A new month, a new Wellness Challenge, friends! This month, we’re creating new learning habits. But first, let’s recap June’s challenge. As always, let us know how it’s going here in the comments or on Twitter and LinkedIn.
June: Positive Disposition
Last month, we challenged you to choose a positive disposition. The CEEK team positively embraced this challenge, coming away with new insights:
“Since I’m starting out in the professional sphere, I’ve tried to maintain a positive disposition about being in the real world and working. So whenever I felt overwhelmed about tasks given or projects to do, I would tell myself that I can do it (and I did it!). It helped to motivate me to work a bit harder, but it also helped me to communicate because it’s not that I don’t know what I’m doing or I’m incapable, it’s just that I sometimes need/can/should ask for help! And taking out the negative made me feel good.”
“This month we had a graduation party and beach vacation planned. The forecast called for thunderstorms during the party and rain all week on vacation. I chose not to worry about that which I could not control while wisely preparing to host the party indoors. I maintained a positive disposition throughout while avoiding unnecessary stress. Ironically, it did not rain a drop until after our party and the forecasters where dead wrong about our vacation—I have the sun burn to prove it!”
“I found that, by owning my negative emotions or “moments”, I could evolve from them. I learned that the first step is always awareness. Then, by recognition of both the negativity seeping in and the agency that I have in that moment, I can actively “change the frequency” to resonate with how I want to feel: un-bothered, patient, and understanding. The alternative (i.e., not using my agency in that moment) is almost always the same as the source: more negativity, that seeps into the rest of the day!”
July’s Challenge: We challenge you to create a new learning habit.
Wellness is about more than taking care of your body—you also have to take care of your mind and take care to your exercise your mind. Games like crosswords and puzzles can help you improve your working memory, but you need to engage your brain in longer-term, challenging activities to really gain improvements in areas like reasoning, problem solving, short and long term memory, attention to detail, etc. Exercising these areas of your mind has been shown to slow age-related cognitive decline, maintain social skills, and boost self-confidence. Research has also shown that a year of formal education can add half a year or more to your life.
So what can you do?
We challenge you this month to create a new learning habit. Choose one that is right-sized for your existing commitments—commit to reading every day, take a class, learn a new skill, etc. Track your progress and share it with us at the end of the month. CEEK a Better Way®!
