A Word on Wellness: Cultivating Well-Being
As is oft quoted, well-being is a journey, not a destination. An essential aspect of the journey is finding and maintaining routines, supports and resources that work for you. This is often easier said than done. What works for some may not work for others, and what works at one point in your life may not work or be possible at other times. It can also be difficult to determine how to concretely incorporate new ideas into your everyday, busy life. Fortunately, there are free resources to help get you started or to add to your toolbox.
For the 2022 Well-Being Week in Law, the Institute for Well-Being in Law developed a suggested five-day schedule that provides tips and activities that you can participate individually or with colleagues, friends and family. Each of the five days is focused on a different dimension of overall well-being, including physical, spiritual, career and intellectual, social and emotional. There are also options in the type of resources available, including articles, podcasts, guides, challenges and recorded webinars. Whether you follow the suggested schedule or explore the resources as your time allows is up to you. Assist and CBA-Alberta have sponsored Well-Being in Law Week during the first week of May. Watch for Alberta-specific content this spring.
Mind, a mental health charity based in England, has developed Guides to Wellness Action Plans to help you reflect on the things that support your daily mental health and well-being at work. Mind defines a Wellness Action Plan as “a personalized, practice tool that we can all use – whether we have a mental health problem or not – to help us identify what keeps us well at work, what causes us to become unwell, and how to address a mental health problem at work should you be experiencing one.” There are guides for people working in a workplace, people working remotely and people working in a hybrid arrangement. Each guide includes definitions, information to get started with a Wellness Action Plan, a fillable template with guiding questions, and information on sharing your plan with others who can support your well-being. Mind also offers a Guide for Managers that includes information on how to support your team to develop and implement a Wellness Action Plan and maintain your own well-being.
Cultivating well-being can be a challenge, but the benefits of taking time to find and prioritize what works for you are worth it.