Health and wellness is a relationship

I have observed health and wellness becoming trendy in Perth the last few years, and I am all for something good to be popular. The saying “health is the new wealth” is getting traction. Power of social conformity hey?

The demand for this area has been driving up business activity - dedicated wellness spaces (saunas/spas), coaching services, run clubs and activewear labels looking to capitalize on this movement.

Before our feeds were dominated by these things. People would post a picture of their workout with a “perthfitfam” hasthtag, not necessarily as a look at me/performative sort of thing, but just for the love of fitness and the hope it may inspire their mates and family.

With that being said, we need to be careful with viewing health and wellness as a fad/trend, and a luxury by over-commercialising it. We also need to be careful of over-optimising/biohacking it, where one equates our quality of life with a metric/smart watch reading.

I love picking the brains of older individuals (can't beat life experience) and individuals who excel in their chosen fields/mission. I bumped into a 61 year-old well built man early this year - I was inspired and I asked him for practical advice for maintaining his health and fitness at that age. Along with the essentials of establishing discipline/internal motivation, being processed-focused, not outcome-focused, nutrition and exercise. He also said to me, it's about showing love to one-self.

We should view health & wellness as a relationship with ourself...

Which raises the question, what does a healthy relationship look like?

A healthy relationship is something we prioritise time for...

A healthy relationship requires learning our own mind and body love languages - what does our mind and body respond well to? Is it physical touch - do we need tactile methods of recovery or exercise? Is it words of affirmation - do we need to sit with our thoughts and journal? What is our version of quality of time - finding stillness and solitude, or hanging with friends - maybe mix of both?

A healthy relationship requires communication and active listening. Do we make time to communicate and listen to our body, nervous system/mind and spirit? The beauty of our body and mind, it is assertive - it will often communicate to you when something is wrong. It may be attempting to give us feedback (often in subtle ways - maybe a mental friction in a certain situation, or a lingering niggle), but we often are too busy to listen, or straight up ignore it. Listen and try and understand, when your mind and body attempts to communicate, and don't let it resort to shouting for you to listen to it...

If you need help establishing a healthy relationship with your body and mind, reach out to me.

Health & wellness is a relationship, not a fad/luxury or metric...

Coach Jose

Disclaimer: The views expressed are my own and do not represent any organization which I may be affiliated with.