Great-West Financial®, on behalf of ADA student members insurance plans, is proud to sponsor this year’s ASDA Wellness Initiative. Like ASDA, we believe wellness is a key part of a happy and healthy life and career. The article below is from our bringhealthyon.com website. Visit the site for wellness recipes, videos and more.
Financial well-being is also an important part of personal wellness. Be sure to visit insurance.ada.org to request activation of your ADA student members disability and life insurance offered to you at no cost.
5 steps to feeling more positive
Putting an optimistic spin on negative thoughts may make a big difference. These tiny tweaks can help you get started.
Many people have a tendency to think about healthy behaviors in black-and-white extremes: chocolate is bad, carrots are good; missing a few daily walks means you’ve fallen off the wagon; a scale that won’t budge means your health is spiraling out of control. This distorted thinking pattern may harm your efforts to improve your health because small setbacks may cause you to feel defeated, down and ready to give up. Here are some tips for keeping a positive long-view perspective.
Catch yourself when you use words like “always,” “must” or “never.”
Imperatives like this set impossible standards—and set you up for failure when you (inevitably) don’t live up to them. Hearing yourself say words like “must” or “never” and recognizing this sort of all-or-nothing thinking is a huge first step to changing it. Recognize that you might not always avoid sweets or take your walk at the exact time you’ve scheduled it.
Replace rigid words with more flexible ones.
Try “sometimes,” “most of the time,” “as often as I can” or “during the week.” The more you practice, the easier it will be.
Rewrite your scripts.
If you find yourself vowing things like “I will never eat pizza again,” soften the script. Try something like this: “I’ll try to choose alternatives to pizza most of the time, but when I do have some, I’ll just have one slice and enjoy it.”
Don’t beat yourself up.
Beyond all-or-nothing thinking, your internal thoughts about yourself can have a huge impact on your attempts at behavior change. If you treat yourself like a failure, it can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you work to replace negative thoughts with positive counter-thoughts, you can turn a minor setback into a small victory. For example, instead of getting upset over a diet slipup, focus on how good you feel after a healthy meal and an after-dinner walk.
Practice your “positive spinning.”
One strategy for keeping an optimistic outlook is anticipating potential problems and thinking ahead about how you might reframe the negative thoughts that automatically bubble up. Right now, think of three bumps in the road that may get in the way of improving your health. Now, transform the negative attitudes you anticipate into positive, can-do statements. For each obstacle you anticipate, write down: 1) the potential problem, 2) the typical negative thought and 3) a positive counter-thought.
© Meredith Corporation. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
~Great West Financial®
This content is sponsored and does not necessarily reflect the views of ASDA.
Visit www.insurance.ada.org, call 855.411.5198 or email planspecialist@greatwest.com for more information and to learn about coverage provisions, limitations, terms for keeping coverage in force and the option to convert to member coverage after graduation by paying ADA member-only premiums and maintaining ADA membership.
Student coverage is issued regardless of your condition if you are under 45. If you are 45 or older, you can apply for the no-cost coverage and all student program features by providing proof of good health. Coverage renews automatically each academic year. Individuals may convert coverage to the plans for practicing dentists after graduation by paying ADA member premiums and maintaining ADA membership.
This material is not a contract. Benefits are provided through a group policy (Nos. 104TLP Term Life and 1108GDHSDP Student Disability) filed in the state of Illinois in accordance with and governed by Illinois law, issued to the American Dental Association, and underwritten by Great-West Financial®. All ADA-sponsored coverage is subject to underwriting and is not guaranteed issue unless specifically stated otherwise. Coverage that is guaranteed issue is subject to a pre-existing condition limitation. Coverage is available to eligible ADA members and student members in all fifty states and US territories under the aforementioned group policy. Each insured will receive a Certificate of Insurance explaining the terms and conditions of the policy.
Great-West Financial®, Empower Retirement and Great-West Investments™ are the marketing names of Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance Company, Corporate Headquarters: Greenwood Village, CO; Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance Company of New York, Home Office: NY, NY, and their subsidiaries and affiliates, including Advised Assets Group, LLC and Great-West Capital Management, LLC. The trademarks, logos, service marks and design elements used are owned by GWL&A or their respective owners and used by permission. GWL&A is not licensed in New York, but eligible members residing in New York may request and ultimately receive coverage under the aforementioned group policy. © Meredith Corporation. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
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ADA® is a registered trademark of the American Dental Association and Great-West Financial® is a registered trademark of GWL&A.
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