The Science and Practice of Wellness by Rakesh Jain

Author:Rakesh Jain
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 2019-12-04T16:00:00+00:00

Engagement-Enhancing Strategies

Over time, we have found that four motivational strategies—regular e-mails, wellness buddies, journaling, and handouts—enhance patients’ engagement with their own wellness. Regardless of which approach you choose to enhance mental wellness in your patients, you may find these techniques helpful in your own practice.

Daily motivational e-mails are automatically sent to a patient’s e-mail address (after obtaining consent, of course). Although this requires some upfront work, once done no further work is needed except to monitor the automated e-mail system you choose and perhaps fine-tune your messages. For our WILD 5 Wellness program we created 30 unique motivational e-mails that provide general information about one of the five mental wellness components and/or one of the HERO wellness traits, as well as encouragement for patients to track their daily participation using the participant tracking form. Our patients found e-mails both motivational and good reminders. Some clinics are now implementing WILD 5 Wellness supportive texting as another way to provide effective reminders and motivation.

We also encourage participants to have at least one wellness buddy. Studies show the presence of such a support system can dramatically improve adherence and produce significant benefits (Dailey et al., 2018; Winzer et al., 2019). Anyone the patient trusts and is close to can be a wellness buddy—a spouse, family member, a friend, or a co-worker. Patients check in with their wellness buddy regularly to let them know if they met their mental wellness goals. This helps patients stay on track with the wellness practices and increases social connection and positive reinforcement. Some of our patients have recruited their wellness buddies to do KickStart30 with them, as well as family members, friends, co-workers, and neighbors. Regardless of which wellness program you choose, you can encourage your patients to find wellness buddies to help them reach their mental wellness goals.

Journaling can also enhance the effectiveness of mental wellness programs. Very early in his research, Martin Seligman, the father of Positive Psychology, was struck by the power of journaling about topics like gratitude. He created a well-known gratitude exercise that involves creating a list of three things that make you feel gratitude. Compelling data reveal the beneficial effects of engaging in journaling as a wellness exercise. Redwine and colleagues (2016) randomized a group of individuals with heart failure to receive an 8-week program of gratitude journaling or to serve as a control group. After 8 weeks, those who had engaged in gratitude journaling had objective improvements in inflammation and heart rate variability, suggesting a positive impact on the inflammatory system and the autonomic nervous system.

Smyth and colleagues (2018) studied online positive affect journaling to examine if the practice helps both decrease mental distress and improve well-being. They conducted a controlled 12-week study in which the intervention group was asked to journal about various elements of positive affect for fifteen minutes for three days each week. Compared to the control group, the intervention group reported decreased mental distress, increased well-being, and less depression and anxiety after one month, and greater resilience after the first and second months.

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