PHYSICAL WELLNESS How well do you listen to your physical body? What do you know about its needs? Some people seem finely attuned to their bodies and its responses to a diverse range of things — food, sleep, exercise, stress, relaxation, mental activity… Others seem to be blind to body functioning and reactions to their environments and circumstances. We, the authors are great examples of this difference. Julie is very sensitive to and aware of her physical self. She feels pain very readily; show knows exactly what her body is telling her when it starts to behave in atypical ways; she relishes massages and is highly responsive to human touching and physical contact. Polly is the exact opposite. She seems to be unaware that her body has sensations at times and seems to be able to distance herself and disassociate from bodily changes and sensations. Consequently she can be quite unaware that she has bruised or cut herself, and whilst her regular weekly massages relax her and build up her immune system, they are primarily out-of-body experiences rather than physical experiences for her. We are both attempting to create more balance in the physical aspect of our individual lives Body awareness and knowing our body states and their effect on consciousness and their relationship to stress is essential for wellness Physical wellness is not just about physical fitness. It impacts powerfully on our emotional, mental and spiritual selves. Trying to develop, maintain and sustain physical wellness needs to be part of our everyday lives. Often when we are working too hard we will tell ourselves that we don’t have time to go for a walk — or to eat properly and hence, over time our bodies are subtly broken down. Reviewing our diet, or our exercise habits, or our understanding of the interconnected nature of our bodies can become an area of total neglect in some, and obsession in some — but is certainly a cause for study in us all. To understand the human body as a system in which every cell is interconnected and potentially affects every other, is to learn to appreciate ourselves. To understand that the food we eat affects our hormonal systems, which in turn affect our musculature and our skeletal operations is fascinating in its complexity, wonderful in its simplicity. To know that it may be possible for stresses to affect us physically to the point of total physical debilitation, as they did in Julie’s case, is to understand the levels of impact we can have on our own bodies. We all know, from the mountains of nutritional evidence that face us on a daily basis these days, that we need to eat good, simple, wholesome food. We all know intellectually that we must exercise — that this combination is the only one which seems to demonstrably assist people to manage their weight. And we know from the evidence provided by the many anecdotal stories that abound, that diet and state of mind play such a crucial part in our overall wellness.
78
(C) Creating Resilient Educators
