Wellbeing Workshop Caroline Tiler-Ansell
What is wellbeing? Feeling happy is only part of wellbeing, so is feeling you can do all the things you want, good relationships and bringing joy to those around you. Working on our wellbeing improves self-esteem, self-confidence, health, contentment, feeling secure in and enjoying being part of the world, building stronger, wider connections for a gr
eater sense of purpose. There are steps we can take to improve our wellbeing. Giving them a try may help with feeling happier, more positive and able to get the best from life, with greater resilience to cope when times are a little tougher. Think about ‘being well’ as something you do rather than something you are. The more you put in, the more you are likely to get out. No-one can give you wellbeing, YOU have to take action. More and more in today’s society we feel under pressure. Pressure from ourselves, from family, work, money problems…. We react to this in different ways - a situation which feels overwhelming to one person may motivate another. Stressful situations can affect how we think and feel and also how our bodies work. A bit of stress can be good, it’s what gets us out of bed in the morning, but continual pressures can cause a build-up of hormones and toxins in our bodies creating uncomfortable feelings including aches and pains, loss of appetite, problems with sleeping, mind racing, difficulty concentrating, headaches, dizziness.… This is because the right side of the brain acts to protect you. When we fought for our food, an attack from a wild animal or tribe was likely and the body had to respond immediately. We would need to run or fight for our lives so there was no time to ‘freeze’ or debate the best course of action!! This was an immediate response which was only supposed to happen until we were out of danger, when other hormones returned the body to normal functioning. These days we have lots of smaller stresses (not usually life or death) which trigger this response each time so the body does not have time to return to base and recover which can cause illness. Recognising the signs that we are not coping is important. Sometimes we cope by smoking, drinking, shopping, eating, taking prescribed or non-prescribed drugs which can become unhealthy. Blood pressure may increase. There is little we can do to prevent modern day pressures but we can manage our actions, reactions and situations differently.
