Taking Good Care of Yourself with 5 SEEDS

How do you take good care of yourself?

Growing up in the late 80s and 90s there was a lot of information out there about what we needed to do to be happy, fit, loveable, and ‘cool’. This was, unfortunately, the era of ‘heroin chic’ aesthetic (yes this was actually a thing), so you can imagine that most of the information was- at its best- confusing or unhelpful, and at its worst outright dangerous and toxic.

Unfortunately, the available information has gotten more clear, helpful and straightforward as we’ve evolved and moved away from some of the more outrageous advice. 

So, as you can imagine, I’m always happy to come across a clear, simple, accessible framework that points us toward how we can best take good care of ourselves. For me, the SEEDS framework does this. 

The SEEDS model was developed by Dr. John Arden, a psychologist and author who studied neuropsychology and advocates for the integration of mind and body treatment as a former director of training and health at Kaiser Permanente.  Each letter of the SEEDS acronym stands for an aspect of health and wellness which is linked to epigenetic factors that can improve physical, mental, and emotional health- or alternatively, lead to poor health outcomes if not addressed. 

The SEEDS stand for:

S- sleep

E- education

E- exercise

D- diet

S- social

If we focus just on these 5 areas of well being, we can generally ensure that we’re on the right track to take care of ourselves in body, mind and spirit. Looking over the list, which area are you attending to with the most care right now in your life? Which of these 5 areas needs the most attention? 

Take a moment to honor the work you’ve been doing in the area that feels the strongest. 

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be writing about each area in more detail, with specific ideas about how to attend to each area, hopefully offering an easy way to start giving some kind attention to the area- or areas- that need it most.