GIVE YOUR EMOTIONAL HEALTH ITS BEST CHANCE
Movement. Nourishing. Sleep.
Three things we can influence — and three pretty powerful foundations from which to face everything else.
I'll start this Pampy's Post with something important.
When it comes to mental illness, diagnosis, counselling or psychological treatment, there are people far better qualified than me to offer advice.
But after more than three decades working in exercise physiology, nutrition and people's health, there is a part of the mental-health conversation I'm very comfortable talking about.
The physical foundations supporting how we feel.
And that's where I reckon I can help.
Start With The Foundations
Strip health back far enough and I continually return to three things.
All related to YOU — very much YOU.MOVE well.
NOURISH well.
SLEEP well.
Nothing Revolutionary Here
You've heard them all before.
But here's the important bit.
When we get these three things working reasonably well for us, we're doing much more than looking after our heart, muscles, waistline or blood glucose.
We're also creating a better physiological environment for our brain and emotional health to operate within.
Exercising won't magically remove anxiety.
A salad won't fix a difficult period in your life.
And a great night's sleep doesn't mean you'll wake tomorrow without a worry in the world.
I reckon that's worth thinking about.
Your Health Is Part Of Your Workday
We talk a lot about being fit for work.
Can I safely perform the task?
Am I physically capable of doing my job?
But I'd broaden that definition.
Because every morning we bring our brain to work as well.
When we're feeling physically and emotionally good, there's every chance we're going to bring a better version of ourselves to work.
And there's a flow-on effect.
We take it home.
So what are the risks — and what are the controls?
THINK RISK → CONTROL
At Snowy, we're pretty familiar with this concept.
Identify the risk.
Then identify the controls available to reduce it.
So let's apply exactly the same thinking to our own health.
MOVEMENT
Life gets busy.
Exercise slowly disappears.
We sit more.
Fitness and strength gradually decline.
And often we don't notice much happening — until we realise we're simply not feeling quite as good as we once did.
Find your appropriate weekly movement.
Not mine.
Not your mate's.
Not something you saw somebody doing on Instagram.
Yours.
Perhaps it's 20 minutes.
Perhaps it's an hour.
The best exercise program isn't necessarily the cleverest one. It's the one that suits you well enough that you keep doing it.
NOURISHING
We're busy.
We're tired.
We're travelling.
We're on shift.
Convenience gradually starts making more of our food decisions for us.
Build the majority of what you eat around real, nourishing foods that suit your health, your working day and your lifestyle.
I'm deliberately not calling it a diet.
And I'm certainly not asking for perfection.
I'm talking about establishing an everyday way of eating that supports your health, energy and the things you're asking your body and brain to do.
Nourish yourself rather than simply feed yourself. There's a difference.
SLEEP
This might be the quiet one.
Sleep gradually deteriorates and we simply learn to operate tired.
We go to bed too late.
Wake through the night.
Start thinking at 3 am.
Get up early for work.
And eventually feeling tired starts feeling normal.
Give yourself the best opportunity to sleep well.
And understanding what might be interfering with your sleep.
Because tomorrow's energy, concentration, patience, decision-making and emotional regulation don't suddenly appear when you walk through the gate.
Much of tomorrow starts tonight.
👆 Tap between Movement • Nourishing • Sleep to explore each foundation.
“But Pampy, I already know all this!”
And this is perhaps the most interesting part of the whole conversation.
Very few people need me to tell them:
And sometimes even knowing exactly what to do isn't as straightforward as it sounds.
These are much better questions:
Those are much better questions — and they're the questions where individual help can make an enormous difference.
That's Where I Come In
Part of my role at Snowy Hydro is simply to help you work this stuff out.
You don't need to be unhealthy.
You don't need to be overweight.
You don't need to be training for an event.
And you certainly don't need to wait until something goes wrong.
COME AND HAVE A CHAT.We can assess where you currently sit, identify what might give you the biggest return and develop something practical around your life.
A HEALTH ASSESSMENT
Let's establish where you are now and identify anything worth working on.
YOUR MOVEMENT PLAN
Let's find an amount and type of exercise that fits your health, goals, work and lifestyle.
YOUR NOURISHING PLAN
Let's improve the way you eat without putting you on another ridiculous diet.
YOUR SLEEP RESET
Let's look at what's happening across your 24-hour day and identify what might be compromising your sleep.
YOUR LIFESTYLE RESET
Everything's slipped a little? No problem. Let's identify one or two things that will give you the biggest return and start there.
Or perhaps... just a conversation.
Sometimes that's all that's required to work out the next step.
Give Yourself Your Best Chance
World Mental Health Day creates a much bigger conversation than movement, nourishing and sleep.
And it should.
Good mental health is complex, and these three things are never a substitute for professional support when that's needed.
But they remain three pretty powerful foundations we can influence.
Get those foundations working better for you, and you're giving yourself a stronger platform from which to think, work, communicate, cope, perform and enjoy life.