A quest for Wellness
HOW TO BE WELL IS A UNIQUE COLLABORATION FEATURING THE GUIDANCE OF GWINGANNA’S WELLNESS ADVISOR AND FORMER GENERAL MANAGER, SHARON KOLKKA WITH SENIOR PRESENTER AND HOLISTIC MEDICAL DOCTOR, DR KAREN COATES. In this comprehensive handbook, two of Australia’s leading voices in women’s health and wellness help you find your way back to optimal physical, mental and emotional health. Both Sharon and Karen have been integral to the growth and evolution of Gwinganna over its 16 years of operation. Countless guests have been able to hear from and be inspired by their evidence–based presentations both at the retreat and across Australia and New Zealand. The comprehensive handbook is filled with detailed advice and information, stories and case studies, plus practical elements to help women of all ages live their life well. Covering elements from nutrition and movement, to stress and emotional wellbeing, it provides a step by step guide to Dr Karen and Sharon’s innovative five-pillared approach to wellness. This can empower you along the path to better energy, vitality and enhanced stress resilience addressing optimal physical, mental and emotional health. Here, Sharon Kolkka shares her insight into the background of her new book. WHAT WAS THE MOTIVATION TO WRITE THE BOOK? Karen and I have worked together for many years, and during this time we witnessed the impact that the wellness education seminars had on guests visiting Gwinganna Lifestyle Retreat. On returning home, many guests said they had made changes to their lifestyle from what they had learned during their stay. We wanted this information to be available to a wider audience; those that may not have the time or resources to visit a dedicated wellness retreat. We were simply keen to share as many of these messages and much more with all women. WHO WILL BENEFIT FROM IT? Women of all ages from around 16 onwards will take valuable information
from our book. I had a couple of 80-yearold ladies in one of my seminars recently and they spoke to me afterwards saying the wellness message I shared on that day would add life to their years. The same applies to everyone. So many people are focused on their health, yet do they have all the pieces of the puzzle to design the ideal lifestyle that works for them? There is no one size fits all plan. We can help people understand how their starting point is relevant to their wellness plan. We provide a health audit as a tool to help the reader understand if they are currently in a depleted, surviving or thriving state of being. This assists people who are really struggling due to illness or accidents or emotional or mental health challenges to go slow and take a measured approach. Whilst those who have a solid approach to their wellness are challenged to consider if they are factoring in enough recovery. If not, they may have health consequences that will appear in the short term or later in life. Whilst the book is targeted to women, men can benefit from much of the information in the pages too. WHAT ARE SOME OF THE MAIN THEMES? Many wellness books focus on one wellness theme. We have a broad approach and have included five pillars of wellness. These cover all aspects of what is needed to be truly thriving in life, to feel energised and engaged in life, rather than feeling wired and tired. The book includes the foundations of movement and exercise, nutrition, and sleep. However, we take three chapters to unpack emotional well-being, what stress is and how to build stress resilience. How can you still manage your “to do and to be” list without being exhausted with a depleted immune system? It is possible to be productive with a high level of performance and not be stressed. We cover this in detail. Plus, a women’s wellness book would not be complete without a chapter on hormones and reducing your toxic load which, of course, impacts your hormonal 71 slim-magazine.com.au
balance. Dr Karen is highly skilled in the emerging science of nutrigenomics, which is how what we eat affects our gene expression. This is a fascinating look at how our environment impacts how our genes express. It explores that if you turn up the volume of a gene by your lifestyle practices, what you may pass onto your next generation. It opens up the conversation of epigenetics in a practical way. It is comprehensive and I must say, a labour of love. WHY IS WELLNESS MORE RELEVANT NOW THAN EVER? There is an escalation of lifestyle disease which is exploding since Covid-19 entered our world. Much of it is driven by unmanaged stress levels. We need to ask ourselves; do I have time to be unwell or exhausted? When we look at many tribes in the Amazon and parts of Africa, even though they are living primitively, they are working with the human body’s natural design and not irritating the systems that allow the bodies innate wisdom to heal itself. If you were to bring members of these tribes into our environment, they would develop more lifestyle disease. There are five parts of the world known as blue zones where people regularly live well over 100 years and remain fully functional with limited lifestyle disease. These people do not go to the gym, they don’t diet and they don’t get stressed out every day. They live in community, and they eat well, mostly from what they grow. The members of these communities do not wake up in the morning saying I want to live to be over 100; it is their environment that is conducive to providing them with all the elements required to extend their life whilst they remain fit and healthy. Our challenge is to create a wellness environment for ourselves in our home and ideally in our workplace, where what we do, each day is contributing to our well-being. This is more than going for a walk or run and eating nutritious food, although these can be a great start to a living a more wellness-oriented life. There are simple practical steps that we can do every day that will have a huge impact on how well we live. As Dr Ross Walker (a leading Australian preventative cardiologist) says, “make time to be well or make time to be sick”. How to Be Well, published by Simon & Schuster, RRP $39.99. More at gwinganna.com
