Written by Clinical Psychologist, Katie Dobinson 

Whether you’re new to THIS WAY UP’s digital mental health programs, or you’re familiar with them and back for more, it’s great to have you here!

The beginning of the year is a great time to check-in with your wellbeing. A helpful place to start is by taking a moment to pause, and ask yourself “How am I feeling at the moment?”, or “If I improved my wellbeing this year, what would look different in my day-to-day life?”. 

These questions can be a helpful guide to taking steps to refresh skills that have worked for you in the past. You might notice that you’ve been feeling a little more stressed out lately, and want to refresh some old healthy habits that have kept you feeling balanced and calm before. Perhaps you’re feeling low, and would like some help in improving your mood so that you can enjoy your favourite hobby, and time with friends, like you used to. Or, it might be that you check-in with yourself and notice you’re feeling pretty good, but want to revise helpful and healthy skills so that your wellbeing can be maintained as you settle into the routine of the new year. 

Whatever your answers to the wellbeing check-in questions, it’s never too early or too late to improve how you feel, and digital mental health programs can help with getting your where you want to be (or, helping you stay where you are) along the continuum of emotional health.   

We want to support you to take whichever approach is right for you, whether it’s a refresh on how to log-in and get started with a THIS WAY UP program, to revise a program you’ve looked at before, or to recreate new helpful habits that will serve your wellbeing moving forward. Simple tips to get started on your refresh, revise and recreating of your wellbeing can include:  

Refresh 

It’s time to hit the ‘refresh’ button on your browser for thiswayup.org.au and log-in to your account to explore the programs available. Maybe you created an account in the past and had a look at one of the programs then life got busy and you left it there – we get it! It’s never too late to get back into action. Take the first step today and log-in to your THIS WAY UP account, and pick-up where you left off. If you’re not sure where to start, the Wellbeing Programs (Stress Management, Mindfulness) can be an excellent place to re-connect to skills that improve your day-to-day, with fewer modules in each program but so much to gain.  

Revise 

It’s never too late to jump back into your THIS WAY UP program and take a look over the skills you’ve covered. If you started a program, or maybe finished one, but feel some of your symptoms bubble up again from time to time when stressed, this might be a good sign to revise the skills you know.  

Take a look back over the modules you found most helpful in the past. What skills really resonated with you? Perhaps it was learning to catch and challenge unhelpful thoughts, or reducing your avoidance and facing your fears with some exposure stepladders made the difference for you!  

THIS WAY UP programs have a range of excellent resources that can help you revise your wellbeing through revision. Check out the Action Plans and Lesson Summaries for tips on putting skills into practice, then give it a go! If you stick to small changes each day, you’ll start noticing improvements to how you feel.  

Recreate  

You might be looking to learn new skills, such as how to practice Mindfulness, or how to feel more confident in social situations. These skills can lead to exciting re-creation and new goals for the year ahead. You can recreate a new relationship with your thoughts – moving from perhaps fearing anxious thoughts, to finding more balanced ways of thinking. You can recreate a new routine for your wellbeing, perhaps it’s about looking for the positive in each day, getting outdoors a little more, or connecting with those you are important to you. THIS WAY UP programs help you to identify unhelpful thoughts and behaviours, and shift these so that you are living the life that is most meaningful to you.  

If you’re ready to refresh, revise, recreate, or perhaps all three, there’s no time like the present! Jump online now and see what THIS WAY UP programs can do for you in the new year.

It’s great to have you back! 

Not sure how you’re feeling? Check your levels of stress, anxiety, and depression to see which of our programs might help with our anonymous online Take-a-Test Tool.