Patient Area

1. Getting Started

Here you'll find all the worksheets and information you'll need to accompany your learning from Session 1 of our Building Resilience for Long-term Physical Health Conditions webinars.

What we learned this week

How our thoughts, feelings and actions are linked

5 Areas

We introduced how our thoughts, feelings and actions are linked, and how those links can become a 'vicious cycle' that leads to symptoms of depression, anxiety or both.

We call this the '5 Areas' model in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) as it looks at the 5 parts of our vicious cycles: what happens, how we feel emotionally, what we think, what we do and how we feel physically.

When we're living with a long-term physical health condition, its physical symptoms can impact our mood, and our mood can have an effect on our experience of the condition, which in turn can influence our actions. This can leave us ‘stuck’ and feeling overwhelmed in a vicious cycle.

We introduced you to four characters who are living with a long-term physical health condition and showed how their ‘5 Areas’ model may look. But everyone's experience is different. Try using the 5 Areas Worksheet to explore your own vicious cycles.

During this Building Resilience course, we aim to equip you with the skills to break your vicious cycles and feel more like you again.

How we can look after our mental wellbeing just like we look after our physical wellbeing

We discovered the 5 Ways to Wellbeing, a set of simple ways to look after our mental wellbeing, just like getting our 5 portions of fruit & veg to look after our physical wellbeing.

Resource: How to do the 5 Ways to Wellbeing from home

How to set Smart Goals

We looked at how setting goals can help us to stay motivated and celebrate the progress we make on this course.

SMART goals help to make sure we set goals that are achievable, so try the worksheet below to set your personal goals for this course.

Resource: Smart Goals Guide

What other support is available

We looked at the value of peer support, and where we can go to connect with others who have had similar experiences.

Resources:

Side by Side, a supportive online community run by Mind.
Solent Mind's wellbeing centres, with a wide range of support available across Hampshire. Check their service updates page for details of online or phone support you can access under the current safety rules.

Actions

We feel a popular saying that applies to our Building Resilience group is "you get out what you put in," because we can equip you with the tools, but how you put them into practice in your day-to-day life is what makes the difference.

Each week we'll share a few ways you can start using what you've learned.

This week's actions:

Fill in your own "5 areas" worksheet
- What are your vicious cycles?
Set some SMART goals
Tip: Writing these down can help you to stay motivated and see the progress you're making.
- What do you want to get out of these sessions?
- How will you know when you've reached your goals?
Explore the 5 Ways to Wellbeing
Tip: It may help to make a note of what you try, to see how the 5 Ways contribute to your goals
- Which of the 5 ways are you already doing?
- Could you get a better balance of all 5 in your lifestyle?