Leading and Living Wellness

by Joanne Stalinski

The work of Kevin Asbjornson and the many members of his virtual network of leaders quite naturally link innate and learned attributes associated with good leadership and expression of the creative soul. There is plenty of research to back up the wisdom of nurturing the social and emotional intelligence that leads to good leaders and good citizens. And recently, the notion of the M.F.A. becoming the new M.B.A. is causing many of us to step back to take a look at our modern organizational culture and the kinds of survival skills and generative traits that the business world needs now. In the domain of personal health and wellness, advances in neuroscience and psychology give us evidence that cultivation of similar attributes and skills can help us shape our general well-being and our longevity.

The intelligence of personal development. Many of us recognize that life in our organizations is complex and we spend a great deal of time learning how to be leaders and developing our potential for success – toward fulfillment of our own career aspirations and toward more positive impact and contribution to those in our teams and our work units. Yet we often feel that personal development work is somehow more vague or soft; in spite of the flood of self-help literature we face, there is a certain belief that investment in our personal development requires less attention than the leadership skills we would like our bosses to demonstrate!

Granted, the Self-Help and Auto-Motivational (SHAM) movement has huge variability in foundations and efficacy. But there is no denying that ‘knowing thyself’ is one of those foundations that is easier said than done. Further, awareness doesn’t naturally translate to action toward cultivation of those attributes that contribute to our own sense of well-being and, ultimately, that of the world. And yet this is one of the biggest issues we face in our lives and in our society as we strive for inner peace and harmony and world peace. Dr. Mimi Guarneri of Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine describes it like this. She says, “The longest distance to travel is the distance from the head to the heart.” And when you think about it, this is the essence of our struggle to achieve the ever elusive personal centeredness and well-being that looks like the following behaviours: respect, compassion, humor, forgiveness, and generativity – perhaps not all at the same time, nor even all the time!

Making the trek from head to heart. I work within one of the largest fully integrated public health organizations on the continent. Along with the latest interventions in defying death – temporarily at least – in areas of heart disease, neurological diseases, mental illness, cancers and other challenges to life and living in our society, my colleagues in the health professions are deeply aware that personal health and well-being is associated with a high level of integration of mind, body, spirit and social experiences. We’ve taken on a challenge: if we are to be health providers serving our patients and citizens, then we must live our own wellness if we are to lead and support others in wellness and well-being. So, we’ve just published – for our own health providers and health consumers – 40 tips for things that you can do to affect your own well-being. We’ve come to understand that each of us might start the trek “from the head to the heart” from a different place, but invariably for a new way of being to stick, other points in the mind-body-spirit-social wheel begin to play a role.

Wellness Is…We’ve captured 40 of our best ideas for personal centeredness and well-being in a booklet that we hope will inspire us and we offer it in the hope that it will inspire you. Wellness Is…

Our bias in selecting these particular aspects of wellness has come from our view that often our attempts to enhance our personal well-being focus on techniques or tools without an appreciation of the beauty of the connectedness of our bodies and our minds. So, for many of us, personal well-being might be reduced to losing weight, working out at the gym, or committing to a meditation practice. Yes, these can open doors to personal centeredness and well-being. It’s worthwhile, though, to be aware of other doors to well-being – if only to appreciate more aspects of living, rather than just the incorporation of a program or a technique. And you’ll see that there is a big emphasis on the social aspects of well-being. We espouse the belief that ‘you can’t be well alone.’ By this we mean that most of us, save the ascetic in the hills, depend on others that we don’t even recognize. We depend on infrastructure for our clean water, our clean air. We humans need to know that we can call someone at 2am if we need help from someone. And even though personal centeredness and well-being should mean that we enjoy our own company, life is so richly enhanced by sharing music, listening to others’ laughter, and admiring someone else’s accomplishments or artistic contribution. These too are part of personal well-being and centeredness, no less that the most advanced yoga or meditation practice.

My most sincere wishes go to you in living and leading your own definition of personal wellness and well-being.

Joanne Stalinski is Senior Vice President, Wellness and Citizen Engagement in the Calgary Health Region of Alberta Health Services, in Calgary Alberta Canada. The health region serves 1.2 million people through the dedication of 27,000 staff and 3000 physicians. For more information about wellness programs in the Calgary Health Region or to contact Joanne Stalinski, please visit www.calgaryhealthregion.ca/wellness.