How is a wellness vision helpful?
Posted on July 29, 2022 by Anne Walder, One of Thousands of Executive Coaches on Noomii.
A reflection on how a wellness vision is helpful and what supports the practice of my clients envisioning their ‘best-self’ and/or ‘future self’
A vision is built to represent our desired future. It carries the ways we wish to live our lives in its best expression, but it goes beyond, with the addition of our desired best self. Our wellness vision relates to our beliefs and values and is empowering.
In other words, a wellness vision is helpful to avoid failing goals because a vision gives guidance and direction (Larsen, 2007). It also provides a clear sense of importance to the person (Ibid.). According to my experience, it may support a clear identification and definition for anyone who may be confused or new to this concept.
In my coaching practice, I start with early exploration of my client’s vision and then refer to it all along throughout the coaching journey. It is important to positively use the client’s values, strengths and wishes. The vision should be challenging but reachable. It should promote mindset development and project a life lived according to one’s own values. The purpose is to stretch from the current situation to the wellness vision of where you want to be by identifying the gap between the two.
Moreover, research has brought to light positive affect, well-being and physical health (King, 2001) as well as independent motivation and sustained positive effect (Sheldon & Lyubomirsky, 2006) of envisioning the best possible self as well as temporarily improved optimism (Peters et al., 2010) or sustained optimism (Meevissen & al., 2011). To this can be added that envisioning the best possible self enhances wellbeing (Carrillo et al. 2019). Indeed, it also seems more efficient for mature people and in the context of short practice (Ibid.).
References:
• Carrillo, A., Rubio-Aparicio, M., Molinari, G., Enrique, Á., Sánchez-Meca, J., & Baños, R. M. (2019). Effects of the Best Possible Self intervention: A systematic review and meta-analysis. PloS one, 14(9), e0222386.
• King, L. A. (2001). The health benefits of writing about life goals. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27, 798–807.
• Larsen, K. (2007) “Creating a wellness vision: discover how to set a vision and meaningful goals that align with it for the new year.” IDEA Fitness Journal, vol. 4, no. 1, Jan. 2007, pp. 105.
• Meevissen, Y., Alberts H., & Peters, M. (2011). Become more optimistic by imagining a best possible self: Effects of a two-week intervention. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry. 42, 371-378.
• Peters, M. L., Flink, I. K., Boersma, K., & Linton, S. J. (2010). Manipulating optimism: Can imagining a best possible self be used to increase positive future expectancies? The Journal of Positive Psychology, 5(3), 204–211.
• Sheldon, K. M., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2006). How to increase and sustain positive emotion: The effects of expressing gratitude and visualizing best possible selves. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 1(2), 73-82.
