Physical, Mental, Emotional, Spiritual – all parts of the whole of good health, of well-being. What do you think?  Is financial health so important as to be considered a part of the whole?  I have often been accused of thinking too much, becoming too analytical as I ruminate on relationships. Today, I am thinking about my relationship with money. 

Physical, Mental, Emotional, Spiritual – four parts of personal health. Positive Psychology Daily News refers to these four as energies.  Other psychologists have included a Social category to arrive at five dimensions. Some cite seven components:  Emotional, Environmental,  Spiritual, Physical, Social, Occupational, Intellectual.

However you slice the pie, I believe it is not wise to try, nor is it possible to sever one from the other. I agree with Paul’s first century letter to a Corinthian team, “Now the body is not made up of one part but of many…If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it (verse 14a and 26, I Corinthians 12).

Physical, Mental, Emotional, Spiritual, Financial – Rather than stick with my usual four, I propose five parts of whole health and well-being.

Over the years, I have enjoyed exceptional physical health; better than average mental and spiritual stability and variable but manageable emotional health. Recently, I hit my stride physically via outdoor walks and hikes and careful attention to eating and sleeping habits.  Optimum physical health has the happy effect of reawakening the mental, spiritual and emotional aspects.  But, what about the financial?

I have noticed that money makes me happy and lack thereof makes me anxious and sad.  Destitution wreaks havoc with my mental and emotional state as I strain my brain with the challenge of how to fix it.  As long as I maintain regular walks, my physical state is the least affected. Eventually, financial stress may take its toll on the physical.

Are finances an energy?  Is money one of the dimensions of my personality?  Must wealth be one of the legs on which whole health stands?

How about you?  Does your overall health and sense of well being hinge on financial health?