Circadian rhythms reflect our natural tendencies for sleeping and waking and influence our energy and productivity at different times in the day ( 11). Consider, for instance, differences in circadian rhythms. With self-awareness, you can cultivate the habits that work for you. Both are indispensable to successful habit formation ( 8).Ĭhange becomes much more achievable if you pay attention to who you are and insert routines that take advantage of your strengths, tendencies, and aptitudes. But we can maximize the probabilities for success with 2 essentials: self-awareness and strategies. They are difficult to change - any of us can attest to this. Despite knowing what’s good for us and best intentions, habits tend to keep us doing what we always do ( 10). To change a habit, you need to create new routines: Keep the old cue, and deliver the old reward, but insert a new routine ( 7). It’s not just a matter of will-power (i.e., self-regulation) it’s a matter of rewiring the brain. That’s why they are so difficult to change. Studies indicate that once formed, habits become encoded in brain structures and can never truly be eradicated - only replaced with stronger habits ( 7). ![]() It can be regarded as a formula (or “habit loop”) that the brain automatically follows: “When I see cue, I will do routine in order to get a reward” ( 7). Technically, a habit is “a behavior that is recurrent, is cued by a specific context, often happens without much awareness or conscious intent, and is acquired through frequent repetition” ( 8). If you are striving to improve these, you need to think about habits, because if you change your habits for the better, you change your life for the better ( 8). For better or worse, habits very much influence health, well-being, and quality of life. With about 40% of our everyday behavior repeated in the form of habits, they shape our very existence, and ultimately, our future ( 8). With the cognitive economy and performance efficiency of habits ( 9), the brain can conserve self-regulatory strength to focus on the important decisions in life ( 9), and free us to engage in thoughtful activities, such as reflecting on the past and planning for the future. As Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business says, “Any behavior that can be reduced to a routine is one less behavior that we must spend time and energy consciously thinking about and deciding upon” ( 7). Habits, in contrast, require very little energy ( 7, 8). We naturally have our own priorities, approaches, and aspirations, including our own views of what it means to live life fully. We should aim, instead, to strive for a “personal harmony” that feels most authentic to us ( 1). They do not, however, have to be equally balanced ( 1). Attention must be given to all the dimensions, as neglect of any one over time will adversely affect the others, and ultimately one’s health, well-being, and quality of life. Wellness encompasses 8 mutually interdependent dimensions: physical, intellectual, emotional, social, spiritual, vocational, financial, and environmental ( Table 1) ( 1). Sufficient self-care prevents us from harming those we serve, and according to Green Cross Standards of Self Care Guidelines, no situation or person can justify neglecting it ( 3). In order to ensure high-quality patient and client services, we have an ethical obligation to attend to our own health and well-being ( 3). For those in the helping professions, such as ourselves in veterinary medicine, wellness is a professional as well as personal responsibility. ![]() ![]() Wellness necessitates good self-stewardship, for ourselves and for those we care about and who care about us. Although it always includes striving for health, it’s more about living life fully ( 1), and is “a lifestyle and a personalized approach to living life in a way that… allows you to become the best kind of person that your potentials, circumstances, and fate will allow” ( 2). Wellness is a holistic integration of physical, mental, and spiritual well-being, fueling the body, engaging the mind, and nurturing the spirit ( 1). People often think about wellness in terms of physical health - nutrition, exercise, weight management, etc., but it is so much more.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |