Quick-fire wellbeing

Or some ideas to take into the weekend

It’s Friday! I’m not feeling like doing much today. Not in a can’t be bothered way, more a I need to get outside and do something as I’ve been in the house on my own all week kind of vibe. Any more of this and I fear I’ll start eating the wallpaper.

On that note, I thought I’d give you a couple of points on looking after your wellbeing that you can have a think about over the weekend.

Recognise your accomplishments

We can be really good at clinging on to the negatives and the failures in life, but it’s good practise to reflect on the successes as well. What we might perceive as one negative experience could likely have been preceded by 5 positive things that have happened or that we have done. Zoom out that focus and take a broader look at your experiences rather than clinging on to the bad one like an angry limpet.

Exercise self-compassion

It amazes me when I work with clients at how terribly they can talk to themselves sometimes. If I talked that way to someone else out on the street there’s a good chance I’d get punched in the dick, but for some reason we can feel ok treating ourselves that way? This weekend, keep an eye on that internal narrative. How are you communicating with yourself?

Prioritise your wellbeing

We often adopt this idea that looking after ourselves is selfish. That we should be putting the needs of others above our own. Now, that’s an admirable trait, but I’d like you to consider it this way.

If you spend all of your energy meeting the needs of others and none on meeting your needs, what happens when you’ve got no energy left? I’ll tell you - you aren’t able to support those people that you care about and engage in what’s important to you.

Looking after our wellbeing actually enables us to be there to do what’s important, because it gives us the energy and the state of mind to be able to handle it. So light some candles, run a bath of milk, dig out that old Enya CD, and get yourself some you time this weekend.

Be grateful

Take a moment to recognise the little things that you do have that makes life good. There’s a dangerous trait that we all possess as part of our leaning towards hedonic adaptation (see this newsletter) where we can get so focused on the horizon that we forget what’s around us.

It’s all about reframing our perspective. Yes it would be nice to achieve the next thing or own that shiny new object, but let’s also pause and take a minute to look at what we’ve already got.

That’s it for today. Wishing you all a great weekend. Be kind to yourselves, and each other.

Much love
David

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