By Megan Dolbin, Certified WRAP Facilitator, Step By Step
I’m Megan, a psychiatric rehabilitation supervisor for Step By Step. Our organization provides community support services to children and adults with intellectual disabilities, and mental health and autism spectrum disorders in Pennsylvania, U.S.A. I’m also a newly Certified WRAP Facilitator.
I was introduced to WRAP not long after I started with my company. As I walked into a WRAP seminar, I thought WRAP was going to be like every other “boring training” I took part in. Boy was I wrong!
WRAP is something I’d never experienced before, and after going through WRAP seminars I and II, I believe it’s something everyone should learn.
One of the first steps of WRAP is developing a wellness toolbox. This was such an important step in my wellness, and it was truly eye-opening. It made me look back on my own life, and I realized that even though I had made it through my crises, had I known about WRAP and had a wellness toolbox established, it would have made those moments a lot easier to cope with.
The key to a good wellness toolbox is actually knowing what you can do, or maybe already subconsciously do, to stay well. It’s also knowing what you can do to feel better when you aren’t doing so well.
We all use wellness tools, whether we realize it.
Does music make you happy? Or do you feel refreshed after a good night of sleep? Those two things right there are the start of your WRAP wellness toolbox.
Some people may exercise and meditate, while others choose to hang out with friends and eat chocolate. There are NO WRONG CHOICES to your toolbox—it’s yours!
My favorite wellness tool is a little out of the box; I throw darts. This has been a major wellness tool for me for more than 18 years, and until WRAP, I never even knew it.
Due to this wellness tool, and using it to keep me well, I ended up succeeding even more than I’d ever imagined was possible.
I ended up making the women’s pro list for Bullshooter across the United States. I became an American Darters Association professional, and I’m also a sponsored dart player through Extreme Darts.
It just goes to show that even in the depths of a crisis, if you have yourself set up to succeed with good wellness tools, you may end up surprising yourself!
WRAP is one of the best things I’ve become a part of. You don’t need to have official mental health diagnoses or physical challenges to use WRAP. WRAP is for everyone because we all face challenges and hard times in life.
No one’s crisis or unwell feelings will be the same, and all our wellness toolboxes will be different. But with WRAP, those tools CAN and WILL help every one of us manage our feelings and make informed choices when we are unwell.
WRAP isn’t a program; it’s a lifestyle.
Please share your favorite wellness tool on the WRAP Facebook page or email us at books@wellnessrecoveryactionplan.com.
Related Resources
- WRAP in Color
- Building Your Wellness Toolbox with Mary Ellen Copeland (Audio Download)
- Living WRAP (DVD)
- WRAP Workbook
Certified WRAP Facilitator
