Week 1 - An IntRo to Wellbeing

Welcome to week 1! We are so excited that you are here and cannot wait to help support you on your personal journey to increased wellness and wellbeing.

One of your pre-program activities was to identify your program ‘why’ - your reason for being here on the Empower program. If you have not done so already, go to page 10 of your Empower eJournal and fill in what you can.

This week are will dive into:

What is wellbeing and why work on it?
If you already have some form of wellbeing or mindfulness practice incorporated into your lifestyle, you will understand the benefits of working daily on aspects of your mental and emotional wellbeing. If this is all new territory for you, think of it like this – it’s like you’re flexing the wellness muscle. Just like we need to flex and train our muscles to stay physically fit and strong for long-term health, we also need to train the very foundation of our wellness fibres to help sustain a healthy state of mind and overall wellbeing. These foundations include:

General wellbeing can be defined as how you feel about yourself and your life. It incorporates the physical, mental, emotional and social factors linking to happiness and life satisfaction. Some factors have a negative impact, such as stress and anxiety and what we like to call ‘wellbeing vampires’ (more on these later). Others have a powerfully positive impact such as mindfulness, meditations and intention setting. Let’s explore some of these key factors now.

Stress
Stress is one of the biggest factors that can derail our overall wellness and mental wellbeing. Next week we will explore this topic further, looking at both the body’s innate physiological response to stress as well as the physical feelings, symptoms and experiences that you may have personally when stress does arise. We will explore how these may affect you and over the weeks look at coping mechanisms to reduce the negative effects of stress both physically and mentally.

When our goals fail to align with our true values and desires (our authenticity) stress can often arise. The long-term effects of stress can be detrimental to the physical body as well as our mental health. Strengthening our emotional intelligence can help in the management of stress, as well as understanding our own emotions and those of others around us.

Mindfulness
One of the most effective ways to develop emotional intelligence and manage stress is through mindfulness. Mindfulness is essentially a practice of ‘being’ as oppose to ‘doing’. It is the simple process of bringing your attention back to the present moment. Taking time to be mindful puts a space between you and your emotions and gives you time to watch your thoughts come and go as opposed to indulging them.

We know that practicing mindfulness and participating in mindful practices such as meditation, journaling, intention setting and reinforcing affirmations contribute to the overall improvement of wellbeing, while supporting the reduction of depression and anxiety.

A perfect example of when mindfulness is beneficial is in times of conflict or stress. Taking a moment to step back and reflect on the situation is the first step to adopting a mindful approach to the situation, as opposed to getting caught in the moment and letting our emotions get the better of us. It opens us up to the possibility of a different perspective and possibly another outcome. Often clarity presents when mindfulness is practiced.

This brings to mind a famous quote:

Being mindful allows us to find a sense of calm, re-centre and gain a higher perspective on life.

Intentions and affirmations
In the workshop this week, we will be exploring the concept and practice of intentions and affirmations. An intention is a short, positive statement based in the future tense, similar to a goal or a desire. An affirmation is a short positive statement in the present tense. The difference is subtle, but a simple change in the language can have a powerful effect on the subconscious and unconscious minds. Repeating and reaffirming an intention in a succinct sentence housed in the present transforms the intention into an affirmation. When an intention is reaffirmed by being recited or written repeatedly, its power and presence is reinforced in your mind.

The mind is very powerful. When it hears information over and again it starts to believe the information it is being exposed to and more likely to see the intention come to fruition. What we believe (B) influences what we think (T) and how we feel (F) and the actions (A) we take as a result of those thoughts and feelings. Actions give us experiences (E) which in turn can reinforce or alternately dispel a belief. This T-F-A-E-B model is explored in week 3, when we look at growth mindset as a powerful tool for mental wellbeing.

If you’re struggling with any of the content this week, don’t worry. It will all become clearer in the workshop where we take a more detailed dive into emotional intelligence, mindfulness and intentions and affirmations as foundations for your daily wellness practice.

‘Own Time’ activities

It can take time to really define your program why and land on a meaningful intention and affirmation for this program, so this week, your Own Time Activities (OTAs) are to keep working on pages 10 – 13 of your eJournal and find some time to complete the following:

Your meditative practice

Your yoga poses