The Wellah Wheel
Heya Foundation fam!
Impact Coordinator Lena here! Just hanging out on this blog post to share the ‘Wellah Wheel’ with you. As many of you know, we are pretty passionate about health and love finding fun ways to engage mob to shake up their health and wellbeing.
Keen to get started already? Download your Wellah Wheel here
What is the ‘Wellah Wheel’?
The Wellah Wheel is a tool that can help us self-explore, reflect and take action in our health. We chose the word ‘Wellah’ as a play on the word ‘wellness’ and often refer to the importance of being ‘wellah’ in our mind, body and soul – see what we did there?
Understanding the ‘Wellah Wheel’ reminds us that health is more than just the absence of illness. It is also even more than just being physically active or choosing what to eat…It’s so many other things that contribute to enriching our lives. It includes (but not limited to):
- Self-care
- Friends & Family
- Fun & Recreation
- Growth & Goals
- Work and/or Study
- Connecting with mob, country and culture
- Finding your 30 (being physically active)
- Going for 2 & 5 (eating a range of nutritious foods)
Each aspect mentioned above represents a piece in our lives which is presented in the ‘Wellah Wheel’. Each ‘wellah’ piece is connected and plays a vital role in our holistic and overall health.
Why is the ‘Wellah Wheel’ useful?
Finding the balance is never easy but the ‘Wellah Wheel’ is one tool that can help us to reflect and understand where we are at and which piece of our wellness might need some more focus and love. Once we take the time to reflect and evaluate our ‘Wellah Wheel’, we can have a better idea of what action we need to take to fulfill the pieces of our wheel that might help find some more balance.
I remember doing this exercise early in 2021 as part of my involvement in the Indigenous Marathon Project.
My squad mates and I were asked to reflect and evaluate the different pieces of our ‘life circle’ by colouring in each segment based on how fulfilled we felt in that area. I remember when it got to the ‘fun and recreation’ piece of my circle. I honestly felt like I couldn’t colour it in very much. This was a crucial moment in me realising how much I had forgot to dedicate time to me and my hobbies or at least hang out with friends and family more. It was from that very moment I started to plan how I could better fulfill the fun and recreation piece of my circle. This included dedicating one time during the week that was focused on fun and recreation and one time on the weekend. I started making efforts to do hobbies I loved again, making time with friends and family and actually getting out of my house to do more than just work, sleep, run and eat. I’m also big on accountability and had told everyone here at work about trying to fulfill my fun and recreation piece of the circle. Each week my the team would literally ask me ‘what are you doing to add to your fun and recreation part of the circle?.’ This made a huge difference and I slowly felt like this piece of my circle was becoming more fulfilled.
This experience also reminded me that sometimes life happens so fast and it’s really easy not to see where we need to shift our focus to in our health.
It is also important to acknowledge that our ‘Wellah Wheel’ will never be completely perfect and have every piece fulfilled. It also will constantly continue to change. My fun and recreation part of my wheel has since varied. I’ve had moments where it’s been looking good and I’ve felt really satisfied with that part of my wheel and other times where it’s needed my focus again and therefore demonstrates why it’s important to slow down and re-visit your ‘Wellah Wheel’ from time to time. It’s also a reminder that health and wellness is continuous, forever changing and evolving with our day to day lives. It is not in any way stagnant or still.
How to use the ‘Wellah Wheel’.
Each piece on the Wellah Wheel is broken into five different levels.
Look at each piece in your Wellah Wheel and colour in the levels based on how fulfilled you feel in that area of your life. If you feel like you’re nailing that part of the wheel, you might colour four levels or all five. If you feel like a piece needs some work or attention, you might colour in only one or couple of levels. There is no specific way to evaluate these pieces of your wheel and is completely based on your own understandings of your life – you know you best!
Photo: Example of how to complete your Wellah Wheel (clearly need to focus on my fun & recreation again)
The points below are just one way to interpret the pieces of your wheel and to help you get started in reflecting and evaluating each piece. Feel free to make your own understandings and interpretations of how each piece represents you on the wheel.
- Finding your 30
We call this part of the wheel 'finding your 30' because it is recommended that adults aim for 30 minutes of physical activity every day. How fulfilled do you feel in getting physically active and moving your body? Do you think you have been moving your body enough? Have you made any effort or time to get moving? This can be any movement that feels right for where you are at in your life now.
- Going for 2 & 5
How fulfilled do you feel in feeding your body a range of nutritious foods? Have you been including fruits and veggies in your meals? How many of your meals are homecooked? Don't forget that water plays an important role in our nutrition too! Have you been drinking enough of that H2O?
- Self Care
What are you doing to look after you? This can be any kind of outlet that brings you peace. It could be some down time with a book, a bath, napping, a slow walk or writing in a journal. Or it could be something like having a break from technology and screens – whatever feels right for you.
- Friends & Family
Have you been connecting with your friends and family lately? It isn’t always possible to have access to your friends and family physically, but there are also many ways to stay connected. There’s social media, phone calls and other great platforms that can help us stay connected with friends and family.
- Fun & Recreation
Have you dedicated any time to doing your favourite hobbies and the things you love? Are you getting out of the house outside work and school hours to do something different from your daily routine and chores?
- Growth & Goals
How much time have you dedicated to working towards your goals? Whether it be personal, fitness or work related? Are you making a conscious effort to grow and develop in spaces?
- Work & Study
Do you have a good work/study balance? How satisfied are you feeling at work and/or as a student studying?
- Connecting with Mob, Country & Culture
Whilst we can’t always be on the traditional country of our ancestors, finding ways to connect with country, mob and culture is important. Are you spending enough time outside in nature? Have you heard from your mob? Have you been spending enough time in Community spaces?
Coloured your wheel? Now what?
Once you’ve finished colouring in all the pieces on your wheel, take a moment to look at it and reflect. Is there anything on your wellah wheel that surprises you? What piece of your wheel needs some more love and attention?
Once you’ve reflected on your wheel, it’s time to start thinking about what actions you’d like to take so you can colour in more levels and feel more fulfilled in that area. Maybe it’s learning not to buy a chocolate every time you go to the supermarket (that’s definitely mine at the moment) or making time to get outside. It can be anything that you feel will enrich your ‘Wellah Wheel’.
Don’t forget our ‘Wellah Wheels’ are a continuous process and is always changing. So taking time to check in with your wheel from time to time can help you understand and be self-aware in your health.
So what are you waiting for? Download a copy and get started on your Wellah Wheel here
Be sure to share it with us by tagging us at @clothingthegaps_foundation
We can't wait to see it!!
Thanks for hanging out with us and yarning about the Wellah Wheel.
We’ll see you soon 😊