Wellness Calendar: Monday 8 December

The eighth revolution

[The importance of wellness; knowing what wellness/unwellness are; utilising this knowing]

Is there anything more important than wellness? If there is something – anything – that’s more important than wellness, we’d like to know it! If there isn’t anything more important than wellness, then what are we waiting for? Let’s reverse back along the road. Let’s find out what it’s made of. Let’s start learning about the stuff. Let’s immerse ourselves in the stuff.

Just to be clear: by wellness we mean being in good health, feeling good, fulfilling our potential – thriving rather than merely surviving.

Over the past hundred years, a huge amount of research has been undertaken around the human condition and wellness. We can confidently say in general terms, that we know what makes us well, both individually and collectively, and what makes us unwell – without need for further evidence or consultation.

Here are some aspects of what we now know…

If you’re able to be yourself, you’re likely to be well.
If you’re unable to be yourself, you’re likely to be unwell.

If your ideal self is close to your actual self, you’re likely to be well.
If your ideal self is far away from your actual self, you’re likely to be unwell.

If you like yourself, you’re likely to be well.
If you dislike yourself, you’re likely to be unwell.

If you’re able to live up to your own values, you’re likely to be well.
If you’re unable to attain your own values, you’re likely to be unwell.

If your thoughts, feelings and actions are in harmony, you’re likely to be well.
If you’re in conflict with yourself and/or the outside world, you’re likely to be unwell.

If you exist in a nurturing environment, you’re likely to be well.
If you exist within a hostile environment, you’re likely to be unwell.

If you can get your needs met, you’re likely to be well.
If you cannot get your needs met, you’re likely to be unwell.

If you have awareness, you’re likely to be well.
If you do not possess awareness, you’re likely to be unwell.

If you can change and adapt when required, you’re likely to be well.
If you cannot change and adapt, you’re likely to be unwell.

If you can form meaningful attachments to others, you’re likely to be well.
If you cannot form bonds with others, you’re likely to be unwell.

If you’re able to process trauma and distress, you’re likely to be well.
If you’re unable to process trauma and distress, you’re likely to be unwell.

Knowing this information can be tremendously helpful in visualising a healthy landscape for ourselves. You are the expert of you. No one knows you better than you do. And yet, like any good expert, there’s so much more you can learn externally to improve yourself. This is where other experts come into the frame. Below is a short list of some of the people who have devoted time to exploring different aspects of wellness, coupled with the name of their influential work.

• John Bowlby, Attachment
• Alice Millar, The Drama of Being a Child
• Eric Berne, Games People Play
• Elizabeth Kübler-Ross, On Death and Dying
• Carl Rogers, On Becoming a Person
• Anna Freud, Selected Writings
• Donald Winnicott, Playing and Reality
• Melanie Klein, Love, Guilt and Reparations
• Irvin Yalom, Love’s Executioner
• Brené Brown, Daring Greatly
• Bessel van der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score

Can we utilise the jewels of well-being that these thinkers offer – taking the bits that are relevant to our lives and discarding the rest – as a means of revolutionising our lives?

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