Mayo Clinic Wellbeing Checklist

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Oct 27, 2020 | Dr. Anne Shandera-Ochsner, HABIT Midwest Director | @dranneshanderaochsner | Comments (11)

In this time of COVID-19 related restrictions on social gatherings and constantly changing news about case rates and vaccines, it's easy to feel anxious, overwhelmed, and isolated. This is especially true when you're dealing with a medical condition like MCI that also has a TON of unknowns. Back in April and May, starting here and ending here, we posted a series about developing a resiliency roadmap to build and sustain resiliency in this crazy time. Today, we have a few more tools to suggest for that toolkit.

Mayo Clinic Well-Being Checklist

It can feel like simply too much to try and make big changes toward better wellness in a time like this. But what about selecting a few "micro-behaviors" that only take a few minutes and are easy to do? The Mayo Clinic Well-Being Checklist (below) is a great tool for this. The checklist consists of 6 micro-behaviors that are associated with increasing happiness and feelings of well-being.

1. Purposely focus your mind on 3 things that went well today. This helps shift us to a more positive frame of mind.
2. Focus your mind on one difficulty from the day, and then give yourself compassion and directly let it go.
3. Directly recognize someone else for the good work they've done, or how they enrich your life (this could be an email, thank you card, etc.).
4. Look around you and seeing who might be struggling, or in need of a pick me up, and then reach out to that person.
5. Think back on your own actions over the day or week, and reflect on one way you acted that aligned with your values.
6. Finally, simply direct your attention to your own well-being by purposefully taking time to rest and recharge your batteries.

I encourage you to take a few moments this week to try a few of these simple behaviors, and then see how you feel afterwards!