MS Awareness Month 2021, Day 16
What drives you in life? What encourages you to rise every morning?
I love books. When I younger I would often get lost in a book and forget to sleep. I remember at the age of nine or ten hiding beneath my bed covers with a flashlight and Trixie Belden, reading just one more page before my mom caught me.
Since my family always lived out somewhere, book characters were often my only friends. I didn’t mind then and I don’t now. For the past twenty years, I not only enjoy visiting friends in print; I am also passionate about creating new characters to share my time with.
My love for the written word became my life’s work as an English teacher/librarian and now an author!
I get out of bed every morning anxious to get back to fictional friends. They challenge me. They energize me. They make sense of this crazy world even when there is no sense to be made.
I love having a purpose and that is the reason I am passionate about spreading the word about MS Awareness Month. I donate to the cause the best way I can and that is through the written word. I get to do what I love while hopefully helping other MS Warriors at the same time.
God doesn’t throw us more than we can catch. My rationale behind being given multiple sclerosis is that God knew I could handle it. My beggest method of dealing with MS is sharing my experiences, fears, and questions with my fellow Warriors.
Not certain of your purpose? Visit https://www.berkeleywellbeing.com/blog.html and take the quiz.
HERE ARE MY RESULTS FROM THE QUIZ:
Tue, Mar 16 at 12:01 PM
Hi there,
Thank you for taking The Berkeley Well-Being Institute Quiz! I’m so glad to have the opportunity to share some great well-being strategies with you — they have changed my life and hopefully, they’ll change yours too.
Below is your free personalized well-being report. It includes your scores for several aspects of well-being.
What to do with this report:
The research shows that the best way to improve your well-being is to focus on the aspects of your well-being that:
You score lowest on
You enjoy the most
You are most likely to stick with, and
Tend to have the highest impact
Use these guidelines to choose 1–2 aspects of well-being to focus on for the next month or so. Then, each month, choose new aspects of well-being to focus on.
Your well-being profile:
Scores are on a scale from 1–10. (10 is the highest)
1. Positive Thinking
YOUR SCORE: 7
Positive thinking is another skill that tends to be highly correlated with happiness. Indeed, being able to see silver linings or be grateful for the good even when things aren’t going great helps us stay optimistic and happy. And good news: positivity is one well-being-boosting skill that’s fairly easy to build (assuming we actually want to build it).
Build this skill by reading: 16 Simple Ways to Start Thinking Positive
2. Stress
YOUR SCORE: 6
Stress is not only bad for our mental health, but it’s also bad for our physical health. We are capable of handling quite a lot of stress… until we aren’t anymore. I had to learn this the hard way and ultimately spent 2 years recovering from an illness largely caused by stress. I strongly recommend learning how to manage your stress before this happens to you.
Build this skill by reading: How to Relieve, Manage, and Overcome Stress
3. Self-Confidence
YOUR SCORE: 5
My research consistently shows that self-confidence is the #1 best predictor of happiness. If we don’t feel good about ourselves, we may unintentionally sabotage our health and happiness. That’s why confidence is so important for our well-being.
Build this skill by reading: Self Confidence: What Is Self Confidence and How Do You Build It?
4. Resiliency
YOUR SCORE: 6
Sometimes life knocks you down — there is no getting around that. What really matters for your happiness is how easy it is for you to get back up. Developing emotional resilience keeps those challenges and hardships from overwhelming you. You’ll recover more quickly from difficulties and as a result, more of your days are happy.
Build this skill by reading: What Is Resilience and How Do You Build It?
5. Mindfulness
YOUR SCORE: 6
Now that we live in a high-tech world, we go through much of our lives on autopilot. As a result, we miss out on the best parts of being alive — positive experiences, connections with others, and even having fun. When you become more mindful and self-aware, you stop feeling so numb and are able to better enjoy everything your life has to offer.
Build this skill by reading: What Is Mindfulness?
6. Life Purpose
YOUR SCORE: 8
We all want our lives to feel like they matter. It can be tricky, though, to figure out what gives our lives purpose. By exploring what matters to us and taking action, our lives become more meaningful and satisfying.
Build this skill by reading: Life Purpose: What Is It and How to Find It
7. Healthy Relationships
YOUR SCORE: 8
Some of us think happiness comes from the things out there — money, possessions, and achievements. Others think that happiness comes from within us — thoughts, emotions, and personality. In reality, happiness exists in the space between us. Mostly, it arises from how we interact with our loved ones, community, and society at large. Perhaps that is why healthy relationships strongly predict both mental and physical well-being.
Build this skill by reading: Learn Your Love Language
8. Eating for Well-Being
YOUR SCORE: 6
We know that eating good foods is important for our physical health. But did you know that it is also essential for our emotional well-being? Eating the right foods can help us cope better with stress, combat depression, sleep better, and overcome illnesses so we can more easily enjoy our lives.
Build this skill by reading: Live Healthier: How to Create a Healthy Lifestyle
What’s next?
Click to read the articles for each skill. If you want more help, check out The Berkeley Happiness Program.
Definitely food for thought; which leads me to my most immediate purpose: LUNCH!
See you tomorrow,
Lisa, Lady With the Cane
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