Be Well Counselling

23/04/2024

Day 2: Financial Wellness
On day 1 we touched on the importance of planning in achieving financial wellbeing. Today, let's dive deeper into what that planning entails and how you can take actionable steps towards your financial goals.

Understanding Your Finances:
The first step towards financial empowerment is gaining a clear understanding of your financial landscape. Take a moment to assess your income, expenses, and overall financial health. Dive into your bank statements, track your spending habits, and identify areas where you can cut back or optimize your expenses. By having a comprehensive view of your finances, you can make informed decisions and lay a strong foundation for your financial future.

Setting Objectives:
Once you've assessed your current financial situation, it's time to set objectives. What are your short-term and long-term financial goals? Do you aspire to buy a house, start a business, travel the
world, or retire comfortably? Setting specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals gives you
clarity and direction. Break down your objectives into actionable steps, and create a timeline to track your progress. Whether it's paying off debt, saving for a down payment, or investing in your education, having tangible goals motivates you to stay focused and committed to your financial journey.

Savings and Retirement Planning:
No financial plan is complete without addressing savings and retirement planning. Building an emergency fund is essential to provide a safety net for unexpected expenses such as medical emergencies, car repairs, or job loss. Aim to save at least three to six months' worth of living expenses in an easily accessible account.

Additionally, prioritize investing in retirement accounts
or pension plans to secure your financial future. Take advantage of employer-sponsored retirement plans and contribute enough to receive the maximum employer match, if available. By starting early and consistently investing in retirement accounts, you can harness the power of compounding interest and build a substantial nest egg for your golden years.

Today's Task:
Now that you understand the key components of financial planning, it's time to take action! Take some time today to review your finances, set SMART goals, and create a roadmap for achieving them. Identify areas where you can optimize your spending, allocate funds towards savings and investments, and establish a timeline for reaching your financial milestones. Remember, every small step you take today brings you closer to a brighter financial future.

Setting SMART goals ensures that your objectives are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Follow these steps to create your own SMART financial goals:

1. Specific:
Define exactly what you want to achieve. Be clear and precise about your financial goal.
Example: Instead of saying "I want to save money," specify "I want to save R10,000 for a down payment on a house."

2. Measurable:
Establish criteria for measuring your progress and success. Determine how you will track your goal.
Example: Track your savings progress monthly or quarterly to ensure you're on target to reach R10,000 by your desired deadline.

3. Achievable:
Ensure that your goal is realistic and attainable within your current financial situation.
Example: If your current savings rate allows you to save R500 per month, setting a goal to save R10,000 within six months may not be achievable. Adjust your timeline or savings target accordingly.

4. Relevant:
Ensure that your goal aligns with your overall financial objectives and priorities.
Example: If your long-term goal is to become debt-free, setting a savings goal instead of focusing on debt repayment may not be the most relevant priority at this time.

5. Time-bound:
Set a deadline for achieving your goal. Establishing a timeframe creates a sense of urgency and accountability.
Example: Set a deadline to save R10,000 within 12 months, providing a clear timeline to work towards your goal.

Exercise Instructions:
1. Take out a piece of paper or open a document on your computer.
2. Write down a financial goal you want to achieve.
3. Use the SMART criteria to refine your goal. Ask yourself:
- Is my goal specific and clearly defined?
- How will I measure my progress towards this goal?
- Is this goal realistic given my current financial situation?
- Does this goal align with my overall financial objectives?
- Have I set a deadline for achieving this goal?
4. Revise your goal based on your answers to ensure it meets all SMART criteria.
5. Write down your SMART financial goal in a place where you can see it regularly to stay motivated and focused.

20/04/2024

Financial Wellness
Day 1: The Foundations of Financial Satisfaction

Financial wellness is one of the dimensions of wellness, which encompasses the overall satisfaction and security in one's current and future financial situation. It involves effectively managing financial resources, setting and achieving financial goals, and feeling confident in one's ability to handle financial challenges. Financial wellness contributes to an individual's overall well-being by reducing stress, providing stability, and enabling them to pursue their life goals and aspirations without financial constraints.

Today, let's delve into the essence of Financial Wellness. It's not just about the numbers in your bank account; it's about feeling content and secure in your financial present and future. Think about it: someone earning R70,000 a year might actually feel more financially stable and satisfied than someone making R150,000 annually. It's all about perspective and how you manage what you have!

Research consistently shows that those who feel financially secure are often more productive at work. Why? Because when you're not constantly stressed about money, you can focus better, be more creative, and ultimately, achieve greater success in your endeavors.

So, what's the secret sauce to achieving this financial nirvana? Planning! Yes, it's all in the preparation. You need to map out your financial journey, set clear objectives, devise a savings strategy, and plan for your retirement. These aren't just lofty dreams; they're essential steps toward building a financially healthy life.

Today's task: Take a moment to reflect on your financial goals. What do you want to achieve? What steps can you take to get there?

19/04/2024

Day 3 of Social Wellness

Community Connections: The Heart of Social Wellness

Our communities are the tapestries that weave together the fabric of our social lives. Contributing to our communities not only enriches the lives of others but also enhances our own social wellness in profound ways.

Volunteering is a powerful way to connect with our communities while making a tangible difference. Whether it's mentoring a child, planting trees, or supporting local charities, each act of service strengthens the bonds that bind us together.

But community connections extend beyond formal volunteer work. It's about showing up for our neighbors, supporting local businesses, and being active participants in the life of our towns and cities. From block parties to community clean-ups, every interaction builds a sense of belonging and camaraderie.

It is also crucial to recognize that social wellness doesn't mean tolerating unnecessary drama or toxic relationships in our lives. Just as contributing positively to our communities enhances our well-being, setting boundaries and surrounding ourselves with supportive, uplifting individuals is equally important. By prioritizing healthy connections and actively avoiding drama, we create space for authentic relationships and cultivate a more nurturing social environment.

So, embrace the spirit of community and nurture the connections that sustain us. Together, we can create vibrant, inclusive communities where everyone feels valued and supported.

18/04/2024

Day 2: Building Bridges: The Power of Effective Communication

Effective communication is the bridge that connects us to others, fostering understanding, empathy, and cooperation. Whether it's resolving conflicts with coworkers, expressing our needs in relationships, or simply engaging in meaningful conversations, honing our communication skills is essential for social wellness.

Active listening is the foundation of effective communication. It's not just about hearing words; it's about understanding the underlying emotions and perspectives. By truly listening to others, we validate their experiences and strengthen our connections.

Here's a simple yet effective exercise to improve active listening skills:
1. Pair up with a partner: Find a quiet space where you and your partner can sit facing each other comfortably.

2. Choose a topic: Select a topic that both of you are interested in or curious about. It could be anything from favorite hobbies to recent news events.

3. Set a time limit: Decide on a specific time limit for each person to speak. Start with something manageable, like 3-5 minutes per person.

4. Practice listening without interruption: When one person is speaking, the other's role is to listen actively without interrupting. Focus on the speaker's words, tone, and body language.

5. Reflective listening: After the speaker finishes, the listener should summarize what they heard. This helps ensure understanding and shows the speaker that you were actively engaged.

6. Switch roles: Once both partners have had a chance to speak and listen, switch roles and repeat the process with a new topic or continuation of the previous one.

7. Reflect on the experience: After completing the exercise, take a moment to reflect on what you noticed about your listening skills. Consider what strategies were helpful and what areas you could improve upon.

This exercise helps develop active listening skills by encouraging focused attention, empathy, and understanding of the speaker's perspective.

Empathy is another crucial component. Putting ourselves in someone else's shoes allows us to appreciate their feelings and respond with compassion. This empathy creates bonds of trust and support, enriching our social interactions.

And let's not forget the importance of clear expression. Being able to articulate our thoughts and feelings helps us avoid misunderstandings and ensures that our message is received as intended.

Here's a simple exercise to help improve articulation of thoughts and feelings:
1. Journaling: Set aside a few minutes each day to write in a journal. Start by jotting down your thoughts and feelings about your day, recent experiences, or any topic that comes to mind.

2. Reflective Questions: Choose a prompt or question to guide your writing. For example, "What made me feel proud today?" or "What challenges did I face, and how did I overcome them?"

3. Mind Mapping: Use a blank piece of paper or a mind mapping tool to visually organize your thoughts and feelings. Start with a central idea or emotion and branch out with related thoughts and associations.

4. Describe Sensory Experiences: Practice articulating your experiences using all five senses. Close your eyes and recall a recent event or moment, then describe it in detail, focusing on what you saw, heard, felt, smelled, and tasted.

5. Role-playing: Pair up with a friend or family member and take turns expressing your thoughts and feelings on a given topic. Practice active listening as your partner shares, then switch roles.

6. Practice Speaking Aloud: Stand in front of a mirror or record yourself speaking about a topic or sharing your feelings. Pay attention to your tone, pacing, and clarity of expression.

7. Seek Feedback: Share your writing or verbal expressions with someone you trust and ask for feedback. This can help you identify areas for improvement and gain insight into how others perceive your communication.

By regularly engaging in exercises like these, you can strengthen your ability to articulate thoughts and feelings with clarity and confidence.

So, let's continue to sharpen our communication skills, one conversation at a time. Together, we can cultivate healthier, more fulfilling relationships and communities.

15/04/2024

Enhancing Your Social Wellness
Social wellness is one of the eight dimensions of wellness, focusing on developing healthy relationships, fostering a sense of belonging, and building a strong support network. It involves engaging in meaningful interactions with others, contributing to one's community, and practicing effective communication skills. Social wellness acknowledges the importance of connection and belonging in promoting overall well-being and emphasizes the value of relationships and social connections in leading a fulfilling life.

Social wellness isn't just about having friends; it's about fostering meaningful connections, feeling a sense of belonging, and having a robust support system. One of the key ingredients to achieving this is spending quality time with close friends. Whether it's catching up over coffee or going for a hike together, these moments strengthen the bonds that keep us grounded and uplifted.

But social wellness goes beyond our immediate circle. It's about being an active member of our community. Volunteering not only allows us to give back but also opens doors to new friendships and social skills. Whether you're tutoring kids, serving meals at a shelter, or cleaning up a local park, you're not only making a difference but also enriching your own life in the process.

Effective communication is the cornerstone of social adeptness. It's about more than just talking; it's about listening actively, empathizing, and expressing ourselves clearly. When we master these skills, we can navigate conflicts with grace and deepen our connections with others.

Stay tuned for more tips on how to boost your social wellness! Remember, every small step you take brings you closer to a more fulfilling social life.

09/01/2024

After a lot of work, and maybe some crying, my workbook "30 Days to Me: Building Better Self-care Habits In 30 Days" is finally finished.

Self-care is something that we often neglect either because we just don't have the time or because we don't always know where to start.

30 Days to Me is a printable PDF self-care workbook designed to help you build better self-care habits. There are 30 worksheets (over 90pages), and 14 affirmation cards included to start you on your journey to help take better care of yourself.

30 Days to Me: Building Better Self-care Habits in 30 Days - R70
To get yours simply e-mail me at bewellcounselling.mc@gmail.com or alternatively WhatsApp on 066 155 4981

19/05/2023

Our third and final day of exploring Physical Wellness.

An important note on Physical Wellness: Body positivity is a must if we are to ever further ourselves. This does not mean endorsing obesity and bodily deformation processes, but rather accepting our bodies as they are, whether you have freckles or not, whether you don't like the colour of your eyes. Name it. The goal of body positivity is to guide you into accepting those parts of your body that fall outside of the "accepted" social norm.

When we see ourselves through a lens of lack or poverty, we take away from ourselves. When we look at our perceived flaws and make peace with them and accepting them as part of ourselves, we add to our lives and diminish the possibility of falling into the trap of comparison.

In this world there is a constant flow of comparison. We compare ourselves to our friends, family, colleagues, and even total strangers. The media, whether print or digital is the biggest offender here. We are constantly bombarded with what is socially acceptable, from the way we look to the jobs we have and the cars we drive. Within this cyclone of must haves and comparison, it is easy to forget that we are individuals of diversity. Society has created a perceived need where there is no actual need. Take for example to cover models of Men’s Health, Cosmopolitan or even Huisgenoot. Men and women are constantly told that having a ripping six-pack and toned legs are the only socially acceptable way for us to look, even if it means injecting yourself with steroids and going on an unrealistic diet that forces you to eat garden snails and cat litter.

The idea of loving our selves, our bodies and personalities, has become such a point of irritation to our psyche because of exactly what is happening around us. But if loving ourselves carries so much power that it affects aspects of our wellness, why do we fight against it so much. Yes, we all have things we would like to change, whether it is losing a few kilos, getting braces or overcoming certain unwanted responses, but that can only effectively happen once we have learned to accept and love the flaws we have.

Be kind to your body, be kind to yourself and remember, every dead body on Mt Everest was once a highly determined person, so maybe calm down and do what is realistically attainable.

Below are two practical things for you to do to help plan your Physical Wellness journey, as well as two recipes for you to help with some Physical Wellness activities (Soaking in a bath counts).

Enjoy
Be kind
Be Well

18/05/2023

Onto day 2 of exploring Physical Wellness.

Today we will be looking at Three Aspects of Physical Wellness

FITNESS
Fitness is the first element of physical wellbeing and has to do with the body's capacity to do everyday activities. How effectively can the muscles move the body by pulling on the bones? Can you effortlessly do the tasks that must be completed each day without feeling tired? Cardiovascular health, or how well the heart and lungs function together, is a component of fitness. Exercises that increase cardiovascular fitness include walking, jogging, swimming, bicycling, and dancing. You'll feel more energized as your heart and lungs strengthen. A significant motivation to increase your cardiovascular fitness is to be able to complete everyday tasks with less effort.

Another aspect of fitness is resistance training, sometimes known as strength training. Strengthening exercises include weightlifting, resistance band work, and aquatic exercise. Your skeleton is stabilized by increasing bone strength. Your risk of falling is decreased by having sturdy bones and powerful muscles.
Your fitness will increase if you engage in both strength training and cardiovascular activity.

NUTRITION
Your body requires food as fuel to survive. You will get high-caliber outcomes if you provide your body with high-caliber nourishment. Sadly, the opposite is also true: if you give your body crap, you'll feel rubbish. Any quick Google search will show the enormous variety of well-liked dietary theories. There is a lot of nutrition knowledge that is motivated by fads, even when adhering to a certain nutrition philosophy which may have solid scientific support. Additionally, since every individual is unique, there is no "magic bullet" diet that works for everyone. Giving your body a solid dietary basis aids in maintaining overall health.
Eating nutrient-dense foods and paying attention to your body's indications about when it is full may boost your physical wellbeing. Again, it seems too simple to be true. But sometimes we shouldn’t ignore the obvious!

HYDRATION
Enough water consumption can enhance your physical wellbeing at little to no cost to you. If we consume adequate water, we provide our body the best possible chance to perform hundreds of fundamental and crucial tasks. But dehydration can cause a variety of unpleasant symptoms, including weariness, headaches, backaches, and cognitive dullness (brain fog). It is impossible to over-stress the value of being hydrated. Water is essential to many human functions, including maintaining cell health and controlling body temperature. The body can more readily digest the nutrient-dense meals we eat if we drink plenty of water. Water also aids in lubricating the joints used during physical activity. The simplest actions might actually provide the greatest effects.

Physical wellbeing is influenced by water, diet, and exercise when they are combined. Additionally, since we spend the majority of our time in our bodies, our mood and social relationships are enhanced when we feel well physically. You feel good when you're feeling good! That is wellbeing, not simply health.

Some things that can be done to promote Physical Wellness are:

Stretching and flexibility activities which are a great addition to an active lifestyle. They improve circulation and range of motion, decrease joint stiffness and muscle tension, enhance performance, and can lead to better posture.

Moderate intensity activity is a good option for everyone, and it is especially beneficial for those just starting to add more activity to their life. These activities include Bike riding, golfing, playing frisbee, washing your car, gardening, quick walking, and yoga.

Forcing yourself to move your body in a way you don’t enjoy will feel more like an assignment that you dread instead of something that excites you. Find movement that makes you happy and you look forward to doing, because you are more likely to continue it long term.

It’s helpful to schedule time to move your body, just like you schedule your classes and work. You are making a commitment to yourself to dedicate a specific part of your day to improving your health and well-being. You can schedule a 30-60 minute chunk of time or break up your movement into smaller bouts throughout the day. If scheduling a time to be active doesn’t work for you, then think of ways you can stay active throughout the day by adding in small, frequent movement breaks. Ask yourself, how can I move more throughout the day?

Here are some tips to move more throughout your day:

o Stand or stretch every hour during a long study session. Set alarms on your phone to remind you take movement breaks.
o Use breaks in between and during classes to take walks
o Take your coffee and go for a walk with a friend instead of sitting at a cafe
o Take the stairs instead of an elevator, if you’re able
o Bike or walk to class
o Get off the bus one stop earlier and walk the rest of the way
o Go for a walk to call a friend or family member
o Do a quick workout video while you wait for dinner to cook

My good friend over at Vitality daily offers nutritional consultation should you feel that you need some guidance or even if you don’t know where to start. I highly recommend getting in touch to help you on your way to nutritional health.

17/05/2023

Wellness is not the absence of disease, illness, and stress but the presence of:
• Purpose in life
• Active involvement in satisfying work and play
• Joyful relationships
• A healthy body and living environment
• Happiness

Wellness is a conscious, deliberate process that requires being aware of and making choices for a more satisfying lifestyle. Being conscious of who we are as full beings, with balance and contentment included, is part of wellness.

Wellness is a broad concept. I invite you to think of wellness as meaning being healthy in many dimensions of our lives. That includes the emotional, physical, occupational, intellectual, financial, social, environmental, and spiritual parts. These dimensions are interconnected, one dimension building on another.

We start off our journey of becoming aware of wellness by looking at Physical Wellness.

Physical Wellness is recognizing the need for physical activity. Wellness can overall benefit greatly from exercise. It increases your likelihood of living longer and in better health, lessens the signs of despair and anxiety, lifts your spirits, and stops weight gain. Being physically healthy has several facets, among them exercise. Showering, cleaning your teeth, and seeing the doctor for check-ups are all methods to take better care of your physical wellness.
Respecting your body will eventually make you physically healthier.

We will look at some aspects of Physical Wellness and how we can help maintain our wellness on a physical level over the next three days as I share some insights into this dimension of wellness as well as some practical examples.

Stay Tuned...

05/05/2023

28/04/2023

Body scanning as a mindfulness practice has much more to offer us than just sitting on the floor and trying to calm our nervous system.

Physical stress may be released through body scan meditation, even if you aren't aware of any stress. Body scanning is the practice of paying attention to various body parts and physical sensations in a natural progression from the feet to the head.

By mentally going over every region of your body, you become aware of any aches, pains, tension, or overall discomfort. The objective is to understand the pain and learn from it so that you can better handle it rather than fully eliminate it.

Body scan meditation has several advantages for both mental and physical health, and it is best when practiced regularly (or even multiple times each day). According to research, one of the main advantages of body scan meditation is stress reduction, which can also have health advantages including less inflammation, weariness, and insomnia (Black et al., 2015).
The cycle of physical and psychological strain that might feed on itself is broken in this way by the body scanning meditation.

When you feel overly tense, the body scan meditation can help you quickly and easily get back to, and stay in, a calm state.

Reference: Black DS, O’Reilly GA, Olmstead R, Breen EC, Irwin MR. Mindfulness meditation and improvement in sleep quality and daytime impairment among older adults with sleep disturbances: A randomized clinical trial. JAMA Intern Med. 2015;175(4):494-501. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2014.8081

For a guided body scan meditation, click https://rb.gy/cec71