Cultivating Vitality With Michelle: The Test

By MICHELLE WILDE
Los Alamos

“So, how are you feeling?” 

Some people I talk with seem to be just as they were a year ago, but many are not. Occasionally, someone reports an increase in happiness and well-being, but that is the exception. 

It’s been quite the year. 

This recent report from the Gallup Poll declares “Americans’ Physical Health Holding Up Better Than Their Mental Health” and that we collectively rate our mental health at a new low.”

While I suspect it is helpful to gather this data, I trust there are more beneficial things to assess.

How about this one: “What have you learned?”

Let’s imagine the past year has been one giant test of our collective ability to cope with difficulty and change. According to the great educators, tests are a very important part of the learning experience. They help us understand what we’ve internalized and implemented. Perhaps more importantly, they reveal what we still need to learn. 

Even just answering the question about what we’ve learned plants the seed of hope. We’re paying a high price for this education, so perhaps we can consider the question seriously.

Have you learned something about your relationships? Finances? Spirituality? Mental health? Relationship to authority? Your sense of freedom? Your willingness to sacrifice for others?

Have you reflected on life, it’s meaning and value? Have you deepened your soul? Have you loved? Have you fought for right? Have you lived?

Asking the right question matters. Let’s try another.

What skills could you learn which would make the next six months be even better? 

Let me suggest one skill that might further transform the experience, as exemplified in this quote from Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn, in The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956: “Bless you prison, bless you for being in my life. For there, lying upon the rotting prison straw, I came to realize that the object of life is not prosperity as we are made to believe, but the maturity of the human soul.”

Cultivating gratitude, especially when it is difficult, is a skill worth developing, in my opinion. I believe gratitude helps us learn the lessons available to us. And learning makes the hard things easier and increases hope, which of course, makes it easier to be grateful.

Michelle Wilde is a licensed mental health counselor, Body-Connection Coach, massage therapist and integrative wellness specialist. This column is for educational purposes only and does not create a client-practitioner relationship. Readers are responsible to exercise appropriate discretion in implementing any ideas contained herein and accept responsibility for their actions and to consult with their physical and mental health practitioners before implementing any new practice.

Search
LOS ALAMOS

ladailypost.com website support locally by OviNuppi Systems