Transcript: SABR Introduction video

What does it mean to live well?

• Being a force for good things.
• Avoiding unnecessary harm.
• Enjoying some of the pleasures of life.
• Doing justice to your abilities
• Having a meaningful and positive way of living
• Being helpful or connected to the world. To other people.
• Being of good character.

But life is hard. No doubt about that. Any number of things can make it harder. Can lead you astray.

Sometimes it’s your fault, sometimes it’s not.

Sometimes it’s hard to tell.

Here’s one thing though. You have the ability to intend better things for yourself, and the SABR program is a simple system that helps you to try them out. The SABR program is many small modules, all different, like a buffet of different dishes for you to try, to see which works best for you.

We all want to learn how to deal better with situations that drag us down.

To avoid being labelled or stuck with mistakes and regrets from the past.

To be known more for our strengths than our weaknesses.

To feel worthy.

To know and grow that which makes us feel good, the talents and qualities that give us a good life.

To handle relationships and conflict more easily.

Unlike typical 12-step programs, SABR doesn’t identify you as an addict before anything else. Addiction is not an identity. It's an addiction. In fact, SABR can be done by anyone, with or without addiction, because it is really a very good collection of personal improvement tools.

This is because SABR is different in one main way: it is focused on finding, and building, your strengths and virtues. Not on rooting out your failures.

The reason for this is simple. People find it far easier to leave bad things if they have somewhere else to go. If they have some belief and reassurance that they can forge a better way of being. I suppose it’s a bit like if Tarzan, king of the jungle, were stuck in a thorny, spiky old tree. He would leave it if there was a better tree to swing to.

If you have already been in a 12-step program that is fine too. SABR is compatible with that. It’s just that things have moved on in psychology and personal development. SABR is the first big stride towards dealing with recovery and growth in a positive and productive way.

Recovery, getting clean, removing the unwanted habit, escaping the cycle, whatever you want to call it. That is not the main aim of SABR. The main aim is to grow you, the worthy and capable person as you are, to help you bring out your own finest abilities, and to make them visible. To make you more you. That’s more important. Recovery is just a side effect.

Most of us are too hard on ourselves internally. We push ourselves to succeed, to overcome, to achieve, or to win. Then it’s no surprise when we get caught tired or sad, we have to let that control go and then we end up doing impulsive things to escape that tension that we’ve built up.

Whatever you do, don’t take this all too seriously. It doesn’t work when you try too hard. If you push yourself to things that you really can’t do easily, you’ll only get exhausted. Instead, just do the modules humbly, reflectively, without any expectations. Aim to understand and to reflect, that’s all. No hard memorising, no rigid systems, nothing like that. A pen and a notebook, and some time to yourself, that’s all you need here.

It’s hard to live with unwanted habits.

It’s harder to live with regrets.

SABR helps you to choose which of those hardships you would rather live with.

It’s hard to do justice to your abilities.

It’s harder to live without ever approaching your potential.

Choose your hard. SABR helps you to stick to your choice.

It’s hard to live a long and healthy life, being a force for good for the people that matter.

It’s harder to die before your time, sabotaged by your own neglect.

Choose your hard. Use the tools in SABR to make the better choice.

About us

We started delivering high performance for our clients in Oxford in 2010. Our business and reputation grew by word of mouth, helping people in person, only 4 or 5 clients at a time. Now we have scaled out, working internationally, including 1:1 work, team-level projects and self-directed online courses. 

Performance Psychiatry has all the skills from psychology and therapy, but it is equally focussed on fixing issues as it is on enhancing strengths. So it brings no judgment or stigma either. And so it should not: everyone has a mix of qualities, and it is only right that you can work on both strengths and weaknesses at once. That's Mental Wealth.