Team Emotional Wellness: Dealing and Coping with Emotions

Karen presents a lecture titled"Not Too Old for Roller Coasters," a wonderful presentation on dealing and coping with emotions.

Team JBR: Preparing for the St. Patrick's Day Party!

Team Wellness Advisory Committee: Self-Esteem No. 2

Dr. Dennis O'Grady

If there is any such thing as a universal evil or sin, it is the words: "I can't change." –Dr. Nathaniel Branden, pioneer in self-esteem This is the second in a series of articles to help readers learn to modify their self-esteem through their own efforts. The step-by-step discussion of the principles presented have come from my clients' most successful changes. However, the final decision to change or not to change must come from you. Assume Low Self-Esteem Is Alterable Difficult relationships are the leading reason you aren't able to focus on needed changes. Not all problems can be blamed on difficult people, but unhelpful anger, in the guise of rejection, resentment, and revenge, quickly diverts your attention away from being able to focus on your goals, choices, and competencies. Low self-esteem can be conquered. Think of negative people as anti-change. Keep your energy high by conquering negative emotions that reinforce low self-esteem. Don't let the fear of change add more frustration to your life. The solution to negativity? When you do get uptight, focus your thinking inward to find your growth answers. Try out each good idea that comes your way, and you just might be able to raise your self-esteem to new heights. Looking At – Not Out For – Number One What must you know about mastering the fears and frustrations that accompany self-change, and what must you know to keep moving forward instead of giving up when you hit a bump in the road? As a change-expert, you have learned that your answers lie within, like mounds of gold that are hidden under the belly of a sleeping dragon. Yet, somehow, you must find your way into, and back out of, the lair of negative emotions without being eaten alive. There is no other way to grow. The positive purpose of every negative emotion is to force you to think clearly about changing, even when you might not want to. Take a good look at yourself when you feel frustrated. Developing adequate self-esteem requires you to LOOK AT #1 in order to conquer fears that block success. Self-worth is diminished with these three words: I CAN'T CHANGE. Dr. Nathaniel Branden, who has studied and written about self-esteem for over forty years, contends that those three words are pockmarked and worm-holed with evil. Strong words, indeed, from a rational scientist. Only the mastery of forbidden emotions can release you from CAN'Tism. You must not fear any feeling. Rather, you must make even anger into a friend in order to master the tasks and risks of professional and personal happiness, intimacy, and love. Negative emotions are meant to be a bleak and rough reminder that YOU CAN, TOO, CHANGE! Take, for example, anger. Unprocessed anger erases your secret strengths, and suppressed anger predictably lowers your self-esteem. You must own up to your strengths and anger, or risk being controlled by them. Learn equally from love and frustration to bolster high self-esteem. Managing high self-esteem in relationships, personal and professional, means learning something new from every failure, hurt, and rejection instead of being alarmed and disarmed by these negative emotions. Men and women alike must learn to communicate better to stop reinforcing the fear that the opposite sex cannot be trusted to volunteer to change. Masters of change keep traveling through lonely, dark places, even when they are filled with fear. No feeling is too strong or too petty to ignore. All feelings are created equal: fear/trust, resentment/intimacy, jealousy/pride, pain/happiness, revenge/success, anger/self-esteem, rejection/confidence…and so on. Your change-challenge: the more you can regulate negative emotions, the more likely you are to change at your own healing speed and subsequently build high self-esteem. Low self-esteem can be defeated! Self-worth is diminished when frustration dominates your life, but underneath the belly of futility lays the chance to reclaim your ability to change. High self-esteem means challenging the fear of change by getting to know the inner self. Change-experts have learned to master the art of looking deep down into the self-interior to find curative answers to heal the spirit and to gaze at the genuine self, calling for positive actions and attitudes.

Team Finn: Walking in Newport KY

It is amazing what you can see when you walk for leisure and fun! Send
us pictures of scenic views from your social walking program and we will post
them for others to enjoy!

Team Leisure and Fun: Irish Dancers!

April Blessing: Rejoice!

~submitted by Denise~

April 2012 Employee Wellness Moments

Physical Environment Consider limiting alcohol or additive substances during team functions. List the respectful things that your department does for the earth List the signs of over or under training. As a team discover what are the environmental issues within the local community. Check out the best buy ratings for fitness equipment by Consumer Reports. As a team, evaluate your celebrations and cultural events to see if they are environmentally friendly. What is your definition of fit and unfit? As a team, do you binge trash when you do not have time to separate recyclables? Does your fitness program contain cardio, flexibility, strength, and endurance training? As a team, define your relationship with the environment. Social Spiritual After your work day, how do you manage your free time? As a team or department, reflect on why you exist. Concerning after work, how does your team balance time with friends and family? As a team, evaluate how your values are supported by the work that you do. As a team, how do your members define the social process? Evaluate the growth of your team spiritually. As a team, have you begun to build a strong social network? How can your team increase their comfort level concerning sharing and reducing conflict through successfully reflecting on the issues first? As a team, how do you help new members gain a sense of belonging to your social network? Create gratitude and appreciation moments to inspire and coach others. Nutritional Occupational As a team, how do you support the healthy choices of others? As you prepare for work each day, how can you make this period of the day less stressful? Have a team discussion on how what we eat impacts our other dimensions of wellness. As a team, how can you stay socially connected between social events? As a team, decide what self-imposed food restrictions are nearly impossible to follow. As a team, swap payoffs or advantages of individual career choices Develop a healthy menu evaluation for off-site lunches. Find ten things in a day that makes a positive difference in another individual or team's work day Develop a diet choice network so others can find each other for support. As a team, redesign dreaded tasks Intellectual Emotional As a group identify boring routines. Strive for performance improvement and not perfection By design, help your group become excited about something new. Accept that healthy conflict can be beneficial Goal setting is a form of intellectual wellness, as a team set a new goal. Micro-manage less and promote autonomy. Better time management leaves time for new ideas and creativity. What can your team do with this idea? Share thoughts of happiness and joy often. As a team develop a curiosity for a novel idea in your industry. As a team, realize that your team's emotional wellness is a process that should be nurtured. The employee wellness ideas listed above are low cost/no cost activities that you and your employees can mix or match with previously submitted monthly wellness ideas. The ideas can be used to create wellness moments that focus on the eight dimensions of wellness to enhance your Vital Life Community!