TotalWellbeing: August 2020

Motivation and Emotional Wellbeing

“Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.” ― Neil Gaiman

Welcome to the August 2020 edition of TotalWellbeing, your guide to the 8 dimensions of wellbeing. This month we set our sights on motivation and nurturing our emotional wellbeing. Staying motivated, especially under challenging circumstances, can be one of the toughest things we can do. The key to maintaining your drive and persevering is to set small goals that ultimately lead to your bigger, overall goal. That way you have small successes and cause to celebrate along the way that will help keep the light of your hopes and aspirations going strong. Then once you do end up reaching your primary goal, the satisfaction is all the better for having endured.

Check out the information below for some tips on how to stay motivated and don’t forget that through your Employee Assistance Program you have access to 4 professional wellness coaching sessions per year. These can be used to work with a personal wellness coach to set, work on, and reach your goals! Call today to get started.

As a quick reminder, your online portal, PersonalAdvantage, also has helpful resources and tips and resources on staying motivated, resilience exercises, emotional wellbeing support, and more.

To your total wellbeing,

The MINES Team

Pushing Past Your Plateau

We promise ourselves we’ll change our lifestyles for better health. We start diets, launch exercise programs or try to quit smoking. And then we stall. We hit a plateau, putting us at risk of losing precious gains or quitting altogether.

If you find that you are stuck on a plateau, try these 6 steps to help you find a way to jumpstart your progress and reach your goals:

1. Define your aim clearly. “It’s impossible to hit your target if you don’t know exactly what you’re aiming at,” says Dr. Mercer, who gives about 50 speeches a year to executives and other audiences.
2. Don’t let laziness creep in. “Sure, it’s easier not to do something,” he says. Instead, stay focused on your path. If you promised yourself you’d exercise at 6 a.m., don’t hit the snooze button when the alarm goes off. Remind yourself firmly about your goals and get moving.
3. When you don’t want to exercise or you want to quit your diet, take three seconds to picture how you want to look or feel at the end of your program. A lot of people begin such programs because they want to look attractive to others, while others are interested in improving their health.
4. Use a time-limit approach to your program. “Give yourself, say, 12 weeks to accomplish a goal within your program,” he says. When you reach that goal, set a new one and give yourself another 12 weeks. “This enables you to track your progress and helps you to define your target. Use the scale, measuring tape or other device to measure your progress in the time period and to help you set new goals. The best cure for putting things off is a deadline.”
5. Give yourself rewards for reaching your daily, weekly and monthly goals. “For instance, tell yourself you’ll go to a movie you’ve been wanting to see if you get your exercise in that day,” he says.
6. Think about committing to a self-punishment if you fail. “I worked with a group that had to write a check to charity and put it in my hands. If they didn’t reach the goal, which was well within their limits, I was to mail the check by a particular date,” Dr. Mercer says. “Every one of them reached the goal.”

Read the full article here.

If you or someone you know feels stuck in a rut, remember that Your Employee Assistance Program is here to help you and your household members. In addition to free and confidential counseling you have access to professional wellness coaching as well. Your coach can help you set and analyze your personal, professional, and wellness related goals, and help you find the motivation you need to take the next step. Call us at 1-800-873-7138 to get connected right away. Also, PersonalAdvantage has a ton of great resources and FREE webinars.

Emotional Wellbeing and Release

You don’t want to get rid of emotions, you want to manage and get them under control. A three-step method of emotional release has helped many of our clients. The first step is to identify exactly what it is you’re feeling and label it. As we said before, emotions often defy description, but try. Building a better emotional vocabulary makes it easier. Write down as many adjectives as you can for anger, anxiety, and depression. Use a thesaurus, get words from friends, family, and co-workers. Sort your words in order of intensity. Learn to examine your emotional state and attach a label that describes it with some degree of accuracy.

Next, experiment with thoughts that increase the intensity of the emotion you’re feeling. Then try thoughts that will reduce that intensity. Rate the intensity level of your emotions on a one-to-ten scale. Learn to raise and lower your level with your thoughts.

Learning to release emotions is the third step. This can happen in a number of ways, such as acting them out, talking them out, or thinking them out. Shouting, crying, or being fearful takes the edge off your feelings, allowing you to think more clearly. You can talk about how you feel with a friend, family member, or counselor. Sometimes, images and thoughts can release you from emotions. Here are a few rules to remember about releasing feelings:

• Mean what you say, say what you mean, but don’t be mean when you say it.
• Don’t break things that don’t belong to you.
• Don’t hit other people.
• Don’t hurt yourself (physically or with drugs, food, etc.).
• Use a little judgment when in public.

Read More

Remember, your Employee Assistance Program is here to help you manage your stress and emotional wellbeing. If you need additional information, or to access services, please call MINES and Associates at 1-800-873-7138 today.

Question of the Month

This month lets try something different. Instead of asking ourselves a question, ask someone else a question. That question is going to be “will you help me?” First, think of a goal or project that you are in the middle of, or need to get started on. Next, find a friend or family member and ask them for help with it. Involving someone else may just be what gets you moving on something that you have been procrastinating on.

This Month’s Focus

Free Webinar:

Stay Motivated: Tips for Leveraging Your Superpower

MINESblog:

New to TW? Check out our past Blogs!

Advocating for Change Amidst Pandemic and Protest

COVID-19: Stress & Anxiety Reduction

COVID-19: Home Workout Essentials

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