I think the universe wants me to know about brief online interactive wellbeing activities, so I am letting you know at the same time.
Look, this could just be my imagination and my tendency toward a bit of magical thinking.
But I sometimes get the sense that the universe tries to get me to pay attention to something by placing the same idea in a couple of different parts of my life at the same time.
For example, I recently came across an article on The Conversation that linked to a website offering a series of short “5–10 minutes to feeling better” activities.
Not long after that, I attended some training on youth mental health interventions, and they pointed us toward a set of self-guided wellbeing activities on the Headspace website.
The overarching idea behind both of these resources is fairly simple.
Looking after your wellbeing can be thought of as a set of skills. Those skills can be trained in relatively brief ways, and doing so can lead to measurable improvements in wellbeing.
Across the two sites, the topics covered include things like mood, body image, negative thinking, change, goals, pride, supporting friends, self-harm, staying active, routines, mindfulness, motivation, procrastination, eating well, connection, sleep, communication, and more.
Think of them as psychological snacks.
Which raises the question: when should someone psychologically snack?
In my view, the best approach is to treat engaging with these brief interventions as a healthy routine in itself, a bit like exercising regularly.
Which means you need to be somewhat strategic about how you engage with them.
OK, so this assumes first that you are interested in expanding your wellbeing knowledge and skillset. Typically, the motivation for this comes from wanting better wellbeing (i.e. less distressed, happier – to put it simply). If this isn’t where you are at right now, then I bid you adieu! I shall see you in a future post.
For those that remain, first, bookmark the sites above so you can find them again easily (or at least this post).
Then, find a time in your schedule that you’re happy to allocate to these activities. Think of it as ‘my psychological exercise time‘.
You don’t need to block out huge amounts of time. Maybe set aside 30-minute blocks to be safe — enough time to do the activity and jot down any notes or reflections that come up along the way.
Commit to a set period of time in which you will engage with these interactive learning activities. For example, ‘for the next month, I will do one of these activities every second day and take some notes. I will review whether the process has been helpful at the end of the month‘.
This commitment is intended to counter a common failure in health and wellbeing – we simply don’t trial things for long enough to determine if they have benefit.
So yeah, you trial doing these interactive exercises for a month or so. You make a determination if you think this learning has been helpful. If yes, you keep going, perhaps until you’ve completed the ones on the two sites linked.
At that point, you turn your attention to the notes you took along the way, to determine if any of the things you learned could be further actioned. For example, perhaps you learn about mindfulness meditation in one of the exercises and become curious to explore that further.
Then the process repeats. You spend the next month (or so) trialling mindfulness meditation to see if it is helpful.
And so on…..
The journey continues.
Now this implies a somewhat infinite regress. Will I forever be exploring wellbeing strategies?
Look, I’d love to say that when it comes to health and wellbeing (including mental health) that there is a specific formula that once identified, you can implement in your life and the job is done.
But it appears messier than that.
It appears that yes, in amongst all the other parts of your life (study, work, relationships, hobbies, travel etc), each of us will, in fact, be continually exploring and adjusting the levers of our health and wellbeing. It is a process of continual change and adaptation.
That doesn’t mean its random.
For example, I’ve known for a long time that getting morning exercise benefits me in a number of ways, but the nature of that exercise and how I get it into my day has changed, as my life and circumstances have changed. The basic principle is sound (exercise = good) but the implementation requires continual adjustment.
So in the recommendation above, the principle is sound (increase your wellbeing skillset), but the process by which that happens will change over time.
The good news here is that the evidence is increasingly suggesting that short, focused interactive learning exercises can produce measurable benefits. And those learning experiences can be found online 🙂
Anyway — I believe I have now delivered the universe’s message to me.
You may all go about your day.
