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

Important Links

COVID19 Resource Page

Visit our BLOG

MINES and Associates

Current Training Catalog

Balanced Living Magazine

LinkedIn

MINES Archives

Contact Us

Email MINES

Staying Motivated & Spiritual Wellbeing

Welcome to the December 2019 edition of TotalWellbeing, your guide to the 8 dimensions of wellbeing. This month we will look at staying motivated, resolutions, and nurturing your spiritual wellbeing. The holiday season signals the end of the year and with it brings a fresh start, but also the pressure of starting a new year with new goals, aspirations, resolutions, and responsibilities. So how do you stay motivated through it all? It’s important to seek change and keep things fresh. Just because things may not change around you doesn’t mean you can’t change your own activities, seek out new hobbies, learn new things, and meet new people. Focus on searching out new things that may be interesting to you or help you do old stuff in new ways or from a different perspective. For more information on staying motivated, holiday entertaining on a budget, and reducing kid’s holiday stress, check out these helpful articles, free webinars, and the information below.

Also, one more friendly reminder that you can now access your counseling services with MINES through an online text and messaging platform! It’s counseling whenever, wherever! Call us anytime for more info or to get set up!

Remember you can always catch past issues of TotalWellbeing on our newsletters page. This newsletter is aimed at providing helpful information about various aspects of your wellbeing and then connecting it all back to important and relevant parts of everyday life. If you have any thoughts, questions, or content you would like to see covered here please get in contact with us. You can email us directly by clicking here.

To your total wellbeing,

The MINES Team

Seven Ways to Beat the Burnout Blues

You may be experiencing burnout if you feel bored, fatigued, apathetic, impatient, and constantly irritated with your co-workers. Don’t panic, there’s hope. Some of the secrets to long-term job happiness are revealed in the 7 tips below:

1. Change positions within your company — See how your skills can be applied in new ways within your company and seek out new opportunities to contribute.
2. Find like-minded people — Finding people with a similar sense of humor, interests, and experience as you can help you see things in new ways and find fresh ideas that work with your lifestyle.
3. Seek out short-term projects — Short-term projects can be a great way to explore new things and work with new people. Kind of like a test-drive for new hobbies you may like to take a deeper dive into.
4. Get more education — Nothing like fresh skills and new knowledge to open new doors.
5. Keep on learning — Stop. Learning. The more you learn, the more exposure you have to opportunities in the world you may have never even knew existed.
6. Have pride in your job — Doing your job the best you can and having pride in your contribution can help you enjoy your job, endure rough patches, and beat burnout even in the worst of times.
7. Don’t wait — If you start to experience burnout, don’t wait until it affects your work and you start looking for a new job. Instead, try making positive changes in your present job. Talk to your supervisor and discuss changes that could reenergize you!

Check out this article for a full breakdown of these 7 tips.

Remember that if you or a household member are experiencing burnout and want to talk to someone about it, we are here to listen. Please call us at 1-800-873-7138 to get connected right away. Also, PersonalAdvantage has a ton of great resources and FREE webinars this month to help you focus on your wellbeing while also being productive at work and home.

Question of the Month

What motivates you? How can you utilize your motivational forces to help you keep focused on your goals in 2020?

Quote of the Month

“We may encounter many defeats, but we must not be defeated.” – Maya Angelou

Supporting Your Spiritual Wellbeing

Because spiritual connection and spirituality is so personal and can mean something different to everyone, it can be hard to tell others how to support their spiritual wellbeing. Remember that spiritual wellbeing is not necessarily religious and can simply be your personal connection to the world and those around you, your sense of place in the world. From this point of view, try and contemplate the ways that you connect with the world around you and take time to yourself to be mindful of little things in your day to day lives that ground you and bring you joy. Below are some tips on how to be mindful of the bigger picture in everyday situations:

• If you do not currently have a spiritual outlet, consider revisiting your childhood faith or another group that interests you. This could be a nature walk group, a martial arts class, an artist group. Anything that connects to you!
• If you plan to see a doctor regarding a physical problem, be sure to mention any major life events that you may be experiencing, such as menopause, divorce, or the death of a loved one. This may be affecting your health and may influence the course of treatment your doctor recommends.
• Build quiet, contemplative time into your daily or weekly schedule. Slowing down can help soothe even the most restless spirits. Use this time to meditate or create something. Draw, write, or paint. Anything that allows you to express your inner thoughts in a way that is meaningful to you.

For more resources on supporting your spiritual wellbeing, log in to PersonalAdvantage today.

This Month’s Focus

Free Webinar:

Putting Out the Fire: Preventing and Managing Burnout

MINESblog:

New to TW? Check out our past Blogs!

Last month: National Alzheimer’s Awareness Update 2019

Important Links

Visit our BLOG

MINES and Associates

2019 Training Catalog

Balanced Living Magazine

LinkedIn

MINEs Archives

Contact Us

Email MINES

The Relationship Between Self-Motivation and Emotional Wellbeing

Welcome to the May edition of TotalWellbeing, your guide to the 8 dimensions of wellbeing. This month we are going to take a look at emotional wellbeing, specifically how your self-motivation can help improve your emotional state of mind. If you missed us last month you can catch up on our newsletters page. As we make it through the year we will continue to emphasize the concept of community and look at how our actions affect our community, country, and in some cases the rest of the world.

To your total wellbeing,

The MINES Team

How Emotional Wellbeing is Related to Your Motivation

It is very easy to procrastinate, feel overwhelmed, and get burned out. However, if you are able to find motivation and attack each task you have on your plate, then these become less of a burden and your emotional wellbeing will be improved. It is vital to find things in your everyday life that make you happy, satisfied, and feel good. This blog has some great ways to help you be proactive about stress and some easy things you can do to help reduce it. It is also important to think of what you are grateful for, what motivates you, and how you look at your job, family, and personal wellbeing in order to figure out how to thrive in your life.

If you would like to talk to a counselor about these topics, please call us at 1-800-873-7138 to get connected right away. Also, PersonalAdvantage has some great tools and webinars this month to improve your knowledge around communication, teaching children about life changes, and resilient parenting to help support social wellbeing, and be sure to check out our “Estate Planning” infographic.

Question of the Month

What areas of your life do you lack motivation and how can you find motivation?

Quote of the Month

“The only person you are destined to become, is the person you decide to be.”

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

MINES Updates/Community World View

Emotional Wellbeing can encompass a lot of areas, feelings, and guidelines of how you live your life. How you perceive your emotional wellbeing also stems from your background, what you distinguish as normal, your biases, and your willingness to step outside of your comfort zone. Being able to look internally is a big step to seeing how you can improve your emotional intelligence. However, it is important to recognize that each culture has a different perspective on what being “emotionally well” really is. Patriarchal societies tend to think that showing your emotions may not be the best way to enhance your emotional wellbeing. However, that is not say that they don’t want to expand this side of wellbeing or that they don’t promote it in other ways. It is important to accept that how you express your emotions and how you deal with the various stressors in your life is unique to you. Take time to observe how others communicate about their emotional wellbeing to see how you can better support them.

This Month’s Focus

Check out this month’s webinar on Estate Planning

This Month on MINESblog:

Proactive Stress Management

Check out this Month’s Infographic

Important Links

Visit our BLOG

MINES and Associates

2018 Training Catalog

Balanced Living Magazine

LinkedIn

MINEs Archives

Contact Us

Email MINES