Chateau Recovery's Pillars to Patient Healing
Everyone aspires to be successful. But what does that mean -- and more importantly, how do we achieve success? Unfortunately, there is not a one-size-fits-all answer as success varies on the individual.
However, there are three key pillars that are essential for anyone hoping to achieve long-term success:
Holistic Approach to Finding Self Balance
Adoption of a Growth Mindset
Enhancement of Stress Resilience
This post explores each of these pillars in depth and discusses how you can work on and use them in your own life!
1. Holistic Approach To Finding Self Balance
A holistic approach to finding self balance means taking into account all aspects of your life that impact your sense of wellbeing. This includes physical, mental, emotional, social, and spiritual health. When you take a holistic approach to finding self-balance, you acknowledge that all of these areas are interconnected and impact one another.
A holistic approach to mental health puts the patient, not their diagnosis or their symptoms, at the center of their treatment plan. By addressing their emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual needs, a holistic approach to mental health looks at the whole person.
For example, if you are not getting enough sleep, you may be more likely to experience irritability, anxiety or depression. Or if you are constantly stressed out, you may be more likely to get sick or suffer a change in appetite such as over eating or not eating enough. Taking a holistic approach means taking care of yourself in all aspects of your life so that you can reach your full potential!
Holistic medicine is a form of healing that considers the whole person -- body, mind, spirit, and emotions -- in the quest for optimal health and wellness. According to the holistic medicine philosophy, one can achieve optimal health -- the primary goal of holistic medicine practice -- by gaining proper balance in life.
Our holistic approach believes that the whole person is made up of interdependent parts and if one part is not working properly, all the other parts will be affected. In this way, if people have imbalances (physical, emotional, or spiritual) in their lives, it can negatively affect their overall health.
A holistic doctor may use all forms of health care, from conventional medication to alternative therapies, to treat a patient. For example, when a person suffering from migraine headaches pays a visit to a holistic doctor, instead of walking out solely with medications, the doctor will likely take a look at all the potential factors that may be causing the person's headaches, such as other health problems, diet and sleep habits, stress and personal problems, and preferred spiritual practices. The treatment plan may involve drugs to relieve symptoms, but also lifestyle modifications to help prevent the headaches from recurring.
Some key principles to a holistic approach include:
Patient education on lifestyle changes and self-care to promote wellness.
Diet, exercise, psychotherapy, relationship, spiritual counseling, and more
Complementary and alternative therapies
Sound therapy, chiropractic care, homeopathy, massage therapy, naturopathy, neurofeedback, and others.
A person is ultimately responsible for their own health and well-being.
2. Adopting A Growth Mindset
What is a Growth Mindset?
A growth mindset is “the understanding that abilities and understanding can be developed” (Mindset Works, n.d.). Those with a growth mindset believe that they can get smarter, more intelligent, and more talented through putting in time and effort.
What is a Fixed Mindset?
On the other hand, a fixed mindset is one that assumes abilities and understanding are relatively fixed. Those with a fixed mindset may not believe that intelligence can be enhanced, or that you either “have it or you don’t” when it comes to abilities and talents.
The Main Difference (Growth vs. Fixed)
The main difference between the two mindsets is the belief in the permanence of intelligence and ability; one views it as very permanent, with little to no room for change in either direction, while the other views it as more changeable, with opportunities for improvement (or, for that matter, regression).
This difference in mindset may lead to marked differences in behavior as well. If someone believes intelligence and abilities are immutable traits, they are not likely to put in much effort to change their inherent intelligence and abilities. On the other hand, those who believe they can change these traits may be much more willing to put in extra time and effort to achieve more ambitious goals.
With a growth mindset, individuals may achieve more than others because they are worrying less about seeming smart or talented and putting more of their energy into learning.
How to Change Your Mindset
There are eight general approaches for developing the foundation for such a mindset:
Create a new compelling belief: a belief in yourself, in your own skills and abilities, and in your capacity for positive change.
View failure in a different light: see failure as an opportunity to learn from your experiences and apply what you have learned next time around.
Cultivate your self-awareness: work on becoming more aware of your talents, strengths, and weaknesses; gather feedback from your peer group and put it together for a comprehensive view of yourself.
Be curious and commit to lifelong learning: try to adopt the attitude of a child, looking at the world around you with awe and wonderment; ask questions and truly listen to the answers and feedback provided.
Get friendly with challenges: know that if you mean to accomplish anything worthwhile, you will face many challenges on your journey; prepare yourself for facing these challenges, and for failing sometimes.
Do what you love and love what you do: it’s much easier to succeed when you are passionate about what you’re doing; whether you cultivate love for what you already do or focus on doing what you already love, developing passion is important.
Be tenacious: it takes a lot of hard work to succeed, but it takes even more than working hard—you must be tenacious, weathering obstacles and getting back up after each time you fall.
Inspire and be inspired by others: it can be tempting to envy others when they succeed, especially if they go farther than you, but it will not help you to succeed; commit to being an inspiration to others and use the success of others to get inspiration as well.
Having a growth mindset isn’t an “easy button” solution to any problem, and it will not automatically cause good things to happen to you; however, it will likely make it easier and more enjoyable to work hard toward your goals, and give you the confidence you need to set ever more ambitious goals.
3. Enhancing Stress Resilience
To manage stress effectively you need a set of skills and inner resources, best summed up as stress resilience. Enhancing stress resilience means having the ability to cope with stressful situations in a healthy way. It is the ability to bounce back from setbacks and challenges. People with high levels of stress resilience are more likely to be successful than those who crumble under pressure, run away from stressful situations or choose to view themselves as a victim of circumstance. There are many ways to enhance your stress resilience, such as exercise, meditation, journaling and spending time with friends and family. If you want to be successful, it is important that you find ways to cope with stress in a healthy way!
Stress resilience is NOT resistance, avoidance, or inoculation to stress.
Whether you have a great deal of resilience or not, you still experience stress. You will continue to get the flu, have accidents, experience loss, and fail. Events that challenge you will continue to occur. No matter how robust your resilience is, you will never be numb to stress or able to prevent it from occurring.
An individual may also have a tendency to seek out quick fixes for stress like drinking too much alcohol, and eating or sleeping too much. Or they might try to eliminate what they think is the source of their stress and change jobs, move to a different community, or get a divorce. But stressful events continue to occur, regardless of where they are.
Stress resilience is the ability to recognize and acknowledge that a situation has become difficult or painful and choose a response that leads to growth. The American Psychological Association says it is "the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, or threats or significant sources of stress – such as family and relationship problems, serious health problems, or workplace and financial stressors."
Finally, enhancing stress resilience is important for anyone hoping to achieve success. It also means having a positive outlook and understanding that setbacks are a normal part of life. When you have strong stress resilience, you are more likely to persevere through challenges and come out on top. Our stress resilience grows over time and slowly but surely begins to change how we approach adversity.
All three of these pillars - a holistic approach to finding self balance, adopting a growth mindset, and enhanced stress resilience - are essential for anyone hoping to achieve long-term success. When an individual attends Chateau's residential treatment a healthy balance is sought within these three pillars.
We find that those individuals who put in the work and dedication to daily maintenance of these pillars more consistently experience prolonged change and relief from the discomfort caused by their mental health symptoms.
We invite you to explore Chateau and participate in strengthening, discovering and living these three pillars. To learn more about what we have to offer, call (435) 222-5225 today.
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