Preserve who you Are

Preserve Who You Are: Physical Wellbeing doesn't Stand Alone by Suzi Nevell -physiotherapist and holistic life coach NZRPT, ADP (OMT) CHEK level 4, HLC level 3


These days it seems everyone has some advice out there about how we can improve things about ourselves that we may not be happy with. When you get right down to it the two common goals are how to feel healthier, and happier. Most of the advice out there centers on improving our outer bodies or our physical health. What’s really interesting is that the physical body is very intimate with our inner body. What is the inner body? – your vital organs, circulatory, nervous and hormonal systems, your mind, your emotions and all these communicate with that outer body. We are not one single system but a system of systems that, in their natural state, work together to keep us healthy.
I am a physiotherapist, and always worked in physiotherapy, until 2000 when I was asked by Paul Chek founder of the CHEK Institute to join his senior teaching staff in San Diego, California. This is when my approach to health dramatically changed. I started looking at the body as this integrated system because you just can’t break the body into parts and treat the part that hurts – our parts don't work separately- the health of one system impacts on the health of another
Once you know this, you can see how your physical changes and your psychological challenges are influencing each other and, to make a difference to physical health, there needs to be a blending of nutritional, mental, emotional and spiritual elements within each of us.

How can we start to influence all these systems together??

These are 6 life principles we follow everyday without being very conscious of them.
• -Thoughts
• -Breathing
• -Drinking
• -Sleeping
• -Eating
• -Exercise
Think of each one of these as the foundations that make up your house. Are any of your foundations sinking and not been looked after? How conscious are you of how you live each of the foundation principles? Are you giving yourself enough time to rest, to exercise, to eat, to drink and to even breathe. Are your thoughts setting the wrong tone for each new day?

Over time, our choices as expressed by our thoughts, words and deeds express themselves as a crystallization within the bodily structure. In other words, they have the potential to change your physical body. So ask yourself - How charged does your battery feel, Is your food or hydration helping give you a sense of empowerment? Is your posture allowing energy to flow easily through your body? What would you scale yourself on a vitality scale from 1-10?

With these questions in mind and over the months to come, I hope to show by elaborating on each of the 6 foundations and giving you some very simple methods to make change, you will improve your outer body, bolster your sense of vitality, become powerful, happy and energy filled with emotional and spiritual wellness.

Following the 6 life principles helps you be present with yourself in 6 aspects of your life- that right there is loving yourself and putting yourself first without feeling like you have to change dramatically, feel overwhelmed or feel silly doing it. Once you have lived the life principles in a healthy way you too will start to see life-choices in other people when simply observing their posture, movement, personality, spirit and sensing their energy. You too can help your friends to get involved with their personal present, to preserve who they are and not feel overwhelmed. With health comes that ability to make life choices that matter to you, that work for you and that you enjoy.