Course Overview

Hi and welcome.  I’m Jim Lucas – your guide and teacher for this course, which is all about simple ways you can survive life’s stresses.  It is also about how you can thrive.  What I’m going to be teaching you over the course of the next 5 lessons…not including this one…I mean 5 more after this one.  Today, I am giving you an overview of what the course includes. 

But before I get into what is in it, I want to talk about where these 5 lessons have come from.  And why in particular, are you getting these 5 lessons and not something else?  There are clear reasons why I have chosen to teach you about these specific 5 actions. 

The Foresight Programme

In 2008 there was a UK government-led project where one of its aims was to develop a vision of what we can all do to improve our own mental wellbeing.  It came up with a clear and evidence-based list of things people can do that will make them feel better and function better.  And this is the definition really of well-being…feeling good and functioning well.

So let’s break this down a bit more.  Feeling good is about having positive emotions like joy, excitement, contentment, desire, curiosity and enjoyment.  Whereas functioning well is about experiencing positive relationships, having control over your own life and connecting with a sense of purpose in what you want.  And how you want to live.

Now, of course, we can all feel unhappy at times.  And it’s not too hard to come up with examples of when we’ve struggled or made bad choices.  Life can be tough, and we react in the best ways we know at the time.  But, in retrospect, once you’ve got the benefit of wisdom, you realise that doing something else might have been better. 

A Personal Example

I’ll give you a personal example.  When I was in my twenties, I often avoided dating because I was scared of being rejected.  Instead of taking a chance, I’d avoid it altogether.  I’d play it safe.  The trouble was that I missed out.  And missing out made me more miserable.  Part of me wishes I could go back and relive that part of my life again, but I know that I can’t.  Fortunately, though, I did overcome come it in the end, and now I am really happy in my relationship.  And I’ve two beautiful children to show for it. 

When I compare my life now with how it was back then, I think I can safely say that I do just feel better in myself.  I also live my life much more productively and with more focus on what I want.  My wellbeing is better, you could say.

Getting Stuck & Suffering

This personal example shows how we can all get stuck in patterns that don’t work for us.  And when you get really stuck, you suffer.  This stuck-ness can manifest itself into chronic stress and anxiety problems like OCD, panic attacks and social phobia.  For many people, it can develop into feeling low all the time where depression takes over.  Winston Churchill used to call it a black dog that follows you around.  This can come and go and ebb and flow. 

Other people might develop problems with addictions, anger, violence, paranoia, hallucinations, suicidal urges and self-harm.  Then, there are those more common ailments of the modern world like weight gain, lack of exercise, work stress and insomnia.   

When you struggle with your own thoughts, feelings and physical pain, you can get into battles and downward spirals.  These experiences are often draining, frightening, shameful and hopeless.  They take away your good feelings, and you end up doing stuff – like avoiding fear – that only helps a little in the short term.  You end up living your life in much more restricted ways that steer you away from positive relationships, purpose and freedom. 

OK.  So, let’s come around again to these 5 actions.  They are 5 actions that an individual can do for themselves.  I’m not talking about what needs to be done at an organisational level or at a government level.  I know these things are important – like creating more equality in opportunities.  But, this is a course for you.  It’s a practical course so you can figure out what you can do to make your life better, where you can do things that will make you feel better and get more out of life.

What this course won’t do

Now, you need to bear in mind that this course is an introduction.  Each lesson is intended to introduce you to each action.  You’ll get clear advice and information on why the action is important. 

What it won’t do is guide you through the steps to putting it into practice.  This is available at the more advanced level.  You can get access to these courses when you’ve completed this introduction. 

This course also won’t through everything at you in one go.  You’ll get lesson one now straight away, but you’ll need to wait for the other lessons.  Each lesson will be delivered to you two days apart.  That way, you’ll have a bit of breathing space between each lesson.  I want you to really think about each lesson and what you can do to capitalise on it.  Once you’ve done that you’ll then get to move on to the next step.  That’s good teaching, and its good learning.

And finally, there isn’t any one-to-one support.  We aren’t able to act as coaches at this stage.  This course is more about discovery.  And it’s about small steps.  If you realise that you can storm ahead with what you pick up here then fantastic.  But, for many of you, more tailored guidance and support will be necessary.  This will be available at the next stage. 

But for now.  Good luck and let’s get started with the next episode – Lesson One – which is all about Connecting.