As the pace of life continues to accelerate, supported by ever-advancing technology, we can easily get hooked into a way of being that relegates our own wellbeing into second or third place… the very wellbeing that enables us to play a full part in our modern world. By enhancing our resilience for coping well, and boosting our wellbeing we’re better able to take charge of our lives and live the life we desire.
Our courses are based on six elements of wellbeing and resilience, distilled from multiple evidence-based models… I simply call it the 6-Element Model. The elements, as depicted in the image at the head of this post, are:
Physiology: body
The state of our physical body has an impact on our mind – for example, tiredness affects motivation, decision making, and coping with challenges. Whether the concept of coherence, how long we sit at our desk for, or the snacks we choose to eat, getting our body on-side doesn’t require becoming an athlete, but it does require, and is fully worthy of, planning and consideration.
Awareness: focus
We are habit surfers, living most of the day through our automatic thinking and behaviour – from how we drive our cars, focus on our work, to how we respond to other people… and our brilliant brain builds these habits automatically, and runs them in the background without our conscious awareness. Many habits are helpful, but not all! And changing the ones that aren’t helpful starts with awareness. But, it’s more than that. Ultimately, what we focus on defines who we are. So, let’s make sure it’s our choice.
Mastery: achievement
Perhaps you’ve heard of the theory of ‘flow’, that productive place where we’re ‘in the zone’. Faced with a challenge that goes beyond our current ability, our sense of mastery is tested – often pushing us out of flow and into stress and anxiety. Our individual stress and growth mindset, our approaches to building skills, and our ability to discern the right place to spend our precious effort is the practice of mastery.
Meaning: purpose
The pinnacle binding performance, resilience and wellbeing is our own why… and the best ‘whys’ involve others, and don’t have to be led by passion. How we craft our own role, appreciate our own strengths and those of the people around us matter, and can make the difference between working because we have to, and achieving because we cared to.
Emotion: our internal climate
Emotion is not only at the heart of how we feel, it’s also crucial to our motivation, decision making, relationships, performance and much more. It’s responsible for our darker moments, but also our brightest. So, here we’ll put emotion in context, look at ways of working with both the pleasant and unpleasant aspects of it, reducing the impact of stress, and enhancing the impact of success.
The Core
We sometimes say that life is a journey… but there are many kinds of journey. One along a straight never-ending road, with the same scenery, is tedious. Learning is change, improvement is change, stagnation is not. If we want to enhance our wellbeing and develop the skills of resilience, and it really helps to have some support in establishing whatever change is necessary, and that’s at the core – the process of habits, goals and the story we tell ourselves.
If you’d like to join a course, delving into the 6-Element Model for yourself, you’ll find the details of the next one here. Or if you’d like to ask a question, do get in touch!
