by Mary Ellen Copeland, Ph.D
Here are some of the ideas others have shared with me that you can use to make this holiday the best that it can be:
- Send cards and e-mails to family members and friends, even those you have not seen or heard from in a long time
- Take a walk in a beautiful natural area
- Have a cup of tea, coffee or hot chocolate with someone you care about
- Read poems that you have enjoyed in the past
- Reread traditional holiday stories
- Listen to holiday music or music you enjoy
- Buy a small gift for someone you love
- Make a special gift for a good friend
- Call someone you care about and tell them all the reasons you care about them
- Attend a holiday event
- Do something special for others who are having a hard time
- Give away a sweater or a blanket to someone who needs it
- Help out at a shelter or food bank
- Visit someone at a nursing home, in the hospital, or who can’t get out
- Play a game with a child
- Make a list of your blessings
- Think about and/or write about good times you have had
- Look at pictures of people you love and places you have been
- Cook yourself something special to eat and share it with a friend
- Begin to develop your Wellness Recovery Action Plan
- Revise your Wellness Recovery Action Plan
- Add five Wellness tools to your Wellness Toolbox
Make a commitment to yourself to do some of these things.
Mary Ellen Copeland, PhD, developed Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP) with a group of people with lived experience who were attending a mental health recovery workshop in 1997. She is the original author of the WRAP Red Book, as well as dozens of other WRAP books and materials. She has dedicated the last 30 years of her life to learning from people who have mental health issues; discovering the simple, safe, non-invasive ways they get well, stay well, and move forward in their lives; and then sharing what she has learned with others through keynote addresses, trainings, and the development of books, curriculums, and other resources. Now that she is retired, and that, as she intended, others are continuing to share what she has learned, she continues to learn from those who have mental health issues and those who support them. She is a frequent contributor to this site.
