Well-being is a continuous process touching six aspects of life. Jeffrey shares his three daily practices: 'Me time,' meditative activity, and meditation for cultivating mind and body fitness.
As defined by the National Task Force for Lawyer Well-Being (I'm a recovering lawyer), well-being is a continuous process—we can be well today or tomorrow, and maybe not so much next week or next month.
In addition, well-being is defined by the National Task Force as touching upon six different aspects of life: Intellectual, Professional, Social, Spiritual, Physical and Emotional. The idea is that we can be humming along quite nicely in one or more aspects of life and feel generally well, notwithstanding the fact that we may not be doing so well in others. Of course, that can (and almost inevitably, will) change--which gets back to the underlying notion that well-being is continuous, and ever-changing.
What particular well-being practices do I subscribe to? Well, I'm currently working on a book (I seem so think most clearly when I write things down), about three practices that I incorporate into my daily routine (both when I was practicing, and now that I retired): 1) "Me time", 2) Meditative activity, and 3) Meditation—all of which are aimed at cultivating both mind and body fitness, as well as two other important things: Nutrition and rest (sleep).
"Me time" can be different things, for different people, but the idea is rooted in self-care. In my case, that usually involves some form of positive ideation and a liberal dose of nature-- real, imagined or pictorial.
"Meditative activity" is part two of my daily elixir (inspired by the movie Free Solo). It's all about awareness of thoughts and emotions—how I am feeling at a given point in time. Whether that awareness comes while simply sitting, or as an incident to some form of exercise or activity, is really irrelevant. In point of fact, for those of us who may be best able to access awareness of thought and emotion through some sort of movement, there is the added benefit (which is important to some) that what we are up to inwardly, is not perceivable outwardly.
"Meditation" is, for me, where the proverbial rubber hits the road. Although it's definitely necessary that we learn to develop an awareness of our thoughts and emotions, we ultimately need to develop a strategy to skillfully process them, in a way that is personally and professionally—and socially—appropriate. I think the best way to do that is to regularly exercise what I call the "let-it-go" muscle. Letting thoughts and emotions pass, without attaching a particular significance to them, and without judging or evaluating them. Simple, but not easy!
"Me time" is sometimes just a minute of reflection, one or more times a day. It often comes in the form of a relatively short burst, and almost always includes a deep breath, or two. Or three. "Meditative activity" is usually practicing yoga, or walking (I can't run any more, after getting arthroscopic surgery). Even walking the dog can sometimes scratch that itch! Once the weather gets better, it'll probably include swimming in Lake Michigan. "Meditation"—formal, seated meditation—is a habit I always make time for. The time of day can differ, depending on what else I have planned, but I've been thinking of tacking it on to the end of my meditative activity—being in a meditative frame of mind at the beginning of a formal meditation makes a lot of sense to me.
I wish I had become aware of the importance of well-being when I was younger—by the time I reached my fifties, I had already lost a lot of time and done a lot of damage. But better late, than never! I used to be a typical hard-driving hot-head, who routinely burned bridges and thought most everything I didn't like, was somebody else's fault. These days, I move a bit slower, and am not nearly as emotionally out-of-control. I've also given up the blame-game, and no longer think that everything bad is somebody else's fault.
There's a lot more to be said, but this short, introductory blog is not the place to do that. I'm just grateful for The Wellness Esquire and the community of like-minded souls Ariella is building. There are more of us than some would like to believe!