WholeLife Directions App | Employee Wellness

The WholeLife Directions app provided by the Employee Assistance Program is a free, confidential tool to help you bring awareness to your current health status and provide easy-to-access self-use programs to help you feel better. It includes access to the WholeLife Scale, an emotional wellness survey to help you learn more about yourself, including areas where you may desire positive changes.

WholeLife Directions also includes digital mental health tools to help you navigate life's challenges. The self-use digital programs are designed to help you create meaningful change in your life. They are based on cognitive behavioral therapy and include mindfulness based tools. 

Using WholeLife Directions and Whole Life Scale

The WholeLife Directions process begins when you access the WholeLife Scale, a 5-8 minute survey about your overall wellness. When you complete the survey, you’ll gain results that spotlight low-medium-high concern areas and easy-to-use, self-directed guidance to address the areas you choose.

When you receive your WholeLife Scale results, you also always have the option to seek additional support beyond the WholeLife Directions self-directed tools. One-on-one services or additional self-paced education opportunities are available through the Employee Assistance Program at any time.

WholeLife Directions can help you increase your knowledge about the specific issues that you may personally face and take action where you want, when you want, at your own pace.

The app focuses on assistance in nine areas critical to overall well-being:

Anger | Anger is a normal emotion. While anger is not pleasant, it is a common response when you feel you’ve been deliberately wronged. Anger tells you something is wrong and motivates you to find solutions. However, excessive anger creates problems. Relationships corrode, work suffers, and you may even experience self-hatred. If you feel out of control when angry and/or respond in ways that make situations worse, the WholeLife Directions app has ways to help you. The first step toward managing anger is noticing body sensations when you start to feel upset. WholeLife Directions teaches you techniques to increase awareness, such as how to use relaxation exercises when noticing you’re getting angry and shifting angry thoughts to helpful thoughts. Using the app can be a start to learning to manage your anger and feel more in control of your life.

Anxiety | At one point in time, each of us has felt anxious. Without anxiety, it is unlikely that we would ever get anything done. However, too much anxiety can get in the way of enjoying our lives. It can stop us from meeting new people, completing work tasks, asking for a promotion, or simply trying new things. Take steps to learn how to prevent anxiety from dictating your life and limiting the scope of your experiences. WholeLife Directions can teach you how to cope with emotions, handle anxious thoughts, and face difficult situations that may impact your physical and mental health.

Depression | Sadness is a universally experienced emotion. It can come from loss, transitions, and other life stressors. Depression, however, is more than just sadness. WholeLife Directions can help address depression using evidence-based techniques. It is possible to improve overall mood by taking just a few minutes each day to focus on your emotional needs. 

Post Traumatic Stress | If you have gone through a traumatic experience, it is normal to feel variable emotions, such as distress, fear, helplessness, guilt, shame or anger. You may start to feel better after days or weeks but sometimes these feelings don’t go away. If the symptoms last for more than a month, you may have Post Traumatic Stress or PTS. The good news is that most cases improve with time and that professional treatment helps considerably. Research has also shown slow breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, and problem-solving skills help with stress. WholeLife Directions provides insightful education and can help you develop skills to help manage symptoms of PTS effectively.

Relationships | We benefit from relationships. Whether a friendship, a romantic partnership, or a familial bond, having interpersonal relationships can help us reduce stress, care for others, and grow. Relationships can also be challenging, and those with poor relationships are more likely to experience symptoms of depression. WholeLife Directions App provides helpful resources and techniques to enhance your relationships.

Sleep | Sleeping well directly affects your mental and physical health. Work stress, family responsibilities, and unexpected challenges can have an impact on your quality of sleep. While you might not be able to control the factors that interfere with your sleep, you can adopt habits that encourage better sleep. Fortunately, WholeLife Directions offers solutions to help you gain restful sleep. Through the app, you can learn the mechanisms behind restorative sleep and how to sustain healthy sleeping habits. Progressive muscle relaxation, slow breathing, and managing anxious thoughts are a few methods used in WholeLife Directions. Whether you’ve always had sleep struggles or are just recently experiencing trouble, the self-directed tools can help you to start sleeping soundly.

Stress | Having too many things to do can often leave us with little time for ourselves. It is easy to get caught up with work, family, completing errands, and forget about oneself. This may work for a short time, until suddenly you feel more tired than usual, less interested and maybe even underappreciated. These are signs of burning out. People often neglect their own needs to help others. These self-sacrificing gestures are commendable; however, they can have a negative impact on your own emotional and physical well-being. Learn to make yourself a priority by setting aside a few minutes for yourself each day. You can use the WholeLife Directions app to build effective coping techniques and gain additional resources.

Substance Abuse | Sometimes, the use of drugs and alcohol to subdue or escape our feelings is a common way many of us try to cope with stressors. But do they really help? Rather than fix our problems, substance use can maintain or even escalate them. We do not have control over everything in life, but we do have control over how we behave in response to life stressors. With WholeLife Directions evidence-based strategies, you can find ways to replace unhelpful coping with more adaptive ways of dealing with life’s challenges.

Work Engagement | All of us have days we’re feeling off, but what do you do if you’re consistently having trouble focusing at work? There are many reasons people feel disengaged. You may be experiencing burnout, sleeplessness, anxiety or there is just too much going on in your personal life. Overcoming this is hard for everyone. Thankfully, there are steps you can take to start feeling more focused and healthier, both at work and in your personal life. Seeking help and engaging in self-care is strength. With WholeLife Directions, you can learn to better manage life challenges with slow breathing, replace negative thoughts with helpful ones, and improve problem solving skills.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why should I participate in WholeLife Directions?

The program will help you bring awareness to your current health status. You will receive confidential personalized recommendations based on your unique answers. On your path to an empowered, productive life, increased awareness and support in the areas where you desire improvement can help you highlight your strengths, boost fulfillment, and enhance good health.

Will my results be kept confidential?

Absolutely. Your health is personal— and we understand that. Your individual results will never be shared with Pacific University or anyone else. To assist in offering wellness resources that better fit our community’s specific needs, Pacific University may receive a report of de-identified aggregate results. This will help the university look for new ways to enhance employee wellness benefits in the future. WholeLife Directions is fully HIPAA compliant, and your information is protected in accordance with all applicable privacy laws.

How long will the WholeLife Scale survey take?

The WholeLife Scale survey will take approximately 5-8 minutes to complete. If you’d like, you can also stop, save your results, and return to complete it later.

Access WholeLife Directions Today

WholeLife Directions is easily accessible via App or web. Explore more details by watching the quick (2 minute) WholeLife Directions video. Review the WLD information flyer in BOX to get your access code and step-by-step directions. You can also gain answers to additional questions on the Frequently Asked Questions sheet.