I can, I will, and here’s my plan

Hi fellow WRAPers its time for another installment on my Weblog so here goes. This installment I would like to focus on the power of intention and planning on inner peace. Often times in my life I have dreamed of being a hermit free from the struggles of our society. I thought that if I got far enough away from the challenges of society I would be free from the storm. What I have learned is that even when I attempted to remove myself from the tribulations of others I created a void. That void becamea low pressure system that was a breeding ground for personal insecurities and self pity. So the real trick was finding peace within the storm. The Dalai Lama in his book The Path to Tranquility states that, ” It is not enough to be compassionate. You must act. There are two aspects to action. One is to overcome the distortions and afflictions of your own mind…The other is more social, more public. When something needs to be done in the world to rectify the wrongs, if one is really concerned with benefitting others, one needs to be engaged, involved.”

To see change we must mobilize our intentions in an organized direction. WRAP helps mobilize our intentions hopes and dreams for wellness. My intention is to effect positve change on myself and the world in a sustained organized manner rather then get bogged down in my own transendental paralysis created by inaction and my own mind.

In other news I wanted to invite the Philadelphia WRAP community to join me in creating a connected community of WRAPers. I wanted to begin to meet and grow partnerships between those people who have had their lives changed by WRAP. If you are one of these people and happen to live in the Philadelphia area please drop me a line at elarson@mhasp.org if you would be intersted in forming a collaborative effort to each other. See you online again soon.

 Don’t just live, thrive.

 Eric

Envisioning WRAP

All good things start with a vision or intent I suppose. Wellness Recovery Action Plan most definitely is an example of purpose and or mission. We orient our efforts toward a specific goal of wellness with the prior knowledge that we will undergo challenges in acheiving that vision. WRAP calls for awareness, purpose, and intent. It is often said be careful what you wish for. I find this is truthful because of the power of our intentions to steer our actions and our mindsets. The very act of putting thoughts, experiences, and wellness tools into action plans is a powerful tool toward change. In my study of motivational interviewing techniques as a Certified Peer Specialist, I have learned of the awesome motivational power of simply talking about change. Recording plans for change in a document takes that a step further. Looking deeper at why WRAP makes sense i’ll dig back into personal experience. At an early age I had  set some ideas of what I wanted my life to look like. Kind of similiar to the format in WRAP What I look like when I am well. More specifically I knew what I didn’t want my life to look like. Kind of like identifying triggers and early warning signs. Planning just seems to make sense even if we cannot accurately predict or envision how we are going to achieve our goals. I find those people exceptional that seem to know exactly what they want to be in life from birth and seem to rocket towards that goal without ever looking back. I know I had specific ideas of what my life would look like and then came setbacks and it looked like at the time that my goals had changed. One year an uncle of mine told me something very profound that I find holds a nugget of truth. Looking forward it may appear that our life is a collection of random events leading to some unknown destination. His insight was that if you look in retrospect at the tapestry of situational reality of your life that there appears to be an organic pathway that brings us closer to our vision of what life could look like.  So I digress. So what is my vision of this blog. My vision of this blog is to create a clear atmosphere where one can think aloud and renew passion and dedication of an intentional life. I hope that the topics will be profound and wide ranging. So I invite everyone whose life WRAP has touched to keep the fire fueled for personal change through sharing our intentions and what we have learned in our experience in this blog.

Seize the day

Eric

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