The value I place on health is probably higher than average because of what I do for work. I see day-in, day-out what happens when people don’t prioritise their health compared to when they do. (It’s like I get a front row seat to a live experiment)
Daily, I see women in their 30s who can’t get up and down off the ground without a lot of grunting, and yet women in their 70s and 80s moving around freely like it’s nobody’s business.
And there’s no judgement. Really, I promise you there’s not. It’s not my job to make judgements. It’s my job to meet you where you’re at and support you in finding ways to feel and move better (if that’s why you’re seeing me).
But it has made me super curious.
I used to just wonder – What makes some of us prioritise our health more than others?
But now I wonder – What makes some of us who think we value health actually do the things that reflect that?
(Honestly, these are the thoughts that keep me up at night )
The thing is, it’s not just this way with health.
We think we value our financial health, but our spending habits don’t agree.
Or we think we value joy, adventure, creativity, fun… but we don’t make time for it in our busy lives.
Simply identifying our values, whilst a helpful step in living a meaningful, fulfilling life, is not enough if our actions don’t reflect it.
So how can we get our actions to reflect what’s important to us??
…I don’t have the answer, I’m asking you! HOW DO WE DO IT?
Honestly, this has been one of the hardest lessons I’ve had to learn as a health practitioner! Apparently it’s not enough to just tell someone what’s good for them and what I think they should do (dammit, this would make my job so much easier)
The more I go down the rabbit hole on this, the more sure I am that the answer lies in both our readiness for change and our repeated patterns of behaviour (i.e our habits).
I think we need to both believe we can do the things and we need to understand our own unique code for creating new habits (because I think it’s different for all of us).
I might not have all the answers yet, but I can all the ingredients bubbling away in my brain…I’ll let you know when I’ve come up with the solution.
In the meantime, I’d LOVE to know your thoughts – what helps you get from knowledge -> action?