Mindful Choices for Well-Being

Robin L. Shearer, William C. Shearer

Description

This is a book about a systematic, holistic, and action-oriented process of choosing and creating well-being. It’s a guidebook outlining a process of regularly assessing your well-being across ten Mindful Choices dimensions, focusing your attention, sustaining a high level of motivation, and creating lasting positive changes through ongoing intention, awareness, focus, and practice. It’s not just another self-help book, but rather a complete “how-to” manual for life-planning. This book integrates knowledge from mindfulness and contemplative traditions, Buddhist psychology, Stoicism, positive psychology, neuroscience, and acceptance and mindfulness-based behavioral therapies. It will not only give you the tools to manage stress, anxiety, and depression but will also take you well beyond “normal” to a life of “thriving.”

Sujets

• Self-help

Informations

• Publié par: Xlibris US
• Date de parution: 25 octobre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 2
• EAN13: 9781669848486
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Mindful Choices for Well-Being
Mindful Awareness, Great Choices, Powerful Habits—with Mindful Choices Therapy

“Thriving, Not Just Surviving”
William C. Shearer, Ph.D., Ed.D., M.B.A., M.P.H., M.A.
Robin L. Shearer, M.A., M.P.H., R.N., M.F.T.
 
Copyright © 2022 by William C. Shearer and Robin L. Shearer.
 
Library of Congress Control Number:
2022917870
ISBN:
Hardcover
978-1-6698-4849-3

Softcover
978-1-6698-4847-9

eBook
978-1-6698-4848-6

 
The recommendations and suggestions presented in this book are meant for a general audience and not meant to replace formal, medical, psychological, or psychiatric treatment. Individuals with medical or psychological problems should consult with their therapist or physician about following the program advocated in this book, discussing appropriate modifications relevant to their unique condition or circumstances.
 
The stories in this book are based on the clinical experience of William and Robin Shearer and are composites of numerous clients. In all cases, names and identifying information have been changed.
 
Book was originally published in 2017.
 
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of the authors.
 
 
Rev. date: 10/24/2022
 
Xlibris
844-714-8691
www.Xlibris.com
815262
CONTENTS
Introduction
Part I: ABOVE THE LINE: FROM DIS-EASE TO WELL-BEING AND HAPPINESS
Chapter 1It’s All About Choices
Chapter 2What is Mindful Choices Therapy?
Chapter 3The Mindful Choices Model: Cultivating Strengths and New Ways of Being
Part II: ASSESSING MINDFUL CHOICES FOR WELL-BEING
Chapter 4Mindful Choices for Well-Being
Part III: ACTION PLANNING GUIDES
Chapter 5Mindful Choice 1
Chapter 6Mindful Choice 2
Chapter 7Mindful Choice 3
Chapter 8Mindful Choice 4
Chapter 9Mindful Choice 5
Chapter 10Mindful Choice 6
Chapter 11Mindful Choice 7
Chapter 12Mindful Choice 8
Chapter 13Mindful Choice 9
Chapter 14Mindful Choice 10
Chapter 15Forwarding the Action: Psychological Flexibility, Resilience, and Well-Being
INTRODUCTION

“ Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our fre edom.”
Viktor Fr ankl
Welcome to Mindful Choices for Well-B eing
Become mindfully aware, make great choices, and turn those great choices into powerful and positive habits.
We have created a program to not only help you manage psychological and emotional issues, and the behaviors that negatively impact your life, but it’s also a guide on a clear and compelling pathway to well-being. This book is a self-directed system for personal transformation developed through decades of clinical practice.
We want you to “thrive.” We want you to wake up each morning full of enthusiasm about your life. We want you to feel confident, optimistic, and empowered, living your values, having compassion for self and others, and finding purpose and meaning in each day. Experiencing your life with such a high degree of satisfaction and happiness is the true meaning of “well-being.”
This is a book about mindfulness and transformation. You will learn to use mindful awareness of your “here and now” reality to consistently choose well-being and quality of life. You will achieve freedom to be conscious and intentional in your choices. You will have powerful evidence-based methodology for making healthy choices stick. You will loosen the grip of automatic negative habits while building a healthy and positive lifestyle that becomes automatic with practice.
You are a creature of habit—for better or for worse. According to a 2006 Duke University study, at least 40 percent of everything you think, feel, do or say is habitual. We can almost hear the protests. Not me! I’m aware of my behavior. Everything I do is well thought-out and purposeful. Well, not so fast; the evidence says otherwise. You may think your actions are conscious and intentional, but in fact much of your life is habit. You, like virtually everyone else, are largely living your life on autopilot, following your script, and responding much the way you’ve always responded. Habits can be good or bad. Your “automaticity” can underlie either a life of well-being or a life of stress, frustration, and disappointment.
However, even though much of your behavior is scripted and automatic, you needn’t be discouraged. Learning mindfulness skills for personal mastery and well-being is a game changer. You can develop a discipline of being conscious and intentional. You can take charge of your habits and the choices behind those habits. You can cultivate mindful awareness, consistently make positive choices, and literally rewire your brain, making positive and healthy choices that become habitual. You can choose personal mastery, a peaceful mind, and well-being, and you can develop mindfulness tools to make positive choices stick!
We work with people who want more out of life. Our clients want to consistently make better choices, and they want those choices to become solid habits. They are ready for change.
We’ve had a very successful psychology and consulting practice for over three decades, but we don’t have a typical client. Some of our clients have high anxiety. Some are depressed. Some have relationship issues. Some struggle with addictions. Some are dealing with food and weight issues. Some have workplace stress. Some are creative people who feel stuck. Some are leaders who want to improve leadership skills. Some want to feel more in control of their lives. Some want to develop a business or launch a new career. Some come seeking life-coaching to help them feel more effective, balanced, successful, and happy. All want more out of life.
What about you? Are you struggling with stress, anxiety, depression, food and weight issues, addictive or compulsive behaviors, stress-induced self-damaging reactivity or stressful relationship problems? Perhaps you’re simply feeling overstimulated and overwhelmed by daily frustrations and tensions, not having much fun and not living the life you wanted. Do you find yourself struggling to do the very things you really want to do anyway? Are you much too self-critical, unable to feel that your ordinary self is enough?
Perhaps you’re struggling to break free from bad habits or having difficulty forming positive and sustainable new ones. Time and time again you find yourself abandoning good choices and reverting to autopilot, clinging to bad habits that you wish you’d outgrown years ago. You might be telling yourself: “If only I had more willpower I’d get rid of the bad habits once and for all and adopt the good ones.”
Does it seem as though no matter how hard you strive, you’re unable to get what you want? Do you sometimes sabotage your best efforts? Do you find yourself giving up on trying to make changes, abandoning changes that at first seemed all important but later seemed unattainable? Do you move from one new interest to another, looking for instant happiness? Are you forever looking for the one thing that will finally make you permanently happy, only to become frustrated and disappointed, moving on once again? Do you have difficulty sustaining motivation long enough to transform healthy choices into lifetime habits?
Despite good intentions, do you put up barriers to being truly successful? Do you keep getting in your own way? Do you find yourself stuck in your own perpetual Groundhog Day?
We’ve all been there. These are simply human qualities and virtually universal. Don’t be discouraged. What you need is a new way of thinking about change and a proven method for making solid transformational changes that take you to a greater sense of well-being and personal mastery. We’ll introduce you to a science and evidence-based process for being aware and focused and for transforming great choices into powerful and enduring life-skills and habits.
Today you are one step closer to a new you, choosing to live a life where you feel aware and alive and on a positive path to growth and well-being. It’s all about envisioning a positive future, having clarity about self-imposed limitations and habits, and mindfully creating the life you want. Whether you realize it or not, you have the power to create and sustain a high level of personal growth and well-being. It’s all about clearly seeing your choices and embarking on a clear, systematic, and active process leading to lasting change. That’s why we created Mindful Choices Therapy, a system for self-directed personal growth and transformation.
How Is This Book Diffe rent?
This is a book about a systematic, holistic, and action-oriented process of choosing and creating well-being. It’s a guidebook outlining a process of regularly assessing your well-being across ten Mindful Choices dimensions, focusing your attention, sustaining a high level of motivation, and creating lasting positive changes through ongoing intention, awareness, focus, and practice. It’s not just another self-help book, but rather a complete “how-to” manual for life-planning. This book integrates knowledge from mindfulness and contemplative traditions, Buddhist psychology, Stoicism, positive psychology, neuroscience, and acceptance and mindfulness-based behavioral t