Blog Spot with Lisa Conway

The Body is a Machine… But Even It Has Its Limitations!

The internal you is just as important, if not more important, than the external you. This is not about tarting up your exterior and ignoring what matters. This is about so much more than that.

I feel strongly about your wellbeing and your health. My belief is that the joy you experience every day when you are happy –deeply happy – is simply a gift that you give yourself. Being truly joyful as you go about your life has everything to do with how you feel about you, and one of the triggers to that is how healthy you are.

I believe that everyone wants and deserves to be happy, whatever form that comes in for you. Pure joy and confidence are both outcomes that are directly connected to your health. In fact, I think joy and confidence might be cousins. If you are healthy, confident, and well, life certainly looks a whole lot shinier, and you cope better with all the shit that may get tossed your way.

Every idea, action, or thought you have gets put on hold or boohooed if you or the person you are pitching it to feels unhappy or unwell. Let’s be honest – life can be uphill at the best of times, and when you are unwell, it is definitely uphill. And steep too. Life is way harder when your health lets you down. I can remember my father saying not long before he died that he was “sick of being sick”.

The difference between ageing gracefully and disgracefully is your health. I think it is fair to say that you can get away with a lot of stuff when you are young. When it comes to things like lack of sleep, poor nutrition, and little to no exercise, it’s as though we are made of rubber when we’re young, as we simply bounce back any time, we abuse ourselves.

Have you ever watched a 10-week-old puppy?

They flop and twist all over the shop, tails wagging in overdrive, rolling over and getting back up all at the same time. They’re super flexible, clumsy, bouncy, and nimble. That’s like us when we’re young. Now, compare that dog to an old soul 15+ years or older, and it’s the exact opposite – stiff in the legs, no sharp or sudden movements, white whiskers around its face and a few fatty age lumps on its back. A single glance at both dogs tells a story in the same way that a picture is worth a thousand words, and even blind Freddie can see that one is a puppy and one’s been here for a while.

The time you’ve been here on earth and how you have treated yourself during that time has a lot to do with how you feel at any age, but in particular as the years roll on. Your ability to bounce back has a lot to do with how well you take care of yourself.

The trick is how you treat yourself from year to year. One facial won’t fix 30 years of no skin care at all, in the same way that one bottle of kombucha won’t repair poor gut health. Consistency over time, both externally and internally, determines how you look and feel today and tomorrow.

It is inevitable that we will all age, I get that. However, it’s how we age that determines the amount of joy we experience every day. Some people are old and set in their ways, and they are not even 30 yet, whereas others are ageless, open to new opportunities well up to and after they turn 100, and surprised when you congratulate them of their real age. They all respond with a similar response – something along the lines of being surprised, because they do not feel that age either.

A great example of this would be Guy Warren, a great Aussie bloke who won the painters’ Archibald Prize in 1985 for a portrait of his mate Bert Flugelman. To this day, Guy still paints. He has an infectious energy about him, and there is definitely joy in his presence.

I love people that just get on with things, at any age. I believe there is some connection between productivity and ageing well; they seem to go hand-in-hand.

When I refer to good health, I am referring to good health both physically and mentally. Good health has a lot to do with ageing well and being able to get out and about to enjoy life. That’s what I want for me and of course that’s what I want for you too.

Looking after yourself today has direct impact on how you move along that ageing track. Look ageing in the face front on, accept the challenges, enjoy all the benefits, and be grateful that you still here to tell the story – your story.

I learnt a lot about this over the years by observing people in the salon. When a person is happy with the way they look, it triggers an unexplained energy in them. You might say that finding joy in your appearance is just a superficial quick fix. You might even say that it’s shallow but what I observed people experiencing was anything but that. To me, I’d say it was pure joy – being able to look at yourself in the mirror and be happy with what you see. It’s pure gold.

Being happy with any aspect of your physical appearance helps to present a better side of you. We feel a range of emotions when we look at ourselves, everything from satisfied and excited to disappointed. And when what we see exceeds our expectations, we cannot help but smile!

People fascinate me, because they seem to be always looking for things to keep them motivated or keep them on track. They want a sign to happen so that they can act. They wait for motivation to arrive, like something they ordered on Amazon. So, my question is, motivation then action, or is it in fact action then motivation? It’s like the classic chicken and egg scenario.

Motivation, in my opinion, comes after action but something needs to motivate you to take action. My hope is that you will think about what I have bought to your attention. That you might even have a brave conversation or two with the people in your life and explain how you feel about certain things and why.

I want you to think, “Yes, she’s right. I am settling for average. I can do or be whatever I want to. In fact, there has never been a better time to be myself.” Take action and momentum will kick in and motivate you along. From there, you will set the speed, and you will tell the story. It’s your story, so it makes sense that your story is written and told by you. You are the one in control here.

At this point, you might like to give the following exercise a try to explore what your values really are and find out what matters to you. Start out with a 100 or so words – family, health, money, holidays, fitness, friendships, work, honesty, integrity, and so on – and from that list, eliminate the things that don’t really matter that much to you, leaving you with a list of things that do.

You then repeat the process over and over, so that you end up with less and less. You choose perhaps the 50 that matter most, and then out of those 50 you choose 20, and out of those 20 you choose 10, and so on until you end up with three.

It is difficult because a lot of things will mean something to you. However, as you narrow down the search, you will realise that some things mean more to you than others. I’ve done this exercise a few times, and health always comes up in my top three.

That’s because for me, the healthier I am, the happier I am – not just physically, but mentally as well. When I am well and healthy, I can handle anything. When I’m not, I really don’t cope. I want to be able to help those around me and I can’t if I’m not well.

What’s difficult for me is to watch is people who struggle with their health and wellbeing because of the poor choices they made earlier in their lives – things like the overuse of alcohol, the disregard for adequate sleep, the cigarettes, the recreational drug use, and the lack of nutrition from poor food choices. That sh*t does catch up with you.

Our bodies are so forgiving, and they are such incredible machines. Still, most people take for granted just how clever and forgiving they are. This sh*t we dish up and the way the body recovers is a miracle really and like any piece of machinery, it handles everything better the younger it is.

What I have noticed is most people can see the problem in others long before they can see it in themselves. There is always someone who is worse than you. This might be true, however there is always a person who is better; it depends on what you choose to use as your measuring stick.

As humans, we find a way to get what we want. We all make our decisions based on what our values are consciously or unconsciously. To me, it’s not about being here longer than my friends and family; it’s about being a good shape while I am here.

If you want to be healthy you can. If you want to not be healthy, you can.

Bouncing out of bed in the morning has a lot to do with the previous day’s decisions. Choose wisely.

For more salon wisdom, email me at lisa@zingcoach.com.au, visit my website, find my video tips on YouTube or read my books, all available in paperback , eBook, and Audio www.thezingproject.com.au