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Health & Fitness

Bringing in the New Year with Positivity

SmartCare thought we would start a New Year's tradition of breaking out of the mold of making New Year's Resolutions; focusing on basic goodness rather than faults and flaws.

As a strength-based program, we at SmartCare thought we would start a New Year’s tradition of breaking out of the mold of making New Year’s Resolutions. Last year, after reading Richard J. Davidson’s “Reflecting on Basic Goodness: An Alternative to the New Year’s Resolution,” we embraced and encouraged the mindset of reflecting on the possibility of strengthening or nurturing those parts of ourselves that reflect our basic goodness instead of focusing on behaviors we wish to change or habit we may not like.

With our patients, we have added a “strengths table”, encouraging them to identify and build on those strengths to achieve their short and longer term goals.
We embraced the “Great Kindness Challenge”, which was so widely received that we began incorporating it into many of our regular Wellness Events and activities, rather than waiting for the next annual Challenge to come around.

Our staff members have focused their Training Plans on Mindfulness conferences, so that we can in turn encourage our patients and Wellness participants to take a non-judgmental approach to their daily living, to focus on the breath, to perhaps even take up meditation or yoga.

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We are also encouraging our patients and participants to take the time to incorporate gratitude into their daily lives, perhaps in a gratitude journal, or other means that is a comfortable fit.

We have utilized our social media to emphasize the power of a smile, the strength of having the support of loved ones, to de-stigmatize mental health issues.

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As Davidson encourages, so do we wish to encourage others to “reflect on the possibility of strengthening or nurturing those parts of yourself that reflect your basic goodness” – not just at the turn of the New Year, but each and every day.
We wish you all health and wellness this New Year, and as always, encourage your requests for Wellness Events and activities to support your own positive wellness goals.

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