Tips for Wellness

1. Recognize your need for renewal. It is necessary to stop, to pause, to renew.

2. Take time out to be alone and listen inwardly. Stay in touch with yourself. Identify what is important to you and what it is you want. Make plans and choose actions based on your desires and priorities.

3. Take control of how you utilize your time and energy. Prioritize. Say “NO” to those activities you do not want to be involved in. Say “YES” to those things that add to your life, and are consistent with your values, wants and priorities. Remember, sometimes less is be more.

4. Exercise. Regular exercise enhances physical and emotional health. If you are not on a regular exercise program, find something you enjoy doing and “start low and go slow.”

5. Water the seeds of happiness in your life. Do something each day that brings you joy. Identify what nourishes you, what adds to your life, what it is you love. Make time for these activities.

6. Modify or let go of excessive demands and unrealistic expectations. Examine the demands you place on yourself and others. Are they realistic? Remember, the task of humans is wholeness not perfection.

7. Create healing stories. Recognize your thoughts are just thoughts. They come and go like clouds in the sky. Step back from a story line that increases your stress. In many situations it is possible to drop “the story” or modify it to decrease stress. Tell yourself healing stories, not horror stories.

8. Be on your side, not on your case. Deflate your inner critic and give energy to your inner cheering squad. Cultivate unconditional friendliness toward yourself. Talk to yourself as you would a good friend if he or she were in your shoes.

9. Live more in the present. Spend less time and mental energy ruminating over the past and worrying about the future. Plan for the future but don’t live there. Focus your mind in the here and now.

10. Create and nourish a personal support system. Seek out the company of those you trust and with whom you can be yourself. Build relationships where caring is reciprocal.

11. Practice effective listening and self-expression skills. Never underestimate the power of reflective listening. When expressing yourself, use “I” language.

12. Break your routine. Do something out of the ordinary. If you always go to the same restaurant try a new one. Go to a concert or get season tickets to a theater. Take a class in something just for fun. Be a little unpredictable.

13. At the end of your day review what went well, what was positive or added to your life. Cultivate gratitude for the goodness in your day.

14. Stop and smell the roses. Remember, many riches of life are found in small things. Sometimes the conditions for happiness are right in front of us.


	About Carolyn Lectures & Workshops Education Program for Chronic Pain Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction ›› for Veterans ›› at Swedish Medical Center Guided Relaxation & Meditation CDs Articles & News Learning Center Contact Home ›› SIGN UP FOR CAROLYN'S EMAIL LIST	Tips for Wellness 1. Recognize your need for renewal. It is necessary to stop, to pause, to renew. 2. Take time out to be alone and listen inwardly. Stay in touch with yourself. Identify what is important to you and what it is you want. Make plans and choose actions based on your desires and priorities. 3. Take control of how you utilize your time and energy. Prioritize. Say “NO” to those activities you do not want to be involved in. Say “YES” to those things that add to your life, and are consistent with your values, wants and priorities. Remember, sometimes less is be more. 4. Exercise. Regular exercise enhances physical and emotional health. If you are not on a regular exercise program, find something you enjoy doing and “start low and go slow.” 5. Water the seeds of happiness in your life. Do something each day that brings you joy. Identify what nourishes you, what adds to your life, what it is you love. Make time for these activities. 6. Modify or let go of excessive demands and unrealistic expectations. Examine the demands you place on yourself and others. Are they realistic? Remember, the task of humans is wholeness not perfection. 7. Create healing stories. Recognize your thoughts are just thoughts. They come and go like clouds in the sky. Step back from a story line that increases your stress. In many situations it is possible to drop “the story” or modify it to decrease stress. Tell yourself healing stories, not horror stories. 8. Be on your side, not on your case. Deflate your inner critic and give energy to your inner cheering squad. Cultivate unconditional friendliness toward yourself. Talk to yourself as you would a good friend if he or she were in your shoes. 9. Live more in the present. Spend less time and mental energy ruminating over the past and worrying about the future. Plan for the future but don’t live there. Focus your mind in the here and now. 10. Create and nourish a personal support system. Seek out the company of those you trust and with whom you can be yourself. Build relationships where caring is reciprocal. 11. Practice effective listening and self-expression skills. Never underestimate the power of reflective listening. When expressing yourself, use “I” language. 12. Break your routine. Do something out of the ordinary. If you always go to the same restaurant try a new one. Go to a concert or get season tickets to a theater. Take a class in something just for fun. Be a little unpredictable. 13. At the end of your day review what went well, what was positive or added to your life. Cultivate gratitude for the goodness in your day. 14. Stop and smell the roses. Remember, many riches of life are found in small things. Sometimes the conditions for happiness are right in front of us.