty or hunger relief organizations, or veterans – just to name a few.
Can you find ways to travel? Taking a trip, or even planning a future trip, is good for your mental health and overall quality of life!
How well are you versed in modern technology? Technology is a wonderful resource, and it may be something that you are underutilizing. Learning more technology skills can help you improve your social wellness.
Keep in mind that as you get older, you may need to adapt the way you do every day meaningful activities. Aging can sometimes force us to adapt aspects of daily activities such as dressing, cooking, and home and yard maintenance. You may find that as you age you might need to give additional thought and planning to certain home and maintenance tasks. Ideas for this might include:
- Taking more frequent breaks.
- Finding a place to sit while you complete tasks.
- Creating a schedule for chores so you do not overload yourself.
- Scheduling activities during different times of the day to avoid fatigue.
When setting occupational wellness goals, be sure to keep them SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely. SMART goals can be especially helpful when starting something new or making adaptations to old routines!
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