The 8 Realms of Wellness: Why Your Health Bar Feels Drained 💔

Greetings, legend.

As you stand at the threshold of your next great challenge, it is time to venture into the sacred realms that shape the very essence of your being.

These are the Eight Realms of Wellness — each a realm in its own right, vital to the strength and fortitude required for the journey ahead. Understanding and nurturing these domains will fortify your spirit, sharpen your mind, and empower you to step boldly into the chapters yet unwritten.

In the world of legends, wellness is not merely a singular path — it is a collection of interconnected quests. And like any legend, you will find seasons when one realm must be prioritized over others: a time to wield the sword of action, and a time to seek the peace of stillness.

But when we ignore certain realms for too long, we create what most people call wellness blind spots.

In our world, we call them what they are:

Untrained realms that quietly drain your health bar.

🧬 Health vs. Wellness

Before a legend can claim back their kingdoms or uncover treasures, they must first master the foundation of all power: their own life force — the intertwined vitality of body, heart, mind, spirit, environment, community, purpose, and resources.

Here is the truth that changes everything:

1. Health is the state of your being in this moment — your health bar 'screenshot'.

2. Wellness is the ongoing discipline — the choices and practices that make your bar go up or down.

   
   

In short:

Health = your current condition (noun)

Wellness = your ongoing practice (verb)

When your health bar is full, you may experience:

1. Boundless energy and stamina

2. Freedom from chronic pain

3. Strength, mobility, and steadier mood

4. Deep, refreshing sleep

5. Quicker recovery after setbacks

   
   

When your health bar is low, you may feel:

1. Constant fatigue and exhaustion

2. Aches, heaviness, or frequent illness

3. Disconnection from yourself or your people

4. Sleep struggles and unrest

5. Slow recovery and vulnerability

   
   

But wellness is your power to change it.

🌌 The 8 Realms Are Overlapping Planes

The Eight Realms of Wellness are like layered worlds happening in the same moment — all present at once, even if you only focus on one at a time:

🛡️ Realm of Strength (Physical)

💖 Realm of the Heart (Emotional)

🧠 Realm of the Mind (Intellectual)

🤝 Realm of Fellowship (Social)

✨ Realm of the Spirit (Spiritual)

🌿 Realm of Sanctuary (Environmental)

⚒️ Realm of Vocation (Occupational)

💰 Realm of Treasure (Financial)

Imagine your mighty health bar once more:

Each realm contributes their portion of vitality to that one whole bar.

If certain realms go untended — or are being asked to carry more than they can — your overall health bar can quietly drain.

Not because you’re weak, but because you’re human.

Balance isn’t standing still.

Balance is continual, mindful course-correction as you journey forward.

🧭 What Are Wellness Blind Spots?

A wellness blind spot is what happens when you train one realm so hard that you stop noticing the others. You might look “fine” on the outside… while your health bar quietly empties underneath.

Examples of blind spots in the wild:

1. A Shieldbearer pushing strength while ignoring breathwork.

2. A Dragon Rider chasing endurance while skipping recovery.

3. A Healer caring for others wounds while neglecting their own.

4. A Rogue prioritizing work while life stays on pause.

   
   

Blind spots aren’t moral failures.

They’re simply realms that haven’t been tended.

⭐ Archetypes & Crafts: How To Train Your Realms

In the Order of Legends, you are not “bad at wellness.”

You are learning.

That’s why we use two lenses:

Archetypes (Who You Are When You Walk Through the Realms)

Archetypes are identity lenses — optional, expansive, and never assigned.

🌪 Shieldbearer (Valkyrie) • 🌿 Healer • 🦇 Shifter • 🗡️ Assassin

🔥 Phoenix • 🐉 Dragon Rider • 🦅 Rogue • 🌙 Fae • ✨ Fates

🧜🏻 Seafarers • 🧹 Witch • 🩸 Undead • 🏹 Hunter • 🔮 Oracle • 🪽 Deities

Crafts (How You Train — the Skills You Practice)

The Crafts are how you build wellness like a skillset:

1. Hearthcraft (Nourishment)

2. Bendcraft (Recovery & Mobility)

3. Warcraft (Combat / Defense)

4. Willcraft (Endurance)

5. Bodycraft (Strength)

6. Bondcraft (Connection)

7. Armscraft (Weaponry — training tools only)

8. Voicecraft (Expression)

9. Wisecraft (Intellect)

10. Musecraft (Creativity)

11. Mindcraft (Mindfulness)

12. Guidecraft (Mentorship)

    
    

Blind spots often show up as missing Crafts — not missing discipline.

🛡️ The 8 Realms: “Thriving” vs “Barely Surviving”

As you read each realm, notice what feels familiar — from today, from past seasons, or from patterns you don’t want to repeat.

Thriving isn’t perfect or permanent; it’s what a realm looks like when it’s supported.Barely surviving isn’t failure; it’s what shows up when a realm has been under-resourced for too long.

You may recognize yourself in both at different times.Let that awareness guide you — not judge you.

This isn’t about fixing everything at once.

It’s about noticing where your health bar fills, drains, or holds steady over time.

🛡️ Realm of Strength (Physical Wellness)

• Thriving feels like: your body feels like an ally. You have some energy most days. Recovery happens. Your routines fit your real life.

• Barely surviving feels like: you’re running on fumes. Sleep doesn’t feel restorative. Movement feels like punishment or disappears entirely. You’re pushing through because stopping feels unsafe.

• Crafts that support this realm: Bodycraft • Bendcraft • Hearthcraft • Willcraft

💖 Realm of the Heart (Emotional Wellness)

• Thriving feels like: you can feel things without drowning in them. You can name what you need. You recover after hard moments — maybe not instantly, but you come back to yourself.

• Barely surviving feels like: numb, snappy, or constantly on the edge. Tiny things feel huge. You’re holding it together in public and falling apart in private — or not feeling anything at all.

• Crafts that support this realm: Mindcraft • Bondcraft • Voicecraft • Musecraft

🧠 Realm of the Mind (Intellectual Wellness)

• Thriving feels like: curiosity is alive again. Your brain feels clear enough to read, learn, plan, or create. You’re growing in ways that feel nourishing, not forced.

• Barely surviving feels like: brain fog, doom-scrolling, forgetting things, or feeling mentally “fried.” You can’t focus — or you can only focus on stress.

• Crafts that support this realm: Wisecraft • Musecraft • Guidecraft

🤝 Realm of Fellowship (Social Wellness)

• Thriving feels like: you have at least one place where you’re seen. You can ask for support. You laugh sometimes. You don’t feel like you have to earn your belonging.

• Barely surviving feels like: isolation, “I’ll deal with it myself,” or being surrounded by people and still feeling alone. You don’t reach out because you don’t want to be a burden.

• Crafts that support this realm: Bondcraft • Voicecraft • Guidecraft

✨ Realm of the Spirit (Spiritual Wellness)

• Thriving feels like: you feel connected to meaning — to your values, your purpose, your faith, your awe, your rituals, your “why.” Something inside you feels steady.

• Barely surviving feels like: everything feels hollow. You’re doing the motions but it doesn’t feel like you. You keep asking, “What’s the point?”

• Crafts that support this realm: Mindcraft • Musecraft • Guidecraft

🌿 Realm of Sanctuary (Environmental Wellness)

• Thriving feels like: your space supports you. It doesn’t have to be perfect — just livable. You can breathe in your home. Your environment feels like a place you can recover.

• Barely surviving feels like: constant friction — clutter, chaos, noise, mess, overwhelm. Your space drains you, and fixing it feels like one more impossible task.

• Crafts that support this realm: Hearthcraft • Bendcraft

⚒️ Realm of Vocation (Occupational Wellness)

• Thriving feels like: you feel useful without feeling used. Your work aligns with who you are (even imperfectly). You can rest without guilt, and you’re building something that feels real.

• Barely surviving feels like: dread. Sunday scaries. Feeling trapped, resentful, or invisible. You’re in survival mode at work — or work has become your entire identity because everything else is too hard.

• Crafts that support this realm: Voicecraft • Wisecraft • Guidecraft

💰 Realm of Treasure (Financial Wellness)

• Thriving feels like: you have a plan — even a small one. You know what’s coming and you’re not terrified of it. Money feels like a tool you can learn, not a monster you avoid.

• Barely surviving feels like: avoidance, shame spirals, panic-checking accounts, or feeling like one emergency would break you. You feel stuck in “I can’t even look at it.”

• Crafts that support this realm: Wisecraft • Guidecraft • Hearthcraft

🔮 Wheel of Realms: The Crystal Ball of Self-Mastery

As the main character of your own saga, it is vital to assess the strength of your realms and identify where your magic shines brightest — and where the shadows may still linger.

The Wheel of Realms is your enchanted crystal ball — not a test you pass, and not a demand for perfect balance.

Here’s the truth:

The goal isn’t a perfectly round wheel. That’s not realistic — especially not in busy seasons, healing seasons, grief seasons, growth seasons, or survival seasons.

The purpose of the Wheel is simply this:

1. To take a snapshot of your health bar across the realms

2. To notice any outliers (realms that are quietly draining you)

3. To see where you might soften effort in one realm so you can fortify another

4. To decide what needs attention now, & what can wait for the next chapter

How it works:

Rate your effort in each realm on a scale of 0–5. No judgment. Just data.

Then ask:

1. Which realm is asking for reinforcement?

2. Which realm is doing “too much heavy lifting”?

3. What’s one small shift that would make the next week feel more livable?

   
   

This is the art of holistic self-mastery:

Notice what’s true. Adjust with intention. Keep walking.

That is how legends are forged.

🔥 A Final Truth Before Your Next Quest

Most legends don’t burn out because they lack discipline.

They burn out because they overtrain a few realms while others quietly go dark.

Many of us cycle through seasons like this:

• Strength and Mind carrying everything

• Vocation taking over at the cost of Heart

• Momentum returning…followed by burnout that reveals what was ignored

  
  

The answer is rarely more grit.

It’s more balanced realms — and better support.

That’s one of the core teachings of the Order:

You are not meant to be a solo hero. You are meant to build a fellowship.

And awareness is where that fellowship begins.

🔑 Your Next Quest: Free 7-Day Gratitude Quest

Begin the Free 7-Day Gratitude Quest.

Within Fantasy Fitness, gratitude is not merely saying thank you.

It is awareness — paying attention on purpose, without judgment, seeing your life clearly even in the smallest and quietest of moments.

This quest helps you:

1. Pause inside the realms

2. Take an honest health bar snapshot

3. Notice blind spots with compassion

4. Choose one small practice to strengthen your wheel

Author

Coach Brenna Vidal

​Founder of Fantasy Fitness + Sovereign of the Order of Legends

CPT, CNC, YFFR, RYT, KYT, PSYC BA, BSW, CWCM​, Black Belt

PS — Want to track your Realms and level up your practice?

Join one of our Nexus App Memberships to track food, movement, habits, and reflections across the Realms — so your wellness becomes measurable, supported, and sustainable.

Reference

Stoewen DL. Dimensions of wellness: Change your habits, change your life. Can Vet J. 2017 Aug;58(8):861-862. PMID: 28761196; PMCID: PMC5508938. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5508938/

Medical Disclaimer: No content on this site, irrespective of its publication date, is intended to replace direct medical advice from your doctor or another qualified clinician. Always consult with a healthcare professional for personalized guidance. The author is not responsible for any reliance on the information provided on this site. Use it in conjunction with professional advice.