Are you developing your well-being – or are you waiting for it to take care of itself?

In many cases, it may be perfectly fine to keep going in the usual tracks, but have you ever questioned your way, your systems, your way of thinking and acting and handling situations? Many questions, but a lot of it is about how we have programmed ourselves and thus created our automatic way. We are constantly fed impressions from the outside world, which happens through repetition. We are fed negativities and this affects our whole being, how we perceive our life and the outside world. This in turn contributes to us not seeing all the opportunities that are always within our reach. All the bad things take over, create stress, boredom and we lose grip on life and end up in a wheel that just spins by itself. Have you summarized last year, would it be appropriate to write down everything that was positive? As I said, it is easy to program negativities into our brain, we are designed to receive negativities and listen to them, this is to trigger our flight or fight system. If the input happens regularly, then it becomes part of our automaticity, it becomes a habitual way of thinking and acting, something we are. But it is possible to reprogram, to program in a new automaticity, yes in the same way through repetition. But a basic prerequisite for this to be possible is to become aware of oneself and one's inner self, how I live, how I function, think, act and react.

Our well-being is a whole of several components. I am convinced that we all want to feel good, and many times we are willing to invest in ourselves. We want to develop our own well-being, live sustainably, challenge our routines and ways. That is where the problem comes in; we want to, but it feels too heavy to work towards a change. Most often we take the most common components and change them, such as our diet and exercise habits. Of course, these two components are important in being able to develop our well-being in a positive direction, as long as it happens to a healthy extent. But our well-being is not only comprised of what we eat and that we move. Of course, they are concrete and easy to measure, and we know them. But our well-being is also built up by the mental. We are a whole; all parts affect and are dependent on each other. If you exercise and eat healthily, but on the other hand are stressed and constantly in a rush, it can easily affect, for example, your night's sleep. After a bad night's sleep, your mood, energy and performance are likely to be suboptimal, not to mention prolonged. This in turn affects the quality of your exercise, and you may not be able to stick to your diet in the long run either. When this continues, well, you're in the wheel I mentioned, it just spins by itself and the ability to see your own possibilities disappears.

Developing ourselves mentally is easily forgotten or perceived as sensitive to tackle. We want to hide away difficult thoughts and feelings, and it can feel impossible to get out of the current situation; it is simply too hard. We may not have the ability to see our possibilities and in a way approve of the situation. What does it mean to develop our mental self? I want to say that we need to regularly train mentally, in the same way that we train physically. It is not about being mentally ill and that we have to train to become healthy. If you do not feel mentally ill, you do not need to do anything about it. It is more about finding balance, because when you are in balance, all the components that make you up work together.

Just by getting down to business, going inside yourself, feeling and following your own breathing has a decisive effect on our well-being, getting a grip on the moment. You have your breathing with you all the time, how often do you usually follow your breathing? Have you experienced the effect? We have all heard that it is important to be present, to live here and now. How do you do that and how do you know if you are present? It is also something we need to practice, to practice without making it a performance. Because maybe your life is already a single performance?

There are so many different offers on courses, literature, webinars, podcasts and other information to help you. I am convinced that there are tools and solutions that work and are right for you. Behind all this are people who have created material based on their own studies and experiences, people who have created training programs for inner development. Just like a personal trainer creates exercise training programs.

If you exercise according to a program, it works if you do it regularly. The same applies when we train our way of thinking, acting and reacting. Give yourself the opportunity to constantly develop yourself more, we are never finished. Even our employers emphasize continuous development, we can always get better and create new ways.

But do you find it a challenge to know, for example, which course to take, which course will give you everything in the shortest time and in the most effective way? It doesn't work that way, but you get small pieces, something to apply, something that awakens your consciousness, something that provides new information, something that creates motivation, gives tips on how to do and think, something to practice. I want to encourage you to take part in as much as possible, gain insight into different angles and perspectives. Hopefully, you don't train with the same training program year in and year out or eat the same dish every day. But you vary, change and renew. Take hold and see your opportunities to grow and become a more balanced and strong self, be open and start your development process that lasts a lifetime.

Tanja Wickström/With You Personal and Mental Training