don's report archive

by Donald B. Ardell, Ph. D.

Wellness in the Headlines
(Don's Report to the World)

"If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change."  ~Buddha
 
"There are as many nights as days, and the one is just as long as the other in the year's course. Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word 'happy' would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness."  ~Carl Jung
 
"For those who have seen the Earth from space, and for the hundreds and perhaps thousands more who will, the experience most certainly changes your perspective. The things that we share in our world are far more valuable than those which divide us."  ~Donald Williams

A wellness philosophy seeks to encourage happiness and minimize suffering. It represents a mindset that promotes good physical and mental health for as long as possible until death. It has many qualities, including an embrace of personal responsibility applied to all aspects of life and an appreciation of the importance of functional perspectives, such as those represented in the above remarks attributed to the Buddha, Carl Jung and Donald Williams. Wellness seekers act on the strong evidence that supports certain kinds of mental outlooks (for example, optimism, supportive and valued relationships, the experience of fun and positive relationships) and proactive behavioral traits (vigorous daily exercise and sound nutrition, for instance). Wellness seekers succeed, for the most part, in living in accord with such knowledge. 
 
If you sometimes slide into the error of feeling or acting as if you are the center of the universe, consider exploring a variety of perspectives that might quickly disabuse you of such a dysfunctional mental error. If your toe hurts, think of all the folks with no legs. If you did not get a raise, think of the jobless. If your roof leaks, think of the thousands of Katrina victims who no longer have a house. You get the idea -- in the larger scheme of things, your woes and tribulations, frustrations and grievances don't amount to much. 
 
Want to engage in a brief stress management experience conducive to perspective? Go to "Secret Worlds: The Universe Within." At a website of the Florida State University, a little show done in collaboration with Optical Microscopy at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory is available. The slide show offers a view of the big picture and the equally revealing small picture. The former begins with a glimpse of our galaxy from 10 million light years from Earth. That's a big dose of perspective in itself, but there's more. In succeeding steps, you can move through space towards the Earth, closer and closer until you are looking up close and personal at an oak tree. At that point, you can continue through the inner world, to a leaf and then into "a microscopic world that reveals leaf cell walls, the cell nucleus, chromatin, DNA and finally, into the subatomic universe of electrons and protons." 
 
Ready for an adventure? Click on (http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/java/scienceopticsu/powersof10/index.html). 
 
Be well and always look on the bright side of life.

(Note: This essay will be filed in the archives in the MENTAL DOMAIN under the skill area of stress management. Additional articles related to this theme may be found there.)

(Ed. Note: Views expressed in this and other columns are those of the author and not necessarily those of the SeekWellness Editorial Board.)

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