Path to Wellness
Wellness is a journey
It’s impossible to achieve wellness overnight, and wellness is not a one-time event that lasts forever. Wellness is a journey that evolves over the course of one’s life, and each person’s path to wellness may look differently.
Additionally, wellness isn’t just one thing—it involves the whole person, not just the brain or the heart or the body. The most important thing to remember is that although the path to wellness takes time, and effort, even the smallest of steps makes a difference.
We invite you to explore what you might be feeling at this moment. Many of these self-work exercises require ample time, a quiet physical and mental space, and deeply introspective effort. If you would feel more comfortable working through these guided practices with a licensed mental health counselor in the safety of a private session, please visit the SF Counseling Center.
How are you feeling?
Open a path that matches how you feel right now. Each one includes short, guided exercises you can do on your own.
IDK
Do you have some time to think about it a little bit more? We can do some guided meditation if you’d like.
Identifying Your Emotional State
- Find a comfortable position or area.
- Notice your breathing. Take slow, even breaths in. Release your breath slowly. Just focus on breathing for the next minute.
- Shift your attention from your breath and ask yourself: What am I feeling? What emotions am I feeling, right here right now?
- If you sat down for this exercise without any strong emotions, perhaps you're feeling contentment. Or perhaps you're curious, or maybe there's another emotion inside such as longing or yearning, or perhaps sadness or joy, worry, perhaps a sense of urgency. Maybe loneliness. Or maybe you're bursting with pride or feeling lost or envy. Maybe you're having a lot of feelings.
- Try to identify the strongest feeling that you're having and give it a name. Emotions can be complicated and there may not be a name for exactly what you're feeling. You may be anxious, or complacent, or feeling sharp, or flat, or electrified. Try to name your feeling and then say it out loud. Continue to breathe slowly and steadily while you contemplate your feeling.
- Feelings are temporary and cyclical. You will not feel like this forever, and you will also feel like this again. By examining your emotions as you feel them, you're creating a lexicon for understanding yourself and how you interpret your own existence.
By taking this time to understand your emotions, you've engaged in a healthy practice that improves your mind, body, and life.
Great
That's amazing! Why are you in such a great mood? Maybe you're just feeling appreciative of your life today, you just received some good news, you recently accomplished something, or something else entirely.
Congratulations on your good mood!
If you have the time, try to examine your feelings of happiness right now. What about right now is so good? Can you find that same sense of happiness in other situations or instances or is it unique to what’s happening right now?
Understanding the source of our good mood is an important step in understanding how we interpret our own unique experiences.
Stressed
Taking the time to assess your stress is a healthy habit to develop. Choose one of these ways to examine it.
Breathing Exercise and Guided Meditation
Take a moment to follow this breathing exercise. Inhale, hold that breath, then exhale. Repeat 3–5 times.
Slow, meaningful breathing exercises help to regulate your heart rate and alleviate stress. This is also a good moment to examine your stress and try to observe it from a calm state.
Mindful Exercise — Observation without Judgement
It's healthy to experience the full range of emotions throughout your life. No emotions are inherently bad. Rather, it's the meaning that we attach to them that defines our experience of them.
When you're experiencing a strong emotion, try to examine the emotion from the perspective of an outside observer. Emotions are information. They have a cause and an effect. They exist for a reason. They provide valuable insight into ourselves and our environment.
Mindful Exercise — Body Scan Meditation
Find a comfortable place. Settle your body into a relaxing position. You can lie down or sit back in a chair.
Try to slow your breathing. Inhale a long, slow breath. Hold it for a moment. And then release.
Now focus on your big toe. Where is it? How does it feel? Do you have any sensations or emotions attached to it? Take this moment to consider your toe and know that it is here, in this location, and now, at this very time.
Now move your attention up to your foot and repeat the same process. From your foot, move to your legs. Take a moment to continue to contemplate each part of your body from your toes all the way up to your head.
Physical Activity — Walk to Alleviate Stress Through Movement
Take a quick walk around a building, a neighborhood, or even through your home.
Try not to hold tightly onto any one thought or emotion. Rather, allow yourself to exist in the moment and participate with your surroundings.
Life can get stressful. It's important to stop every now and then to ground yourself and your experience. You are Here. Now. Stress is a temporary emotion but an important one. It exists to help us understand ourselves and our environment. As your stress fades, try to observe it leaving and understand the role that it plays in your life.
Angry
Taking the time to examine your anger is a healthy habit to develop.
Breathing
Take a moment to follow this breathing exercise. Inhale, hold that breath, then exhale. Repeat 3–5 times.
Slow, meaningful breathing exercises help to regulate your heart rate and alleviate stress. This is also a good moment to examine your stress and try to observe it from a calm state.
Examining Your Anger
Take this moment to ask yourself, “Why am I feeling angry?” You probably don't need very much time to think of the reason.
After you've identified the reason, ask yourself, “Why?” Why did that make you so upset?
Then, again, challenge that answer: “Why?” What is it about the circumstance, or the people, or your environment, or yourself that made you so angry?
Emotions are information and it's important to study them in order to understand what they're telling us.
Sad
Taking the time to examine your sadness is a healthy habit to develop.
Walk to Alleviate Sadness Through Movement
Take a quick walk around a building, a neighborhood, or even through your home.
Try not to hold tightly onto any one thought or emotion. Rather, allow yourself to exist in the moment and participate with your surroundings.
Anxious
Taking the time to examine your anxiety is a healthy habit to develop.
Observation without Judgement
It's healthy to experience the full range of emotions throughout your life. No emotions are inherently bad. Rather, it's the meaning that we attach to them that defines our experience of them.
When you're experiencing a strong emotion, try to examine the emotion from the perspective of an outside observer. Emotions are information. They have a cause and an effect. They exist for a reason. They provide valuable insight into ourselves and our environment.
Exercise: Body Scan Meditation
Find a comfortable place. Settle your body into a relaxing position. You can lie down or sit back in a chair.
Try to slow your breathing. Inhale a long, slow breath. Hold it for a moment. And then release.
Now focus on your big toe. Where is it? How does it feel? Do you have any sensations or emotions attached to it? Take this moment to consider your toe and know that it is here, in this location, and now, at this very time.
Now move your attention up to your foot and repeat the same process. From your foot, move to your legs. Take a moment to continue to contemplate each part of your body from your toes all the way up to your head.
If there’s more you would like to talk about
If there’s more you would like to talk about or explore, you have free resources available.