Happy October everyone! All month long we will be clarifying and honing in on some of Inner Workout's core concepts.
In this specific episode of Inner Workout, Taylor teaches on the five dimensions of wellbeing : the physical, the energetic, the mental & emotional, the wisdom and the bliss dimensions.
Get ready to learn and ponder some deep questions!
Mentioned In The Episode
Take the Take Assessment here!
Hey welcome back to Inner Warmup where your inner work begins. I'm Taylor Elyse Morrison, creator of Inner Workout and you, as always are our expert guest. Thanks for being here today. Before we get into today's content, I've got a quick announcement slash reminder, we have our Building Your Self-Care Support System workshop, that is coming up in a couple of weeks. I'm really excited. The last time I taught this was in January, and it got such great feedback. If you're not sure what it is, it is a two hour Inner Workshop. And I really say that it's for strong friends. So the people who probably like me, feel like you're there for everyone else, and maybe struggle to receive and get support. Yeah, if you relate to that, it's for you to take off your superhero cape, stop feeling like you have to do everything yourself, and map out how you can get the support that you deserve on any budget. So tickets are live, we'll link to this in the show notes. And if you are part of the Inner Circle, you get 40% off of this workshop. So I would love to see you there. I love teaching this.
And now let's get into this week's content and this month's content. So this month, I was brainstorming, what should we review on Inner Warmup. And this idea of going back to basics, I think it's still this like Virgo season back to school energy came to mind, there are so many concepts that we talk about at Inner Workout, and depending on when you joined us, they might not be super familiar to you, or you might not be familiar with them in the way that we talk about them. So we're going to review some of these core concepts. And whether you've been around Inner Workout for years, or if you're brand new to our community. My hope is that these episodes will help you find clarity and as always help you build a deeper connection to yourself. So today, we're starting really with one of the OG concepts. The first concept that I got super into was the way that I define self care. And we'll talk about more about that in the coming weeks. But the thing that unlocked my self care further was this idea of the five dimensions of well being. Inner Workout has changed so much in the three years that it has been around. But the five dimensions of wellbeing have always been a foundational part of our work, and will continue to be for as long as I'm around, running Inner Workout. So the idea of the five dimensions of wellbeing, start with this yogic concept of the koshas, I was doing this pretty intensive yoga teacher training over nine months. And fairly early on, I learned about this concept of the koshas and it just unlocked something in me, because I had been talking about self care for a while at that point. But it was still, what I would say now, was relatively one dimensional, the way I was looking at self care. And when I heard about the koshas, it showed me that there were all of these aspects of myself that perhaps I wasn't acknowledging period, and was almost definitely not caring for. So at this point, I draw a distinction between the five dimensions of well being and the koshas, even though they are inspired by the koshas, because I've added so much of my own thought, and interpretation that I honestly feel like it does a disservice to the koshas for me to pretend as if they are the same.
On the other hand, it's very important to acknowledge our inspiration and where things come from, especially with regards to me being someone who was born and raised in the West talking about an Eastern philosophy. So the koshas have given so much, and the five dimensions of well being owe so much to the kosha, so I want that connection to be clear. But if you are looking for like a traditional way and interpretation of the koshas, you're much better off going to a yoga studio that talks about all eight limbs of yoga or looking at like a local Hindu temple that could get more into the traditional view of the koshas.
So let's talk more about the five dimensions of well being. What they're really doing is looking at you, all of you, your whole being. And other schools of thought might talk about your mind, body and spirit, or they might talk about your physical health and your mental health and your spiritual health. For us at Inner Workout, everything will always come back to these five dimensions of well being. And there's actually more, there are sub dimensions. So under these five dimensions of well being, each one has two to three sub dimensions. We won't get in depth into every single sub dimension today. There's definitely more on that that can come in the future, especially with my book coming out next March. But I want you to know that these dimensions are pretty broad, and then there's even more specificity underneath each of them. And because Inner Workout works with these five dimensions of well being, the way that we approach, self care, and inner work is really expansive. When I see other companies talking about being a self care company, it's often talking just about the physical body, or just about mental health. And for us, we're looking at all of these aspects of you. I find it really freeing and really validating to consider things that I'm doing for myself, the ways that I'm listening to myself the way that I'm responding to myself to be an act of care, rather than just oh, this thing that I have to do, or I'm supposed to do, but to say, oh, me choosing to be present in this moment, that is me practicing self care. Me seeking out connection with this person is an element of community care. So I'm talking about the five dimensions and you're probably like, okay, I thought this was supposed to explain what they are.
Let's talk a little bit more about each of these dimensions of well being, starting with the physical dimension. And for a lot of us, the physical dimension is our entry point into self care. For me, it was baths, for you, it might be moving your body through a movement practice, through stretching, through taking a luxurious shower. A lot of us start to get to know ourselves through our bodies. And when we look at the physical dimension at Inner Workout, it's about being in conversation with your body. Your body is speaking to you in a myriad of ways. Right now, my body is telling me that I need to take a sip of water, your body might be telling you that you're tired, or that you need to stretch because the movement that you did today got your muscles tight, and then you've been sitting down. Our bodies are always speaking to us. And we're often speaking to our bodies as well. There's a conversation happening, whether or not we're aware of it. And so when we're engaging with the physical dimension of our bodies, we are actively choosing to be a part of the conversation that is happening in and around our bodies.
By knowing our bodies well, by treating them with respect, even when it's difficult to treat them with love. That gets into some of the body positivity and body neutrality conversation. And as well as being present in our body. By acknowledging the fact that our body is a part of us. It's not just this vessel that we use in this world.
Then there's the energetic dimension. I like to think of the energetic dimension as how we work with the energetic cycles around us. For some of you that makes perfect sense. For others that sounds a little out there. The most basic energetic cycle that all of us are a part of, is our breath. In Eastern thought, they talk about breath as lifeforce energy. And we all know that to be true. If you ever were a kid, and you tried to hold your breath for a long time, until you start getting purple or feeling dizzy, you know that we need to breathe in order to live. And how we breathe can impact the way that we experience the world. It can make us feel calmer, it can make us feel more anxious. Again, this can be happening beneath the surface without us being aware of it. So that's an energetic cycle.
And then we talk about these energy zones. So there are these different ways without getting too in the weeds about the energy zones. There are different ways that we are giving and receiving energy. It's the most basic way I can think about it as being an introvert I energize when I'm alone. I'm expending energy when I'm with other people, and I need to fill up my energy to be able to do the work that I do, which is a lot of being with people, a lot of coaching and facilitating and speaking. So if I'm not replenishing my energy across these zones, I'll get to a place where I feel depleted and burned out. So that's the energetic zone. Then there's the mental and emotional zone. For me, this is about using all facets of your mind. So it is making sure that you are feeling engaged and stimulated by what you're doing, whether that is in your day job, or you're doing some fun, interesting hobby that makes you think. But it's also looking at your emotions. Do you know the language of your emotions? How they show up for you? What's beneath the surface of your emotions? Are you able to process them and to express them? Or do you kind of just stuff them down? That's the emotional part of the mental and emotional dimension. And then this sometimes surprises people, but we put sleep in the mental and emotional dimension because we need sleep. We need it to be our best, to be able to think, to be able to navigate different and difficult emotions. So that's what falls under the mental and emotional dimension.
Then we have the wisdom dimension that is all about your inner wisdom. How you listen to that wisdom, how you access it in the present moment. You may have heard me say this before, but I'm a big believer that we are most powerful when we are most present. And then how do you act on that wisdom? Over time, as you do more and more inner work. And as you are in conversation with yourself through self care, it'll be easier to hear what your wisdom has to say. But then there's always that decision point of am I going to choose to act on it or not. And that can be tricky.
And then finally, the bliss dimension. This is such a sweet dimension. It's all about connection. Being connected to yourself to the fullest, the truest expression of who you are. Being connected to community and being connected to something bigger than you. Connection and care, they're intertwined. And the bliss dimension invites you to experience care through connection. So that's a super, super high level of the five dimensions of wellbeing, the physical, the energetic, the mental and emotional wisdom and bliss. And my question for you today, is as you heard me sharing those, what dimension of well being is telling you that it needs tending to right now? What dimension of wellbeing needs your care today? Take a couple of minutes to reflect on that.
Thanks for taking the time to reflect with me. If you are looking for a way to get to know where you're at with the five dimensions of well being, I highly recommend taking our free Take Care Assessment. And then we have that Building Your Self-Care Support System workshop coming up, where we'll actually be able to take that Take Care Assessment, and create a support system for you around where you're at today. So if that sounds interesting to you, make sure that you sign up and take the Take Care Assessment. I like to take it every three months or so, so this transition from summer to fall, at least where I am in Chicago is the perfect time to do it. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you as always for your expertise and take care.
