Your ultimate (realistic) last-minute guide to making the most of the days before Christmas
Amid all the hustle, staying organised and finding small ways to recharge in the last-minute days before Christmas can help you navigate this busy time.
Your Story of My Life Journal helps you map out a plan for where you want to go and how you’ll get there by utilising the guiderails of the 8 Dimensions of Wellness.
These eight areas provide structure and focus.
They were first developed by Margaret Swarbrick in 1997, then expanded about a decade later, and have held firm since.
They are used extensively in psychiatry and psychology in developing a healthy balance in mental wellbeing.
The following are the dimensions, what they represent, and what your goals for each will reflect:
Looking after your body and forming positive physical habits encompassing nutrition, exercise, sleep, health care, and substance use.
This can include practises such as: establishing a healthy diet; limiting take-away/fast food; setting food/exercise goals to achieve each day/week/month/year; exercising every day; understanding your healthy weight range and making a plan to achieve it; regularly weighing yourself to monitor progress and adapt habits; getting a minimum 7-8hrs sleep each night; limiting screen-time prior to sleep; developing a strategy to reduce or eliminate tobacco, alcohol, and/or other drug use; visiting your doctor and dentist at the recommended intervals for routine assessments.
Keeping your mind active and your intellect expanding through engaging in new experiences and learning new soft and hard skills.
This can include practises such as: finding ways to share your skills and passions with others; undertaking a class, workshop, or course that aligns with your values and interests; setting goals for reading books; identifying and taking up a new hobby or sport that appeals to your interests; attend a cultural event (lecture, musical performance, play etc); learn a new language; stay up to date with news and current affairs.
Effectively managing your feelings and emotions, ensuring you dedicate time to caring for yourself, and learning to handle stress.
This can include practises such as: identifying parts of your personality you want to change, and working out a plan to do so; reflecting on your emotions and your reactions and learning from them; the act of journaling; developing positive habits to regulate emotions; finding a private place in which you can completely be yourself; routinely assigning time for an activity that brings you happiness and joy; establishing a healthy sleep routine; practising positive affirmations and visualisations for yourself; practising gratitude; establishing relaxation techniques; Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)/Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) exercises to interrupt and balance negative thought patterns.
Dedicating time to activities and pursuits that represent the True You. Activities and actions that align directly to your personal beliefs and values, and that bring a sense of meaning, purpose, balance, and peace to your life.
This can include practises such as: deepening your understanding of yourself and what underpins your concept of identity; exploring the beliefs of others to deepen your understanding and connection to others and yourself; taking part in hobbies and groups (such as sport or community) that align with your passions; supporting others in alignment with your values and passions; practising meditation.
Establishing and maintaining positive relationships, from an intimate partner, to friends, family, and the community. Ensuring those relationships are healthy, addressing those that are not, and cultivating an interest and concern for the needs of others.
This can include practises such as: scheduling time for ‘date nights’; establishing a routine of regularly catching up with friends for coffee; participating in social activities; routines for maintaining strong bonds with family (weekly call/catch-up with your parents/siblings); ensuring you have opportunities to meet new people (joining a sports team, art class etc); consciously considering and recognising unhealthy relationships, and forming a plan to correct/end them; identify broken-down relationships you wish to mend but might have been ignoring, and forming a plan to correct them; creating a calendar of opportunities to connect with family and friends.
Aligning your work and career pursuits to your values, interests, and beliefs, to ensure you foster meaning and purpose in an area of life that often occupies a great deal of your time and energy.
This can include practises such as: establishing a side business that aligns with your values and passions; volunteering in an area that interests you; ensuring you are engaged in a vocational activity every weekday, to keep your mind and body engaged; developing a career plan; changing or setting up new behaviours and routines that cultivate success at work; considering a career change (if practical) into a field that more closely aligns with your values; enrolling in classes/a course that aligns with your values and interests; ensuring your time in this area is balanced with other areas of your life.
Ensuring you understand your current financial position, and establishing practises, behaviours, and strategies that lead to a positive financial situation for yourself and those you care for/about, both now and into the future.
This can include practises such as: analysing your current financial position to know exactly where you’re at; creating a comprehensive budget that ensures you maintain balance and know where your money is going; contact service providers, utilities, and your bank to request financial assistance plans and support; identifying/developing opportunities to earn additional income, if required; establishing savings account ‘buckets’ to silo and protect the money required for needs, over wants; developing a plan to eradicate debt; seeking financial advice from a professional; establishing long-term bonds to provide future security for your children; reading books on topics on which you want to up-skill.
Connecting and contributing to the communities in which you live and work, starting with your home and expanding from there, to ensure you and your environments are pleasant, stimulating, and foster positive wellbeing and are conducive to positive outcomes.
This can include practises such as: establishing positive routines and habits in your house and community, such as recycling and sustainable living; finding ways to reduce power and water consumption; spending time outdoors and in your community; finding ways to use your skills and volunteering to assist your local community; supporting a charity that aligns with your values; ensuring your home environment is in a state (clean and tidy) that supports your goals (such as, making sure your bedroom is in a state that reflects sleep); making a schedule that helps you maintain your living areas; decorate and organise your spaces in ways that align with your tastes and that inspire you; participating in groups at work devoted to increasing staff morale and improving the workplace.
From your weekly companion, to your daily support tool – SOML has you covered.
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Story of My Life Journal acknowledges the Wadjuk people of the Noongar Nation as the Traditional Custodians of this Noongar boodjar (Noongar land) on which we operate.
We acknowledge that sovereignty was never ceded, and we thank and pay respect to Aboriginal Elders – past, present, and emerging – for their continuous love and custodianship of the land and waterways we now get to experience and enjoy, from Boorloo (Perth) and the Derbal Yerrigan (Swan River) and beyond.
The Aboriginal people are recognised for telling and sharing stories with one another, and the Story of My Life Journal team draws inspiration from the oldest living culture in the world, as we share stories of our own and support others in understanding theirs.
Always was. Always will be.
