The Inner Home Wellness Framework

Wellness is more than the pursuit of happiness, which is a temporary feeling. It is the awareness that, on the average, we are living our finite lives in a way that makes sense. In the absence of a definitive meaning of life, our purpose becomes the cultivation of wellness for ourselves and society.

Maybe some people stumble upon a lasting sense of wellness naturally, but not me. I need rules to live by, a framework that justifies them, and constant reminders. I crave simplicity and visual representations. So, I built a framework onto which I could scaffold my daily, yearly, or life-long priorities. I call it the “Inner Home Wellness Framework,” arranged around an embodied metaphor of a house that includes a foundation, walls, a roof, and a fireplace. They represent, respectively, physical health, mental health, social health, and ethical health. I’ll describe below in more depth. This mindset has been helpful to me, so I am sharing in the hopes that some people might find some useful tidbit in building their own framework for wellness.

Like Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, the Inner Home Wellness Framework acknowledges that some conditions are fundamental to living a good life, such as the satisfaction of physiological and safety needs that allow for a sense of belonging, then esteem, then, ultimately, self-actualization. This is a powerful framework that has stuck with me since high school psychology class, but it doesn’t feel actionable to me. It’s at once too complex and the pyramid fails as practical mental model at capturing that some activities cut across all the strata. Plus, it feels a bit outdated to many privileged people in the developed world, like me.

The Inner Home Wellness Framework categorizes wellness as existing in four categories: physical, mental, social, and ethical. In the embodied metaphor, physical wellness is the floor – the foundation – upon which all else is built. Without a strong foundation, other goals are prone to collapsing into the dirt.  Mental wellness is the walls of the house, inextricably anchored into the foundation by the mind-body connection. Without mental wellbeing, it is difficult to maintain a healthy lifestyle or good relationships. Social wellness is the roof over the home, providing protection that allows for mental and physical health practices, but also being held up by those practices. A person who is fit in mind and body is well positioned to be a good friend, lover, family member, or co-worker. You could live in a home with only a floor, walls, and ceiling, but it would be hollow and drab. A fireplace provides intrigue and a focal point, especially when the outside world feels cold. The hearth represents ethical wellness, which provides a purpose to maintain the home; to keep it warm for yourself and others. You could, conversely, have a fire outside without a home, but it would be harder to maintain, to protect from the rain, to invite others to join at.

To make this more concrete, I’ll list some activities or goals that fit into the categories. Many will cut across categories, highlighting how integrated our “wellnesses” are. Take deep-cleaning your space. You are physically exercising your body while creating a home that is going to encourage you to relax and to host beloved guests. Going to a yoga class, or taking a hike in nature, or cooking a healthy meal at home similarly contain multitudes. I view this as a feature, not a bug, of the model. It is good to engage in activities that provide multiple types of benefits.

Physical (The Foundation)

It’s easy to forget how good it feels to feel good. Fitness makes everything else easier. A healthy body will respond better to stress, think more clearly, have more energy for friends and long-term goals. There is always time to work on fitness because some work is almost always better than none and we can always improve. The only person you can compare yourself to is yourself yesterday, regardless of any conditions you may have. Taking physical care will not only improve your moment-to-moment wellness, but extend your lifespan and ability to engage in what matters to you longer.

-       Exercise & mobility

-       Diet & supplementation

-       Cortisol (stress) management

-       Healthcare plan

-       Longevity regimen

-       Self-defense ability

Mental (The Walls)

We adorn our walls with beautiful paintings, images from past vacations, and swaths of  soothing colors. A mental health practice adorns our mind similarly. It is well-established that “mental” practices like yoga nidra can evoke conceptual breakthroughs and other improvements in the mind and body. On our clearest days we readily perceive the good and achieve states of flow. We feel like we have an abundance of time and possibility. We become kinder to everyone and build deeper relationships when we prioritize mental health.

-       Meditation

-       Reading & Television

-       Organization

-       Hobbies

-       Art & music

Social (The Roof)

Humans are social animals; our desire for affection is a powerful motivator. Our ability to succeed in any goal often requires cooperation with people we are both intimate with and strangers to. Happiness is most often shared. We are prone to platitudes like “family is everything.” These may be true, but you are not as useful to your family if you are mentally or physically infirmed.

-       Interactions with family, friends, and colleagues

-       Engagement at work

-       Seeking recognition

-       Travel

-       Sports

-       Financial planning

Ethical (The Fireplace)

The search for meaning is life’s most demanding quest. We might not find it, but the search matters. The hard work of introspection is essential to engaging in the world in a real way. Without moral rules to live by (even if crude or capricious), we become hermits in the forest, beasts on a hedonic treadmill, dust in the wind. Only through cultivating ethical wellness do we become adults, citizens, or artists.

-       Learning

-       Challenging yourself

-       Debate

-       Developing a personal philosophy

-       Volunteering

I believe that our goals become elevated as we move “up” the hierarchy from physical, to mental, to social, to ethical. A single goal goes through a process of evolution. For example, relaxation is a physical state of the body. A mental state of relaxation is called leisure. A social state of leisure is called recreation. An ethical state of recreation might be called is bliss. Without this evolution of relaxation, I imagine bliss is rare. Or, in the case of altruism: sacrifice is an ethical state that requires charity in the social state but is more valuable because it doesn’t require social acknowledgement to outweigh what you’re giving up. Both sacrifice and charity require an underlying mental state of benefaction, which only arises through our ability to labor for others in the physical state.  Our goals are like stairs in the house, perhaps.

This framework is inspired by the stoic philosophy of ancient Greece. They believed that virtue is the ultimate aim of wellness and a good life; they called it eudaimonia. However, the stoics recognized that to be ethical was difficult and therefore required emotional resilience, which came from physical and mental discipline.  The artist Dan P. Brown once put it this way: “Never forget, the sanctuary is within you.”

The Inner Home as an embodied metaphor provides a constant source of reminders–calls to wellness– for me. When I see the floor, I’m reminded to do some squats or stretch. When I see the walls, maybe I take a minute to breathe deeply or remember gratitude. When I see the ceiling, I know I should text my friend back or call my mom. When I look at the hearth or stove, I remember my purpose, my inner fire.

 By: Nate Crosser