Dear Dartmouth,

This week, we begin our exploration of our approach to wellbeing with the foundation of our framework: the pathway of cultivating perspective. The journey along this pathway involves developing your capacities for reflection and reframing. Reflection is a key tool for awareness that involves stepping back from your immediate experience and observing things non-judgmentally. It can help you to better understand your reactions, thoughts, and feelings related to different events.

Reframing is a refined reflective skill where you utilize that awareness to notice the story you are telling yourself about a particular event or situation. When that story is the not the most helpful for achieving your desired outcome, you can re-author the narrative that is shaping your experience.

Consider any challenge you may be facing (e.g. academics, relationships, adjusting to different transitions). Notice the story that accompanies that adversity. What do you tell yourself when things are not going as well as you had hoped? This pathway is often about moving from attributions about personal shortcomings (“I’m not ________ enough”) to explanations based on behaviors (“I could have done ________ differently”) in order to generate possibilities for realizing different outcomes in the future.

You can even cultivate a new perspective toward yourself. Rather than focusing on what you’re lacking, you can instead develop a greater appreciation for your strengths, and bring forth the best within yourself to tackle your challenges and drive your success.

Taking ownership of your perspective empowers you to become the primary author of your own story, and makes it possible for you claim agency over your own identities and how you make sense of the events and experiences that you encounter in life. Recognizing that you have a choice in how you respond to your circumstances and author the story of your life provides a strong foundation for wellbeing.

Ask Yourself (Reflective Questions)

• How do I typically make sense of challenges or adversity that I encounter in life? Does this perspective limit me or empower me?
• What would it look like to talk to myself in the same way I would talk to my best friend?
• What is the story I’m currently telling myself about my life? Am I the hero of this story? Is it one I want to be living? Is there anything I’d like to change about it?

Try This (Wellbeing Practices)

• Build a Growth Mindset
• Start a Gratitude Journal and note 3 Good Things each day
• Explore your strengths

Explore Further (Dartmouth Resources)

• Use the many resources of the Academic Skills Center to become a better student and achieve your academic and professional goals.
• Schedule a Wellness Check-In to discuss your strengths, share your story, and jump-start your journey toward creating the life you want to be living.

We encourage you to reflect on the questions above and select one of the practices to try over the next couple weeks. In our next post, we’ll explore our second pathway: Engaging Mindfully. Until then…

Take care and be well,
Todd