Crafting Your Wellness Vision Statement

Jenna Zaffino:

Hi. I'm Jenna. In this session, I'll be coaching you through a process that will help you begin to create your unique wellness vision statement. Now, I know when you are living with lung disease, it can be challenging to consider what wellness might look like in the future. This is largely because of the way that wellness is portrayed to us in the media and in general. It's often wrapped up in a perfect bow with the perfect food and exercise and treatments and all of the things that may or may not have anything to do with you. And this is wellness marketing. So what I'd like to do to begin is to just wipe the slate clean and remember 2 things.

You are deserved of well-being right now and in your future, and you are worthy of well-being right now and in your future. And while we can't tail our way out of some of the obstacles we face, we can certainly guide ourselves towards behaviors and thoughts and engagements and interactions that help us better experience well-being on a more regular basis. There's a chart I like to reference when talking about wellness called the Travis illness to wellness continuum. On one end of the chart lies illness and on the other end lies wellness and there's a spectrum of conditions and experiences in the middle. When we look at the chart and we look at where someone falls on that continuum, we look less at what they're experiencing in terms of their diagnosis and more at the behaviors or the steps they're taking towards accessing well-being in their life. For example, you might have someone who has a diagnosis of lung disease, who might categorically fall on the end of the continuum that leans more towards illness. However, perhaps they are making steps in their day to day life to pursue the experiences, the relationships, the food, the movement that really helps them feel more whole as a person. And therefore, we would look at those behaviors as an indicator that that person is achieving potentially more wellness than someone who may not be diagnosed and who isn't doing anything to pursue their own well-being or to support it.

So with the idea in mind that we can support ourselves towards experiencing more well-being on a regular basis through the actions we determine contribute to that well-being, Let's get ready to figure out what those are for ourselves. I'd love for you to have a notebook and a pen nearby and also there'll be a download at the bottom of your page that will help you with this process as well. But first, we're gonna start with a little brief visualization. Let's make sure we are in a seated position laying down if you need to. We can have our feet grounded equal weight on both, Rest your hands in your lap or let them hang down by your sides. Just give yourself a few shoulder rolls to relax, to let go of any tension that this doesn't need to be a part of this process. Then, if you're ready, I'll invite you to just pull your gaze inward or close your eyes if you're comfortable. We're going to begin with just some easy breathing, remembering that your breath is different than my breath and vice versa.

I'd like you to just do the best you can to bring yourself into a place where your breathing feels more calm. Your thoughts feel open and your body feels at rest. Like a huge eraser on a blackboard, Let's consider that we have the ability to wipe the slate clean of any expectations surrounding wellness or well-being that maybe don't belong as part of our own personal conversation. So go ahead either in your mind or maybe you take your hand and you make some movements to erase those preconceived notions. Let's get a clean slate to begin. From here, I'd like to invite you to imagine that you can step into a time machine. We're gonna travel to a day in the future, maybe 6 months from now, maybe a year from now, whatever time period makes the most sense for you. And in this day, it is like the perfect day for you.

This day exemplifies your overall well-being, from the moment you wake up to the people you engage enjoy, the sounds, sights, experiences, and then the way you complete the day. Let's take a few moments as if you're watching a video reel of the highlights of this well-being day for yourself. The only ask is that you observe what you're seeing. Just take note of anything that feels important. Take the next few moments to just let your imagination run. Once you've completed your day, let's go through a brief review in your mind. Almost reaching out and snatching up any important elements that surprised you, that are maybe nonnegotiables in your day, that feel like they are very important for you to remember. Once you've taken a few moments to account for those important elements, Let's imagine ourselves getting back into the time machine, traveling back to present day, and when you're ready, blinking your eyes open, bringing some movements into your spine, Just preparing for the next phase of the exercise.

Great work. I'll invite you to take out your notebook and your first step is to immediately record anything that you grabbed up out of that visualization that feels important to you. Remember, these are things that were surprising that your brain just came up with and showed you in this visualization. Things that are important that you know are nonnegotiables. It could be a certain food. It could be a certain interaction with someone. It could be the outdoors or the indoors, a temperature, a color, anything that you know, like, oh, that that's me. That that really lifts me up and makes me feel whole.

These are the types of things we want to be recording. We'll take a few moments. You can pause the video and write them all down. Now that we've got this list of important elements, we're gonna go through with our pen and just circle out some words that feel important, that feel inspiring, and maybe even motivating. Our goal here is just to pull out some more information to try to hone in and refine our vision of what wellness might look like on this very fulfilling day. So, go through your list and circle any words that feel very important to you, very interesting. Take a few moments, you can pause the video if you need more time, and then we'll come back with the 3rd step. Step number 3 is 1 part organization and one part imagination.

Let's take all of the words you circled on the previous page, turn to a new page in your notebook, and write all of those words down in one long column. As you look through the column, you're gonna look for any pairings or couplings of words that might just naturally fit together. Maybe in your visualization, you saw yourself waking up with energy, so you might pair the words wake up, energized, or maybe you visioned yourself waking up, but you didn't write down the word energized. You might imagine what it would feel like for you to wake up in a positive way. The word energy might come to mind and you can take that word and pair it with waking up. It's highly individualized. If these words just serve as inspiration and you can create some new phrasings that feel inspiring, motivating, all good things for you, go forth. We'll be here for a couple moments.

Pause the video if you need more time, and then we'll come back with our final step in this part. Alright. Now that we've got some pairings of words, we've gone through a visualization and we've truly understood what it is we're after when it comes to well-being in our life, it's time to get creative with our first draft. Now, when we begin to write our wellness vision statement, we want to write it in the affirmative. Something that sounds like I am or I insert your verb here. Going with the waking up example, I wake up energized and look forward to starting my day at work. Something that exudes a sense of positivity, a sense of positive anticipation, maybe excitement, but also that feels realistic. Some examples are, I nourish myself at breakfast and move into my workday feeling energized and focused.

Even though this is not a huge overarching statement that covers all aspects of your vision for your well-being, It is a really good start, and as we know from goal setting, the more specific and focused you can be with your intentions, the more likely you are to meet those intentions easily. So, in this step, let's take those couplings of words and see if you can fit them in to a compelling personalized vision statement for your well-being, starting either with I am or I, and then some sort of action that you do in the affirmative. Take the time you need. Pause the video for more time. You might remember that when we started, I said the intention was to begin to write your unique wellness vision statement, and that's just what we've done. We have begun. You have what is effectively a first draft, even if it's not complete. And this is enough.

You don't need anything more or anything less right now. Our next step is going to be refining and testing whether or not this vision statement truly reflects what we're intending to be experiencing in our lives. So your weaving well-being tip is to take this first draft, however imperfect, and write it down someplace that you will see it on a regular basis. My best advice is always the bathroom mirror, so you can post it on a post it or a piece of paper and see it every single day while you're brushing your teeth or doing your makeup or whatever it is you do in the bathroom. We want to have some regular face time with this wellness vision statement so that we can kind of test it and see, is this still resonating with me? Am I inspired by this? And finally, how can I begin to take action towards this statement? Going back to the example of the statement starting with I wake up feeling energized, perhaps that can be a good nudge towards the action item of going to bed at a regular time each night. And that could be your first step that you take towards realizing this vision for your own well-being. If you have determined that there is something in your wellness vision statement surrounding nutrition or your movement habits or even your relationships, I'll invite you to consider the first and maybe most obvious step that you can take towards supporting that vision. And let me remind you that often the steps in the beginning are simple and somewhat boring because consistency breeds sustainability, whereas these big perfect programs really breed a lot of programs that don't work.

We wanna be choosing action items that truly reflect our unique vision for our wellness and our things that we're more likely to do regularly. Think simple, think consistent, think motivating. So, with that said, I'm excited for you to get going on this first step of your wellness vision statement. And in a follow-up video, we'll talk a little bit more about supporting and refining this statement as we move forward. Thanks for being here. Remember, you are strong, resilient and the small moments matter. Best of luck as you move forward creating your statement, and I'll see you soon.