A Buddhist-inspired Framework for Wellness based on Interbeing

A modern interpretation of the koshas for goals, habits, and community

If you’re like me, you have dozens of habits on your ‘to-do’ list - things you want to learn, physical activity, and you rarely stick to any.

I'm starting to think about my aspirations for the new year and I always have so many ideas but I know I cant do everything. So I'm thinking about my goals/habits in terms of Facets of Being, which is a way to categorize goals so you can ensure that you’re attending to all aspects of your life, and not focusing too much on one area and neglecting others.

This framework was inspired by the 5 Facets of Being, as presented to me by Natalie MacNeil in her Coaching Evolved life coaching course. The 5 Facets of Being are derived from the koshas of Vedic scripture.

The koshas are the 5 bodies of the internal human experience, or the “self:” Physical, Energetic, Emotional, Mental and Spiritual. I find it useful, but lacking.

We are interconnected and dependent upon many more aspects of life on earth. As overwhelming as the prospect of self-improvement can be, it is not enough. And perhaps if we all focused more on improving the systems in c we live and examining ways to improve our global status quo, we wouldn’t need to have so much ‘self-care’ because the earth and our relations would be more supportive.

We depend on a healthy environment, supportive community, countless other beings such as insects that pollenate our crops. Although we can’t eat money, we are dependent upon it in this world. We also need a sense of meaning to thrive, which means that when we effect change in the world, we’re benefitting ourselves as well.

Interbeing is a term coined by Tich Naht Hanh that conveys the idea that “We inter-are with one another and with all life.”

Since we are “interbeing” with everything, I want to make sure my actions affect more than just my “self.” The categories I’m adding are Relational, Material, Communal, Ecological, and Mythic.

Goals for the “Self”

1. Physical

This is the coarsest layer of our being - our physical matter.

Wellness in this area includes getting good nutrition, healthy movement, sufficient rest, and good overall health.

2. Energetic

The energy body is the blueprint for the physical body, consisting of the meridians and chakras. This is the layer that acupuncture and many other Asian healing modalities affect.

Wellness in this area includes vitality, a regulated nervous system, capacity for action, and ability to recover.

Habits in this area would be anything that works with chi or prana, building your life force and regulating your nervous system.

3. Emotional

Our emotions and energy are linked. As Anodea Judith puts it in Charge and the Energy Body, emotions are energy with momentum. They want to be expressed. We can feel this, and the way we talk about emotions reflects this momentum, for example, you might say you’re ‘welling up’ with grief, or ‘bursting’ to tell someone something. Emotions want to be expressed, therefore, the way to keep the emotional body healthy is to make space for them by recognizing them and expressing them.

Sometimes we can’t name them, but rituals such as shaking, howling, and vocal work like toning and chanting can help us to express the un-labelled emotions.

4. Mental

The mental body is intellectual, logical, and discerning. It is the layer of analysis, meaning-making, and ethical reasoning. This is where we evaluate information, make plans, and decide how to act in the world.

Wellness in this area includes mental clarity, the ability to focus, and engagement with ideas that feel meaningful rather than overwhelming. It also involves appropriate challenge, learning new skills, and having a sense of direction that aligns with personal values.

Goals for Beyond the Self

The categories above relate to your own ‘self’ and ‘self-improvement’ but “you” are the result of so many causes and conditions around you. In the categories that follow, the focus shifts outward to the systems and relationships that support your life.

5. Material

The material layer relates to livelihood and the resources that make daily life possible. This includes money, work, housing, and access to basic needs.

Wellness in this area includes enough stability to meet necessities without constant anxiety. It means having systems in place that support rest, planning, and a sense of safety, rather than living in a continual state of financial stress.

6. Relational

The most immediate layer beyond the self is formed by close relationships, including family, whether biological or chosen, and friends. These are the people with whom we share care, responsibility, and intimacy.

Wellness in this area looks like having people you can confide in, people who can support you during difficult times, and people you are willing to show up for in return. It includes mutual trust, regular contact, and a sense of belonging that does not depend on performance or productivity.

7. Communal

Beyond close relationships lies the wider community. This includes neighbourhoods, local organizations, and the forms of governance that shape everyday life.

Wellness in this area looks like a sense of participation and agency at the local level. It includes knowing the people who live around you, having some influence over shared decisions, and contributing to collective efforts that improve the place you live.

In this tumultuous world, with a new global crisis almost every day, this is the Facet for hope. Having a sense that you can actually create change in the world is crucial to well-being, and the most effective level of change-making is at the local government level. Your vote is most effective here, and this is at a scale where you can get involved and create change.

8. Ecological

The ecological layer recognizes our dependence on the living world. Land, water, climate, plants, animals, and ecosystems are not separate from human wellbeing but foundational to it.

Wellness in this area includes living in ways that support the health of the environment, or at least reduce harm. It may involve advocacy, stewardship, or simply developing a relationship with the land and ecosystems that sustain you. It also includes living in a way that reduces harm caused to the environment.

9. Mythic

This is the bridge between worldly and spiritual. This is where you look at the big picture and your place in the world. It is where we relate to larger stories, lineages, and symbolic meaning. This can include ancestors, cultural narratives, archetypes, and, for some people, unseen beings.

Wellness in this area looks like having a sense of place within a larger story. It includes curiosity about where you come from, respect for tradition or myth, and openness to forms of meaning that are not strictly rational. For some, this may involve ritual or offerings, while for others it may be expressed through art, storytelling, or imagination.

For some, you may want to include non-physical beings such as deities, land spirits, ancestors, or muses. A few months ago, unseen beings were not on my radar at all, and wouldn’t have made this list, but then I had a fascinating conversation with a friend who told me many ghost stories he and his family had experienced, and how he started changing the relationships with the beings by doing smoke offerings and other rituals.

10. Spiritual

This is one of the five koshas, but it is different than the others. At the level of spirit, where you are interconnected with everything, duality breaks down. At this level, there’s nothing to do, you’re just being. You can’t really have goals that affect this area directly, but most of us don’t dwell in this awareness, so the goals and habits that support this area are the ones aiming to reach that awareness.

How to Use This Framework

This is not a rigid prescription for making tons of habits and overwhelming yourself. This is simply a lens through which to view your goals and habits to ensure that you’re tending to all the areas that are important to you.

As part of my New Years reflection and intention setting, I’m going through this list and making sure that I have at least one goal or habit in each area - one way to roll the snowball forward in each category. In some areas, I have much more than I’ll ever be able to make time for in one year, and other areas have been neglected for far too long.

Some activities may benefit many categories, so it’s up to you where to put them.

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In addition to the categories, there’s another distinction to be made to ensure effective goals. Because our current world and socio-economic system are so far removed from what is conducive to our well-being, many of us find ourselves in survival mode. We have so many things to do to just keep ourselves afloat that it’s difficult to think about or make progress on the long-term, impactful goals.

So I like to differentiate them in terms of tending and planting. Tending goals and habits are ones that you must do in the short term because of your current situation. Planting goals are the ones that plant seeds of change. After you’ve made your list above, review it in terms of tending and planting. Are you planting seeds of change for your future?

My Own Habits

Putting these here for accountability, and maybe to inspire you. These are vague for now, I’m still working out frequencies, metrics, etc.

Physical: hike or run in the woods, batch cooking
Energetic: prostrations, kriya yoga, energy work
Emotional: journalling, free writing, shaking
Mental: Use the Elevate app daily to improve mostly my math skills. Learn the Tibetan language.
Relational: keep in touch with friends regularly, meet new friends
Other Beings: smoke offerings, show up for the muses, listen
Material: establish Birch Business Collective, build Wild Earth Sangha, fix up camper
Communal: local activism, support Ecology Action Centre
Ecological: advocate for the forests in my area to prevent deforestation
Spiritual: ngöndro, meditation