PSYCHOLOGICAL WELLNESS IS:
· Knowing yourself: knowing what your real needs are and how to get them met
· Expressing yourself assertively, and not passively or aggressively
· Keeping your body healthy by ensuring adequate nutrition, exercise, rest and physical awareness of when your body is out of balance
· Engaging in an ongoing process of exploring and clarifying your values
· Having the courage to live with integrity: acting in accordance with you deepest values
· Being engaged in projects or work that is meaningful to you and reflects your innermost values
· Knowing how to create and cultivate emotionally intimate and satisfying relationships with others
· Responding to challenges in life as opportunities to learn and grow in strength and maturity, rather than feeling like a victim who is beset by life’s problems
· Actively working to create the life you want, rather than just reacting to what seems to happen to you
· Addressing troublesome physical and psychological symptoms in ways that bring improvement in your condition as well as increased knowledge about yourself
· Enjoying a basic sense of well being and self-confidence even through times of adversity · Knowing your own inner patterns – emotional, cognitive, relational, and physical – and understanding the signals that arise when you choose unhealthy patterns
· Trusting that your own personal resources are your greatest strength for living and growing
· Knowing that you are part of something greater and not separate from other people, the earth, and divinity
· Experiencing your life as a gift and not as a burden
· Experiencing yourself as a person of great value, as being loving and worthy of love.
Shirley Vandersteen, Ph. D., R. Psych.
Consulting Psychologist
