11)Provident Living; New Series: Health and Wellness Introduction

By Sindy Wakeham

 

With politics and economy being what it is in the UK right now, one thing IS clear; it’s all hitting the fan and we are not alone! Among the big topics around election time are the usual topics like the economy, immigration, crime (this one not so much this time around), social welfare and the National Health Service reform.

I’m introducing a new Provident Living series so stick with me to the end to see what I’m including.

As always and in between elections, the NHS and social welfare are top of the list next to immigration when it comes to politics. Somewhere down the list is the environment. It doesn’t matter which party is elected, they all want to get rid of or radically reform UK National Health Service and the social welfare program and NOT for the health of the nation but to cut expenses. I understand the business logic but I’m extremely concerned about what those reforms look like.

In my last blog we were looking at stewardship of finances and resources. Today I’m looking at the stewardship of our health and wellbeing in response to the possible future for us. Before I go any further I want to be very transparent here.

Our household has suddenly in the last weeks been landed in a rock bottom financial situation. Well, rock bottom for us. Thankfully, there’s been no scary stuff like big debts, repossessions or anything like it. We have a cash deficit and small overdraft that has left us feeling stressed and down in the dumps. I’ll address this in a video on my YouTube channel so keep an eye out for that one.

I’m by no means perfect at any of the ideas and suggestions I share. I do strive for daily improvement and implementing the same principles. As soon as the ‘crisis’ of rock bottom arrived for us, I sprang into solution mode. A solution appeared and I’m on it!

I’ve already covered Daily routines and prioritising first things first. I have blogs and podcasts on many aspects of provident living including growing a garden, finances, appropriate prepping and work. 

Back to the ugly politics, they (the parties, not doctors) aren’t saying what changes specifically they intend implementing as far as our beloved NHS is concerned except for the talk of everyone needing a medical aid scheme of some kind. There’s a lot of propaganda and spin crazy enough to fit into a dark satiric comic strip. It’s funny (NOT) how during election times politicians of all parties are expert at saying a huge amount without actually saying anything specific and also on their opponents’ failures but not their own agendas.

Personally I always weigh up election campaigns with track records. The two rarely agree!

The propaganda referring to social welfare reforms is scary. Let’s concentrate instead on health and wellbeing as a ‘prevention is better than cure’ tactic in our Appropriate Prepping for whatever comes out of this week.  

Disclaimer here: I’m no professional or medically trained advisor, dietician or anything like that so I won’t be giving specific advice throughout the forthcoming series other than the timeless general good sense stuff according to my own opinion and limited experience. Those with specific medical conditions should always take the advice of their qualified consultants, clinicians, doctors and other health professionals.

There’s soooo many articles, studies, programs, videos and an innumerable amount of experts in health, diet, wellbeing available to everyone. We could drown in all that information and then like a rabbit in the headlights, freeze and just do nothing because of overwhelm.

Fear not!! I’m not going to give you any new studies, facts and figures or new plan. There are enough of them. I would like to take you back to basics with a new series for Provident Living; Health and Wellness.  

I’ll be ‘deep diving’ (as far as my opinion goes) into the topics, keeping them within 1500 words. That’s around my usual blog length. Topics I’ll be covering will be:

Sleep

Work (not the value of work which I have already covered here)

Food

Exercise

Home environment

Creativity

Spirituality

Connection with nature

That’s enough to be getting on with! By sharing ideas in these topics, I intend to inspire you to take your own health and wellbeing into your hands to keep yourself as healthy as you can and avoid the need for general medical treatments that can be avoided by a healthier lifestyle. I’ll also be sharing some of my favourite health scriptures.

Let’s face it, with so much uncertainty around politics and conspiracy theories that eventually prove to have elements of truth; we don’t have complete control over what unfolds even as we vote.

We CAN control our own lives generally speaking as far as lifestyle choices go. I know it’s not always that simple. Life can be complicated and sometimes we are at the mercy of the consequences of the nature of mortality, genetics, generational customs and culture, other people’s choices, our own choices and so on. I do feel that even if you are dealt a blow by any of the above, for every problem there is a solution.

Only YOU know your situation but YOU can find solutions to your specific hurdles. I’m offering a few suggestions and you take what you want or need from them to help you figure it out.

Our current situation globally and nationally in the UK, needs more urgent attention but there’s no point speculating for now. Let’s just begin with what we CAN right now...determination to carry on in spite of elections, consequences and ‘oh dear!’s.

We'll be starting with SLEEP so before the next blog, make a list of your ideas around sleep.

Do you get enough sleep?

How well do you sleep?

What sleep patterns do you have (bed times and rising times)?

Anything else related to sleep like the room you sleep in and its environment.

Do you have any particular questions or thoughts you’d like me to address?

Love to hear from you.

Until then...I’m wishing you just the right amount, type of and quality of sleep you need.