Wellness - Dec.05/08

The catch word in offices across the country...wellness. How do we improve the wellness of the people that we work with? My manager has been talking about this for the past two years, casually. He has added it to a list of goals for the year, sort of at the end and not very enthusiastically. At first, I wasn't really paying attention to what he wanted, I was doing my own thing. I was taking care of the needs of the people on my team and in my unit. I was actively listening to them and trying to meet their needs, in hopes that they felt cared for. I was teaching, in my suicide prevention workshop, that it is important that we take care of each other, as no one else really understands what it is like to deal with suicide attempts as much as we do. I had no idea that I was helping the centre reach it's goal by exploring ways to promote wellness.
I recently joined a wellness committee and much to my surprise, I was surrounded by a dozen people who had the same goal as I do. Improve the wellness of the people around us. It was a very exciting first meeting, we talked about how to stop the negativity and discourage mediocrity. We talked about how to talk to people, in the moment, when faced with negative comments or a lack of drive to do a good job.
We planned a Christmas party of the staff and their families. We always focus on how to make Christmas a good time for our clients and their families, we seldom focus on the care givers ( that's us).
Everyone at the meeting was enthusiastic and eager to start the new year with positive acts towards others and a strive towards mastery. I believe that I am in the right place.
As this is an old journal entry, I can add to it. We did manage to throw a Christmas party for our workmates and their families. It was surprisingly easy with about six people chipping in some of their spare time. The results were amazing. I have never received so many positive comments about an event before. People were amazed that we threw a party just for them, no hidden agenda, no ulterior motive, just a party. They were also really excited about what they could do to improve the wellness of the people that we work with. This feels just like the acts of kindness project that I am working on. I am telling people about my goals to partake in acts of kindness and they want to do it too. In that same vein, I am telling people about improving the wellness of others and they want in. I see great things happening in the new year with the promotion of positive thinking in my work place and at home.

Goodbye Sara

This is Sara.
She died yesterday because her heart failed. She had a huge heart and was always giving little tiny kisses to make sure that everyone was okay. She liked to pretend that she was ferocious and had the meanest growl that I have ever heard, but she was the most gentle dog that I have ever played with. She liked to play "sock" and would run around the house with an old sock in her mouth and all I had to do was say,'give me that sock', every couple of minutes and she was content to run around the house. She was easy to love and gave us two big beautiful boys that she bossed around right up until the last day. She was not sick for long, just two days of not being herself. I won't pretend to understand why I had to lose her but I do understand that it hurts and I miss her. I find it hard to believe that the world is going on as usual when mine has come crashing to a halt. I will miss her for a long time, even if she was a bed hog and didn't give me a moments peace when it was time for her dinner or her walk. Last night I woke up several times wondering why I had so much room, she liked to lean on me in her sleep. As one can imagine, I usually ended up on the other side of the bed. My house seems empty without her, she was always looking for mischief and usually had help from the boys in finding it.
She was a good dog, now I have to go about the business of being as good a person as she thought I was.
Goodbye Sara.