Wendy Ulrich's Time Out for Women 2010 message centers on building "habits of happiness" by finding one's personal mission.
First-time presenter Ulrich is a Ph.D., author, former president of the Association of Mormon Counselors and Psychotherapists, and the founder of the Sixteen Stones Center for Growth.
"I'm trying to pass on concrete tools," Ulrich said. "Like how to be grateful, how to organize our day … how to positively construct our lives and find meaning and fulfillment."
Ulrich believes if we can build on the positive, we are not only doing ourselves a favor, but we are creating the resources we need to deal with the challenges of life.
"Psychology tended to focus on the negative on 'what's wrong' with people," Ulrich said. "It looked at our deficits, our children's deficits, at what needed 'fixing.' "
But Ulrich said there has been a shift in the psychological world: A more positive psychological approach is gaining popularity. It looks at a person's inherent strengths and values instead of obsessing about their weaknesses.
Spiritually speaking, Ulrich hopes to help people find their personal mission within the gospel of Jesus Christ. "I have a strong belief that people find their personal mission by engaging in a dialogue with the Lord through prayer," she said.
Ulrich suggested that what God wants for us, or wants us to do, can be determined in part by realizing what we are drawn to, what talents we have been blessed with.
"We need to educate our desires, our gifts in a righteous way," Ulrich said.
Ulrich's organization, Sixteen Stones, is a group of mental-health professionals committed to building the emotional and spiritual resilience of Latter-day Saints — especially LDS women.
"There are so many LDS women who don't grasp how amazing they are," Ulrich said.
Sixteen Stones has clients take a day, or even a half-day, to take on personal issues, such as coping with a loss, learning to forgive, identifying one's mission or deepening one's spirituality.
These themes are also present in Ulrich's books "Forgiving Ourselves" and "Weakness is Not Sin."
When Ulrich's husband, Dave, was a mission president in Canada, she worked with missionaries as a mental-health specialist.
"It taught me how many people struggle with forgiving, whether it's other people or themselves because they didn't live up to expectations," Ulrich said.
Ulrich stressed that when we think this way, we are refusing to acknowledge that be it missionary work, being a parent, etc., we are going to make mistakes.
"Fortunately, we have the gospel that gives us the big picture, and psychology can help us confront our immediate obstacles," Ulrich said.
She shared that we do not learn anything by stepping in and being immediately brilliant; we have to take risks in order to grow.
"If something is worth doing," Ulrich said, "it's worth doing badly. We can't really fail as long as we learn and keep coming back to the Savior. He will make up the difference."
McGraw-Hill will publish a new book in June that Wendy and Dave Ulrich have co-authored, titled "The Why of Work." "Forgiving Ourselves" and "Weakness is Not Sin" are available at deseretbook.com. For more about Sixteen Stones, go to sixteenstones.net.