i'd like to welcome everybody to today's presentation of integrative behavioral health
i'm your host dr dawn elise snipes and today we are talking about strengths-focused environments
when we are trying to reduce our stress when we are trying to be happier and healthier
it helps to focus on the things that we can do in order to create a rich and meaningful life
and not necessarily focus on what other people tell us we should do
i'm going to start out with a parable it's a parable that theoretically came from
hispanic latino culture and you know i'm not sure exactly who came up with it i found several
different references but anyway it does give you something to think about so the parable
goes a successful businessman was on vacation in a small coastal village when a small boat with just
one fisherman docked inside the small boat were several large fish the businessman complimented
the fishermen and asked how long it took to catch them the fishermen proudly replied every morning i
go out of my boat for 30 minutes to fish i am the best fisherman in the village the businessman very
perplexed then asked the fisherman well if you're the best why don't you stay out longer and catch
more fish what do you do the rest of the day the fishermen replied very happily i sleep late fish
a little play with my children spend quality time with my wife and every evening we stroll
into the village to drink wine and play guitar with our friends i have a full and happy life
the businessman replied well i'm a successful ceo and i am very good at spotting business
opportunities you really should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds you can
buy a bigger boat then with the proceeds from the bigger boat you can buy even more boats
eventually you'll have a fleet of boats with many fishermen then you can sell fish to thousands
of people move out of the village to the big city where you can oversee your growing empire
the fishermen asked but how long will this take the business man replied about 15 to 20 years
the fishermen said but what then the businessman laughed and said that is the best part at
the right time you will sell your company and make millions the fishermen said okay
i'll make millions then what the businessman said
then you will retire move to a small coastal fishing village where you will sleep late fish
a little play with your kids spend time with your wife stroll into the village
in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your friends
obviously the take home or take away from that parable is the fact that this fisherman
didn't see the need for abundant material wealth because he had so much abundance
in everything else in his life he was very happy with what he had he
was using his strengths he was the best for fisherman to create a life that he wanted
a life that he could be happy with instead of a life that other people told him he should have
so when we talk about strengths focused environments one of the ways that we can
achieve this life of peace and contentment is to figure out what our skills are what our
characteristics are that make us unique and the things that we like doing how can you create an
environment that supports those these another analogy or whatever the word i'm looking for uh is
that people say if you love your job you will never work a day in your life
that's what the fisherman did the fisherman loved his job he loved fishing but he also loved a lot
of other things in his life his family his wife his his down time his ability to take a nap
so all of those things were important to him and he figured out or he asked himself what is it that
i need to do what can i do right now to have a rich and meaningful life and he was doing it he
didn't need the things that other people told him he quote should have so make a list of your skills
the things that you're good at the things that you enjoy maybe it's not what you're doing right now
maybe you are considering a occupational change and that is totally cool i know a lot of people
now who have two or three careers throughout their life they do something when they first
get out of school they do that for a while and then they decide hey this other thing interests me
and i would really rather do that so they switch gears a little bit and that is a growth activity
that is something that makes them happy instead of feeling like they're stuck and they have to do
the same thing over and over again once you make a list of your skills the things that you're good at
and enjoy then make a list of things that you need in order to live a rich and meaningful life
you know what is it that you need i mean you could have you could want for millions of dollars you
could want for a 10 000 square foot mansion on the hillside of somewhere but do you need that is that
actually going to make you happy and determining those things determining what goes into your
rich and meaningful life and how you can use your skills and strengths in order to create the most
conducive environment to you live living happily and health healthfully now is really important
the other thing to think about in strength focused environments is your temperament and i know we've
talked about temperament before but briefly you know going over those things again extroverts
are going to want to be in environments that are filled with other people we draw our energy from
other people so they may prefer being on a cruise ship to being on a sailboat they may prefer uh to
work in an office as opposed to working by themselves at home extroverts really
thrive on a lot of um being around a lot of people not necessarily because they need feedback from
those people but they draw energy from them i can't really explain it but they get energized
when they are around others introverts on the other hand do prefer downtime prefer quiet time
and being around a lot of people is stressful so when you're thinking about creating an environment
that reduces stress what are your strengths what are your preferences and identifying you
know first and foremost you know do you like to be in environments where there may be frequent
interruptions where there are a lot of people where there's a lot of energy going on there's
a lot to that you can pay attention to or is it more relaxing more conducive to being an invite
in an environment that is more peaceful more tranquil and to a certain extent more isolated
sensing and intuitive environments especially when it comes to work but even at home sensing
environments are environments that demand that you pay attention to details whereas intuitive
environments are environments that are more conducive to you know broad strokes you don't
have to be quite as specific and you see this you know i'll give you the analogy of cooking
when you are baking it is really important to be specific about what you're putting in if you
put in too much baking powder um you know it's not going to taste right if and it may not rise
the way it's supposed to so baking can be a little bit finicky if you aren't paying attention to the
details whereas cooking you tend to have a little bit more latitude and you can do a handful of this
and a splash of that or a dash of this and things will generally end up turning out pretty well
you know obviously if you go overboard you can ruin that too but you you don't have to be quite
as attentive to detail so are you more of a baker or are you more of a cooking type person are you
somebody who really likes to delve down deeply into details or are you somebody who likes to see
the big picture just give me the overview please and and your work environments can be uh similarly
conducive or work against your strengths and preferences
if you are an um a broad strokes person somebody who wants the you know the overview being an
accountant probably not your thing if you are a detail-oriented person then being in some sort
of job where you've got to think about the big picture where you're thinking about meta concepts
may not be somewhere where you're happy thinking and feeling environments thinking environments are
organized around things that are either true or false and
you know when you're around other people they may be motivated by truth and facts and justice and
you know those sorts of words those people tend to be thinkers feelers tend to be more
motivated by what promotes harmony and promotes um people being wanting to be together and happiness
one is not more right than the other we need truth and justice and we need harmony
so we're not saying one's good or bad but when you're trying to design an environment that feels
relaxing that feels safe that feels motivating to you what types of
motivations are going do you want to see in the people that are around you what types of
motivations do you feel more in in alignment with in tune with and that's really important
not to say that you should ignore people who have different motivations you know i think
there's definitely a need for everybody and every perspective but when you're trying to create a
relaxing environment an environment that promotes health and happiness and
harmony you want to figure out what is it that's going to help you feel most relaxed
and then there's judging and perceiving and this is really time management and thinking about your
strengths and your preferences in terms of time management judgers really like structure they like
calendars you know they they don't like to wait till the last minute they make to-do lists
all the time perceivers tend to be a lot more flexible tend to think that there's plenty of
time and tend to be a lot more spontaneous we've talked before in other videos that you
can watch on the youtube channel about how these different temperaments interact in relationships
but for the purposes of this very short presentation it's important to think about
in what ways can you use your strengths if you are an extrovert in what ways can you use your
strengths in your current environment to make it more um comfortable relaxing conducive and
i've shared before my husband's an introvert i'm an extrovert well so there are some things that
we need to get done that are extrovert oriented and i can do those and i do them very happily
there are some things that are introvert oriented and detail-oriented neither of which i am um that
he does very well like taxes um so figuring out how to use your strengths in relationships
how to use your preferences to do the parts of what needs to be done that you really enjoy
that you like that you have the abilities to do and then partnering synergizing with people
who have other strengths other preferences that can take up some of the other things
that you either don't prefer or that they're not your strengths all of those can contribute to
reducing stress increasing efficiency reducing waste and energy all of the things that we've
been talking about over the past you know four weeks what questions do you have or ideas do you
have about creating strengths based or strengths focused environments in order to help you feel
more relaxed more at ease and accomplish your goals more efficiently
i do appreciate everybody being tuning in and being with me on this friday morning i hope it is
beautiful where you are i hope you are looking forward to something or some things uh every day
this weekend remember one of the things that you can do to help set your day off correctly
or in a good way is to be mindful in the morning identifying what you need what you want what you
think what you feel visualize a successful day even if you've got to do things that you don't
like visualize a successful day and identify at least one thing that you are looking forward to
have a wonderful weekend and i will see you guys next week