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Wellness is "a conscious, deliberate process that requires a person to become aware of and make choices for a more satisfying lifestyle" ( Swarbrick, 2015 , p. 13). Positive healthy habits and routines are significant contributors to wellness in life dimensions-physical and financial stability, engagement in occupations and purposeful activity that provide a sense of meaning in life, a supportive social network, emotional well-being, and intellectually satisfying pursuits. However, establishing good habits and eliminating bad or harmful habits are difficult, especially for individuals living with or who are at risk of developing mental or substance use disorders.
For individuals with serious mental and/or substance use disorders, the combination of personal history, treatments, symptoms associated with the mental or medical conditions, and poverty often interact to influence habits that negatively impact wellness. In decades of training sessions conducted by two of the current authors (P.B.N., M.A.S.), service providers have expressed frustration at service users who appear "unmotivated"-equating lack of motivation with lack of action, without recognizing the complex interaction of variables that challenge creating and sustaining a set of health habits that impact well-being.
With the advent of integrated health care initiatives within the behavioral health field, nurses, occupational therapy practitioners, and other health and rehabilitation service providers play an increasingly important role in assessing and improving physical health status and lifestyle habits for individuals with serious mental and/or substance use disorders. Nurses are involved in programs promoting lifestyle change for patients using mental health services, with positive effect, yet such programs are not as common as they should be ( Duran, 2003 ; Happell, Platania-Phung, & Scott, 2013, 2014 ). In addition to needing to provide education and support around lifestyle change for their patients, many nurses could benefit from changing their own health habits, as evident by the prevalence of obesity, poor diet, and lack of physical activity in nurses, along with other health problems and concerns ( Blake & Harrison, 2013 ; Phiri, Draper, Lambert, & Kolbe-Alexander, 2014 ).
The current article provides a cursory overview of theories, research, and recent popular books related to habits, motivation, and willpower. The article offers an invitation to rethink how to support individuals in their effort to create and sustain habits to promote mental and/or substance...