Do you ever feel stuck? It can be in any area of your life that is holding you back from living fully. Not meeting your own needs can lead to mental health disorders. Take the time to discover who you are, your interests, your talents, your gifts, your desires, and if religious, you can discover your God given gifts this way. These are ways to allow you to ground yourself in who you are and gives you a better idea of your potential.
It is like a road map to your own journey in life, you have to know where you are starting from to best help you figure out where you want to go.
Do you struggle to get out of your comfort zone? Did you know you can expand your comfort zone by doing the following things?
Change up your daily routine
Learn to delegate to others
Network with those who are better than you
Make SMART Goals for yourself.
Work on your goals
Challenge your beliefs (see below)
Focus on self care
Note: Not all of your growth will be seen immediately by others.
Just as plants develop roots long before the first bud appears, we to have quiet growth long before others notice the outward signs. This is called visible and invisible growth.
Not giving enough time to the invisible growth hinders the visible growth and can potentially cause it to never develop. Don't let others keep you from your worthy pursuits, this is when you have the chance to develop yourself into the person you most admire so you can better the world around you, (no matter how big or small your world is).
How the Seven Dimensions of Wellness Lead to Wholeness
Did you know the term wellness covers more than just physical wellness? Each piece makes up the whole puzzle of our total wellbeing and they overlap in many ways. I learned about this theory early on in my degree and had a huge ah-ha moment. They are:
Physical: Making a keeping positive habits that impact your physical health such as eating nutritious foods, moderate exercises for 30 minutes 5 days a week, receiving regular medical checkups, and avoiding habits that negatively impact physical health (click here for medical insurance help).
Emotional: Taking the time and space to feel,express, and release your emotions in a healthy way. Seeing a mental health professional when emotions reduce functioning or severely alter life in a negative way.
Intellectual: Striving to be a lifelong learner.
Social: Learning good communication skills, developing deep relationships, and networking.
Spiritual: Developing beliefs, morals and values to use as a navigate life. (see next section)
Environmental: Focusing on ways to take care of and minimize harm to your planet.
Occupational: Taking time to learn your interests, your talents, your gifts, your desires, then try to use some of them in your profession.
For more tips on optimal wellness, read this article. If you read the blog post titled, "How to Deepen Your Self Care Rituals", you will notice several similarities between self care and wellness.
How Challenging Beliefs Leads to Growth
James Fowler suggests spirituality is a basic aspect of human existence and develops in predictable ways. It is not defined by any religion and instead is a way of relating to the meaning of life. The stages start with 0 and go to 7.
Stage 0 (birth- 2 years old) Primal: Learns to rely world based on how child is treated by parents
Stage 1 (3-7 years old) Intuitive-Projective: Beginning to use symbols and imagination, self-focused and take negative aspects of religion literally
Stage 2 (6-12 years old) Mythic- Literal: Metaphors and symbolic stories are taken literally.
Stage 3 (adolescent to early adulthood) Synthetic-Conventional: Belief without critically examining beliefs.
Stage 4 (mid 20s-30s) Individuative-Reflective: Begins to examine beliefs, ask questions and see contradictions in beliefs. This can lead to leaving or strengthening faith.
Stage 5 (mid-life) Conjunctive: Begins to resolve conflicts from previous stages and recognizes not everything is logical.
Stage 6 (few reach) Universalizing: Spiritual awakening to see universal community.
This is a process that is non-linear for most, especially when changing belief systems. Let the process be unique to you and your needs, don't compare to others. Challenging your own beliefs allows your roots to grow deeper (going back to the root branches metaphor).
Finding Self-actualization
3 components of self-actualization are significance, fulfillment and spirituality.
Here are some examples of questions to help you:
*What holds significance in my life and am I spending enough time in those areas?
*It what ways do I feel fulfilled? What do I need to change to better align myself towards feeling fulfilled in more areas of my life?
*How is my spiritual journey?
Note: This life is a process, self- actualization is a process. It is not a state you get to and stay in once is is achieved.
It is about having a growth mindset.
When struggling with guilt over spending time on yourself, remember this: you giving time and https://www.foundproject.org/post/what-does-self-care-look-likespace for yourself helps you better show up for others.
Here is a great article if you want to learn more about self-actualization from a mental health standpoint.
Here are Podcasts on:
Here is a book on living creatively:
Here is a Ted Talk on being true to yourself in all settings:
If you need free counseling, contact 1-800-662-help
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