This post is rejigged from an email I sent recently as part of the Be Well Mailing List. It promotes a happiness website providing some useful tools for change.
Helloooo everyone!!
I hope you are settling into the new Semester. I think, for the most part, I have pulled on my big boy pants and am getting on with it. How about you?
As your schedules get more and more packed with study, work and responsibilities, the room left for wellbeing-focused activities decreases.
I generally notice (and I don’t know if this is the case for you) that the busier I get, the more likely it is that health-promoting activities (like exercise) decrease and health-negative activities (like whiskey) increase. For example, there is definitely a correlation in my life between how stressed I am and how likely I am to choose chocolate for breakfast.
A few things might be driving this. Do any of these sound familiar?
What’s Driving Your Choice?
- The Quick Reward: Are you reaching for immediate gratification instead of a healthier option with more delayed benefits? (for sure)
- Mental Overload: Is this choice just the easiest habit to fall back on when your brain is already exhausted from managing stress? (yes, yes it is)
- Willpower on Empty: Has the day drained your self-control, making it easier to give in to temptation than to find motivation? (totally)
- Emotional Escape: Are you using this as a way to numb or distract from difficult feelings, even for a little while? (yes 🙄)
- The Path of Least Resistance: Is this choice simply the most convenient and accessible option available to you right now? (it is like you’ve known me all my life!)
- Craving Predictability: Are you opting for this because the outcome is familiar and comforting in a time of uncertainty? (that could be happening)
- Ancient Survival Mode: Is your stress response triggering an old survival program to load up on high-energy fuel and conserve energy? (you’d have to ask Darwin that one)
So for me, I have to be very proactive and intentional in keeping good choices front of mind. For example, I’ve set myself a couple of challenges this month – one to row 60km (on machine) and second to fast until midday. If I don’t keep positive changes front of mind, they quickly disappear.
Modern wellbeing programs and initiatives seem to know that positive changes can be hard, as they often promote that there are quite simple and easy actions we can take to invest in our health. For example, gratitude exercises can be done in just a couple of minutes. Slowing down to admire a sunset (awe) may only consume 10 minutes. Even the HIIT exercise people have demonstrated short bursts of intense activity might provide similar benefits to longer forms.
So the battleground is drawn, and it is Short Sweet Wellbeing Activities VS Short Naughty Anti-Wellbeing Activities! (I use the word ‘naughty’ in the humorous sense, not the moral one)
To help in the battle, there are tools available that provide regular reminders and prompts of the healthier choices.
One that a colleague shared with me the other day is https://actionforhappiness.org/ – a site that specialises in teaching you the small actions that generate happiness (the lasting type, not the naughty pleasure type). I took a look through their recommendations, and they are generally sound and consistent with practices we see emerging from the broader positive psychology literature (https://ggia.berkeley.edu/).
The flavour of these activities might not appeal to everyone, but I would be confident that starting to build these into your typical day would likely have positive benefits.
What kinds of activities are we talking about?
Action for Happiness’ strength is that it offers a number of tools specifically designed to prompt these little actions each day. They understand that it is one thing to know about these practices, it is another thing altogether to do them regularly.
- Daily App – Daily happiness nudges and inspiration on your phone – https://actionforhappiness.org/app
- Monthly Calendars – Printable/downloadable calendars with one action per day – https://actionforhappiness.org/calendar
- 10 Keys Pages – Ten evidence-based themes, each with simple action ideas – https://actionforhappiness.org/10-keys
- 10 Days of Happiness – Free email course with a new wellbeing activity each day – https://10daysofhappiness.org/
- Resource Library – Talks and articles with small, actionable insights – https://actionforhappiness.org/resources
- Local Groups – Monthly online/in-person groups to reflect and take action – https://actionforhappiness.org/groups
So if you’ve found it hard to both remember and build positive mental health practices into your daily life, this site might have the tool for you.
Take care 🙂