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NEW Emotional Well-Being Campaign From HESFueled by growing interest in a meaningful, harmonious life, today’s employees, members, patients, and clients want more than physical health or the absence of disease. They want to thrive in all aspects of well-being — emotional, social, financial, career, and more.

At HES, we’ve reviewed thousands of participant testimonials and dove deep into studies of flourishing individuals and groups. We’ve discovered that those who thrive over the long term have adopted practices that include (but aren’t limited to) mindfulness, optimism, gratitude, and connection — elements of a general state called emotional well-being.

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Why Work of Art? This program helps participants learn and practice activities that elevate emotional well-being, including skills to enhance resilience and cultivate happiness.

Emotional fitness like physical fitness requires repetition and commitment to yield the most benefits. In Work of Art participants perform activities that mean the most to them (more than 30 to choose from) in 5 categories:

• Mindfulness

• Optimism

• Gratitude

• Connection

• Collage (miscellaneous).

Life Is ArtThere’s no set formula or specific guideline for being happy. How you interact with others, the way you manage life’s ups and downs, thoughts and attitudes you choose, and the relationships you nurture make up the rich tapestry of you: your personal work of art.

Although participants create art on their mobile or desktop device, artistic skill isn’t needed to achieve significant well-being benefits in Work of Art. As they complete activities they value, participants track progress by “painting” images with personal meaning. Their accomplishments are reinforced through buddy and team features as well as the option to share their works in a gallery for all to admire.

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Mindfulness Mindfulness is full, nonjudgmental awareness of the present moment. This doesn’t mean being 100% distraction-free, but simply trying to be an impartial observer of arising thoughts, as well as emotions and sensations, instead of getting swept away by them. Plenty of research links mindfulness to emotional fitness,1 which can be cultivated through visualization and focusing techniques as well as simple practices like concentration on breathing.

OptimismOptimism, a bright outlook about the present and the future, has been front and center in positive psychology (the study of personal traits and behaviors that lead people to thrive).2 Research confirms3 that certain activities — like acting compassionately, identifying and activating personal strengths, and imagining a successful future — enhance optimism and, ultimately, overall happiness.

Gratitude Gratitude overlaps with optimism but warrants special attention because it’s such a powerful catalyst of emotional well-being. It entails conscious appreciation of what’s good in life ― like loved ones, favorite places, and prized possessions — as well as intangibles like beliefs, opportunities, and experiences. This is another favorite subject of positive psychology, which finds that most people’s natural level of gratitude can be increased.4

Connection Connection, in the context of emotional fitness, is the feeling of belonging… being part of something. Social relationships are a type of connection that takes many forms, each with its own benefits:

• Having a best friend at work boosts job satisfaction by 50%5

• Experiencing more “weak” social connections — like recurring encounters with acquaintances at work, at the supermarket, or in a classroom — raises the chances of a high emotional fitness level6

• Belonging to more social groups is linked to higher life satisfaction7

• Feeling connected to a place, a pet, or a cause can boost emotional well-being.

CollageMany elements of emotional well-being don’t fit neatly into categories like mindfulness, optimism, gratitude, or connection. So we’ve added a catch-all category named Collage, which includes:

• Adopting productive daily routines

• Acting in a way that reflects individual values

• Building resilience with skills that help us cope, bounce back, and grow in the face of stress8

• Expressing creatively9 or introducing more beauty into life in the form of nature, music, or visual arts.

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To learn more,go to MyWorkofArt.com or visit HESonline.com today.

Endnotes1. Good, Darren J., et al, “Contemplating Mindfulness at Work: An Integrative

Review,” Journal of Management, 42.1 (2016): 114-1422. Peterson, Christopher, “What Is Positive Psychology, and What Is It Not?,”

Psychology Today (2008)3. Seligman, Martin E.P., et al, “Positive Psychology Progress: Empirical

Validation of Interventions,” American Psychologist, 60.5 (2005): 4104. Seligman, Martin E.P., et al, ibid5. Riordan, Christine M., “We All Need Friends at Work,” Harvard Business Review

(2013)6. Sandstrom, Gillian M. and Elizabeth W. Dunn, “Social Interactions and Well-

Being: The Surprising Power of Weak Ties,” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 40.7 (2014): 910-922

7. Wakefield, Juliet Ruth Helen, et al, “The Relationship Between Group Identification and Satisfaction With Life in a Cross-Cultural Community Sample,” Journal of Happiness Studies, 18.3 (2017): 785-807

8. Smith, Brad, et al, “Improvements in Resilience, Stress, and Somatic Symptoms Following Online Resilience Training: A Dose-Response Effect,” Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 60.1 (2018): 1

9. Stuckey, Heather L. and Jeremy Nobel, “The Connection Between Art, Healing, and Public Health: A Review of Current Literature,” American Journal of Public Health, 100.2 (2010)

Solutions for Employers, Health Plans, EAPs, Membership Organizations, Healthcare ProvidersJust like exercise, different emotional well-being activities are best suited to different people at different times. A program that provides mindfulness activities only or focuses on gratitude exclusively is like a gym that has only a chest-press machine; it may work 1 body part well, but not the whole body.

Work of Art is a new emotional well-being program from HES that does address the whole inner self, and in a way that’s not prescriptive, but allows participants to personalize their experience by:

• Choosing the activities that matter most to them

• Exploring new mindfulness, optimism, gratitude, connection, and other emotional fitness activities each week

• Creating treasured works of art from images with emotion and meaning

• Sharing success plus supporting friends and colleagues along the way.